The Struggle for Full Rights as Citizens: The Voice of Connecticut’s African Americans at the New Haven Museum African American pharmacist in Connecticut. On Thursday, March 13, 2014: 6 PM
The Struggle
for Full Rights as Citizens:
The Voice of
Connecticut’s African Americans at the New Haven Museum
New
Haven, Conn. (March 10, 2014) – In the early days of the 20th
century, Anna Louise James—the daughter of a Virginia plantation slave who
escaped to Connecticut via the Underground Railroad—became the first female
African American pharmacist in Connecticut. On Thursday, March 13, 2014, a
lecture and discussion of James, and other dynamic African Americans who
persevered and pioneered in Connecticut, will take place at the New Haven
Museum. The free lecture is slated for 6 p.m. and will be followed by a
reception and signing of the new book “African American Connecticut Explored”
(Wesleyan University Press).
In honor of Women’s History Month, the
event will offer a special focus on the lives of several fascinating African
American women in Connecticut’s history. Commentary will be made by three of
the contributing authors of the newly released book “African American
Connecticut Explored,” (Wesleyan University Press): Dr. Stacey Close, professor
of history at Eastern Connecticut State University, Dr. Frank Mitchell, curator
for The Amistad Center for Art & Culture, and Elizabeth Normen, editor and
publisher of Connecticut Explored, the magazine of Connecticut history. The
lecture is co-sponsored by The Amistad Committee Inc.
Other notables to be discussed,
and included in the book, include Lucy Roberts, a New Haven laundress who
contributed her $5,000 life savings ($125,000 value today) to the construction
of St. Luke's Church, in New Haven, which was completed in 1907; and decorated
U.S. Army nurse Susan Elizabeth Freeman, of Stratford, who helped break the
color barrier in the military in World War II.
About
the New Haven Museum
The New Haven Museum, founded in 1862 as the
New Haven Colony Historical Society, is located in downtown New Haven at 114
Whitney Avenue. The Museum is currently celebrating 150 years of collecting,
preserving and interpreting the history and heritage of Greater New Haven.
Through its collections, exhibitions, programs and outreach, the Museum brings
375 years of New Haven history to life. For more information visit www.newhavenmuseum.org, or
facebook.com/NewHavenMuseum or call 203-562-4183.
About The
Amistad Committee Inc.
Established in 1988,
The Amistad Committee, Inc. is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization. The
original Amistad Committee formed to raise funds for the legal defense and
return voyage of the subsequently liberated Africans who were involved in the
Amistad Incident of 1839. Today, The Amistad Committee, Inc. is dedicated to
the preservation and honoring of African and American history in Connecticut.
The preservation of this history and its lessons are imperative and shall not
be forgotten, diminished, erased or go unrecognized. "The work to be done
is not to completed in a day or a year; it will require a long time to remove
the evils which slavery and habit have so deeply engraved upon the very
foundation of everything." Reverend Amos G. Beeman, Middletown, Sept. 6,
1862, letter to the editor of The Weekly Anglo-African newspaper.
About Connecticut Explored
Connecticut Explored is the
nonprofit magazine of Connecticut history published in collaboration with more
than 30 heritage, educational, and cultural organizations around the state. “African American Connecticut Explored” was developed by Connecticut
Explored in collaboration with The Amistad
Center for Art & Culture and the Connecticut Freedom Trail, administered by
The Amistad Committee, Inc. Through 54 essays by more than 30 scholars, the
book explores 300 years of the African American experience in Connecticut.
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