Now Viewing: African Americans

Nearly Forgotten: Re-discovering a New Haven Activist, Engineer, and Entrepreneur
How can someone who was so important to a community in their own time be known by so few people today?
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The Struggle for Equality: Black Burials in the Old Willimantic Cemetery
To what extent did burial practices reflect the status of enslaved people and free Black people in Connecticut?
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Anti-Racist Allies and Accomplices in Connecticut History
In what ways are both anti-racist allies and anti-racist accomplices important in the struggle for social justice?
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Telling Their Stories: African Americans in the American Revolution
How do historians reconstruct the stories of people from the past?
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The Role of Enslaved People in Founding Connecticut
Why should enslaved people be seen as “founders” of Connecticut?
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Understanding the Census: Tracking Connecticut’s Black Population
How did attitudes towards slavery and Black Americans change over time in early Connecticut?
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Amos Beman: Freeman, Freedom Fighter, and Agent of Change
How do people become agents of change within systems of oppression?
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William Lanson: New Haven Entrepreneur, Abolitionist, and Black Governor
In a land of opportunity, how have the successes of African Americans, Indigenous, Latinx, and other People of Color challenged the status quo?
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Freedom and Liberty in 1776
What did “freedom” mean at the time of the American Revolution?
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A Petition for Freedom in 1779
How did laws and rules in the colonies both promote and hinder freedom and equality?
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Dr. Jewel Plummer Cobb: A Role Model in STEM and Higher Education
To what extent is it easier for women and people of color to enter the fields of STEM and higher education today than it was in the 1950s–1990s?
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Housing Segregation in Connecticut
In what ways is segregation still practiced in the United States today?
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From Freedom Seeker to American Success: James L. Smith in Norwich
To what extent was the North a “land of opportunity” for people of color in the early 1800s?
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Making a Difference: Individuals in Connecticut History
What is the significance of Connecticut’s contribution to America’s story?
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Mary Townsend Seymour: A Hartford Activist Fights for Equity
In what ways have communities of color advocated for equity?
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Empowering Students’ “Civic Voices” in Local and State Government: Elementary
Why is it important that students use their “civic voices” in local and state government to produce positive change?
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Empowering Students’ “Civic Voices” in Local and State Government: Middle/High
Why is it important that students use their “civic voices” in local and state government to produce positive change?
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Cruel and Unusual: An Interdisciplinary Study of Incarceration Across Two Centuries
What is “cruel and unusual” punishment?
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Words Change the World: Teaching About Racial Injustice Through the Work of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Ta-Nehisi Coates
To what extent can fiction and non-fiction both help us learn, change, and adapt our understanding of an historic or contemporary moment?
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Learning by Looking: Reading a Post-Civil War Photograph
What can we learn from an anonymous historical photograph?
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William Grimes – Seeking Freedom in Connecticut
How can we find out about people and places in the past?
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Late 1960s Civil Unrest in Connecticut’s Capital City
What conditions led to civil unrest in the 1960s?
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Hate Speech, Free Speech, and the First Amendment: The Church of the Creator Comes to Wallingford
Should public spaces be open to all types of speech?
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The Black Panthers and the May Day Rally in New Haven
How is the First Amendment used to advocate for justice in America?
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Who Gets to Vote? History of Voting Rights in Connecticut and the United States
How have the American conceptions of freedom and equality changed over time?
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Connecticut Heroes of World War I
What is the significance of Connecticut’s contribution to America’s story?
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Black World War I Veterans Demand Civil Rights
How did World War I impact the struggle for civil rights in Connecticut and America?
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The Amistad Incident and the Face of Slavery
What role did the Amistad incident play in the abolitionist movement in the United States?
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African Americans in Progressive-Era CT: The Battle Over the Jack Johnson Fight film
What does the battle over the Johnson-Jeffries fight film tell us about the social position of African Americans in Progressive-Era Connecticut?
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George Washington’s Slave Census
What did the Founding Fathers really think about slavery?
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Venture Smith: From Slavery to Connecticut Businessman
How can a former slave prosper in a colony where slavery is legal?
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Abolition and African Americans in Connecticut
In what way did the abolition of slavery indicate progress, or decline, for the lives of African Americans?
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