New London’s Black Heritage Trail

Thursday, February 10, 2022
Waterford Public Library and Zoom

6:15 p.m.           Refreshments
6:45 p.m.           Business Meeting
7:00 p.m.           Program

The February meeting will be a hybrid meeting featuring an important part of New London’s history.

The program will be presented remotely through a Zoom Webinar.  Participants may watch the webinar from the library or login to watch from home. Thank you to the Waterford Library for co-sponsoring the program and making the technology available.

In 1717, New London, Connecticut, passed a referendum forbidding Blacks from living in, or owning a business in the town. Today, New London’s City Council has a majority of people of color and women. The history of that transition, including the struggles, the victories and the defeats, has never been told.

In a historic collaborative effort initiated by some of those elected officials, and supported by various community groups, historians and researchers, the Black Heritage Trail will begin to change that narrative to be more reflective of New London’s complete history. That changed narrative will be to the benefit of our city’s children, the city’s image and culture, and it will be attractive to the many tourists who share an interest in the region’s history.

Lonnie Braxton II and Tom Schuch, two of the researchers for the Black Heritage Trail, will share with you the story of how this project came about, and some of the stories that are commemorated in the 15 sites on the Trail.   These stories run the gamut from enslavement and emancipation, through the struggles for abolition and education, the development of Black churches and community organizations, the Jim Crow and Civil Rights eras, right through to a 92 year-old living icon who was the first Black elected official in New London.  And they will include the stories of two women, Sarah Harris Fayerweather and Sadie Dillon Harrison, who are deserving of National recognition. For New London history, this is ‘the half that’s never been told.’

For more than 15 years, Lonnie Braxton has put together an annual Black history film festival and exhibit at the public library of New London. He was recently featured in the Lyman Allyn Museum’s Stories of Resilience: Encountering Racism exhibit. He is a mass media speaker and lecturer on the US Civil Rights Movement, American Blues and its traditions, African American history, and African American cinema. Braxton is First Vice President of the Norwich Branch of the NAACP and a past president of the New London Branch of the NAACP.

Tom Schuch is a New London native and a graduate of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., with a longstanding interest in social justice issues. He retired after 38 years as executive director of a local residential facility for troubled adolescent males. He has an avid interest in history, particularly John Brown, the Civil War, with a special interest in forgotten or suppressed local history. This interest led to the discovery of several of the sites that are now part of the New London Black Heritage Trail.

This is a hybrid event where you can either come to the library or stay home and watch it virtually.  To watch it online, please click here to register in advance for this Zoom event or copy the following address into your browser https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vAnF4RSITHe6BNiGfwsgEg.   After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.