María Colón Sánchez arrived in Hartford at the age of 28 in 1954, one of thousands of Puerto Ricans who moved to Connecticut in search of better economic opportunity during the mid-20th century. Within a few years, she had saved up enough money to open a convenience store, Maria’s News Stand, on Albany Avenue,…
Tag: social movements
November 22: A Formidable Founding – The National Society of Colonial Dames of America in Connecticut
Among the many hereditary societies that formed in the later decades of the 19th century, the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America (NSCDA), founded in 1892, distinguishes itself as one of the most active and successful groups to pursue a mission of historic preservation. This invitation-only, all-female Society, composed of descendants of…
November 13: One of the 20th Century’s Greatest Speeches – “Freedom or Death”
Invited by celebrated architect and socialite Theodate Pope, and introduced by the equally well-placed and notably outspoken Katherine Houghton Hepburn, a militant English suffragist took the stage at Hartford’s Parson Theatre today in 1913, and delivered what is now regarded as one of the greatest speeches of the twentieth-century. Emmeline Pankhurst, whose unwavering advocacy…
October 28: Activist Celebrities Help A Determined Family Found the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association
Today in 1869, at a meeting in Hartford featuring civil rights luminaries Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, William Lloyd Garrison, Julia Ward Howe and a celebrity cast of the nationally famous Beecher family, Isabella Beecher Hooker and her husband John formally established the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association. Isabella was born into the famous…
October 5: An Angry Public Protests A Tax Betrayal
One of the largest protests in Connecticut history took place today in 1991, as tens of thousands of Connecticans gathered on the lawn of the State Capitol in Hartford to call for the repeal of the brand-new state income tax. 1991 was a tumultuous year in state politics; during the summer, legislators repeatedly clashed…
September 14: Connecticut Ratifies the 19th Amendment, One State Too Late. Or Was It?
Today in 1920, nearly 52 years after they first convened, members of the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association watched as the Connecticut General Assembly finally ratified the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving all American women the right to vote. For decades, Connecticut suffragists had picketed, petitioned, and frequently found themselves arrested as they…
September 12: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Teenage Summer in Simsbury
Years before he became an internationally famous orator and civil rights leader, young Martin Luther King, Jr. worked a number of jobs to make ends meet for his family. During the summer of 1944, after he gained early admission to Morehouse College at the age of 15, he journeyed north from Georgia to the…
August 17: Catherine Flanagan’s Two (Very Different) Trips To Washington
Today in 1917, 28-year-old Connecticut activist and women’s suffrage advocate Catherine Flanagan was arrested for picketing in front of the White House in Washington, D.C. Flanagan and a small group of fellow suffragists had been picketing for 12 days in the same location, carrying a variety of banners bedecked in purple and gold (the…
August 7: Connecticut Grinds to an Angry Halt
Today in 1919, Connecticut companies throughout the state were effectively shuttered as thousands of workers across a multitude of different industries joined in a massive regional strike that, within the course of a week, spread from Maine to New York and brought New England commerce to a screeching halt. Connecticut, like many other states…
August 2: Connecticut’s Last Public Hanging
In 2012, Connecticut became the 17th state to outlaw the death penalty. For the first 200 years of Connecticut’s history as colony and state,however, public executions with large crowds attending were viewed as an effective deterrent of serious crimes. They were major community events, attracting hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of onlookers to watch the…
July 29: A Determined Minister Swims for Justice
In 1926, a group of eastern Connecticut investors hoping to capitalize on the state’s new car culture, expanding highway system, and Roaring 20’s prosperity, purchased a large spring-fed wetland in Andover Connecticut. They cleared trees, cut roads, and built the 550 foot-long dam that created beautiful Andover Lake. When it was completed in 1928,…
July 26: Long Before The World Was “Woke,” These Lincoln Supporters Were “Wide Awakes”
The idea of being “woke” to the dimensions of racial injustice in America entered mainstream public awareness with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. But more than 150 years earlier, a group of young Abraham Lincoln supporters in Hartford declared themselves…