Marian Anderson House,
46 Joe's Hill Road

Marian Anderson was born in Philadelphia in 1902 and as a young woman was noted for her singing ability. Finding few opportunities to perform in the United States, she won recognition in Europe. After her return to America, she sang in concerts in New York City and at the White House. When she was denied permission to sing at Washington, D.C.'s Constitution Hall in 1939, the government arranged for her to perform at the Lincoln Memorial before some 75,000 listeners. A year later she purchased her home in Danbury, known as "Marianna Farms," where she and her husband raised livestock. She lived here for some 50 years. Near the house is a small building that she used as her rehearsal studio. Named a delegate to the United Nations in 1958, Anderson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963. She retired from concert performances in 1964, but continued to be active in various issues and causes. Her autobiography, My Lord, What a Morning, was published in 1956. The property is privately owned and not accessible to the public.

Nero Hawley Grave, Riverside Cemetery,
Daniel's Farm Road (off Route 127, one mile from exits 49 and 50, Merritt Parkway)

Nero Hawley was one of numerous slaves in Connecticut who joined the Continental Army during the American Revolution and were freed at the end of the war. He served at Valley Forge, and his life is featured in the book From Valley Forge to Freedom, which also notes other areas of Trumbull associated with Hawley's life. Hawley died in 1817 at the age of 75. Riverside Cemetery is a short walk off Daniel's Farm Road and near Route 127. Hawley's grave is in the center row, near the far end of this small cemetery.

Located throughout Connecticut are graves of African Americans who fought in the American Revolution. However, stones or markers seem to exist for few of them. In the town cemetery in Milford, to the right of the long driveway, is a monument dedicated to American Revolutionary War prisoners whom townspeople tried to save when the prisoners were abandoned by the British. At the foot of this monument is a large white stone listing the names of Milford's soldiers who served in that war, including six blacks: Job Caesar, Pomp Cyrus, Juba Freeman, Peter Gibbs, William Sower, and Congo Zado. Another memorial to these six soldiers, dedicated at a special ceremony in 1976, is displayed in front of the First Baptist Church, which is an African American congregation.

The noted abolitionist Simeon Jocelyn developed Trowbridge Square in the 1830s in partnership with architect and builder Isaac Thompson. The area was established for New Haven's low-income working-class population and was meant to be a model egalitarian residential community populated by African Americans and whites. Restrictive covenants on sale of alcohol and racial discrimination sought to improve the residents' quality of life. A school for African Americans was built on Carlisle Street to further encourage them to move to the area, and by 1845 African Americans made up almost 58 percent of the Trowbridge Square population. The district is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The People’s Center
37 Howe Street

Constructed in the 1850s, this building was acquired in 1938 by Jewish immigrant workers and used as a social and cultural center for community groups, including African Americans. New Haven’s first interracial drama group and first integrated basketball team were started here. During its early years, the Center succeeded in getting African Americans admitted to some craft unions in the city; it also attempted, without success, to force the Connecticut Bus Company to hire black drivers. Activities of the Center on behalf of African Americans were forerunners of initiatives which, 25 years later, ended some racial injustices in society.

The church had a congregation that was involved in developing support for the Amistad captives. It was founded in 1639, and beneath the present 1812-1814 building is a cemetery dating back to colonial times. The property is a National Historic Landmark.

Grove Street Cemetery,
227 Grove Street

This cemetery opened in 1796 and replaced the Old Burial Ground located on the New Haven Green. Many New Haven residents who were well known in American life are buried here. The cemetery includes the graves of those active in the abolition movement, as well as those associated with African American history.  The property is a National Historic Landmark.

Prince Hall Masonic Temple,
106 Goffe Street

The former Goffe Street School was built in 1864 to provide a much-needed facility for African American children. It closed ten years later after Connecticut ended racially segregated education, and many of its former students attended predominantly white public schools. Subsequently used by a number of organizations working with the African American community, the building was purchased in 1929 by the Grand Lodge of Prince Hall Masons of Connecticut. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places and known as Widow's Son Lodge #1.

Dixwell Avenue Congregational Church,
217 Dixwell Avenue

Dixwell Avenue Congregational Church was founded in 1820 under the direction of Simeon Jocelyn. In 1829 it affiliated with the Congregationalists and became known as Temple Street Congregational Church. Its first African American minister was James W.C. Pennington, and from 1841 to 1858 Amos Gerry Beman was the pastor. Both were well-known African American leaders in the United States. During Beman's ministry the growth of the church made it necessary to relocate the congregation to a new building. By 1896 the church moved to Dixwell Avenue, where it developed numerous community programs under the Reverend Edward Goin. These programs later became associated with the Dixwell Community House. The present structure was built in 1968.

Hannah Gray Home,
235 Dixwell Avenue

Hannah Gray was a laundress and seamstress who used part of her income to promote the antislavery movement and support her church. Through her will Gray donated her house at 158 Dixwell Avenue (no longer extant) to be used as a refuge for "indigent Colored Females." Because her will did not include funding to administer the home, it was almost sold for delinquent taxes in 1904. It was saved by the Women's Twentieth Century Club, an organization of African American women which took responsibility for maintaining it. The present Hannah Gray Home at 235 Dixwell Avenue, acquired in 1911 and accommodating more residents than the original structure, continues in operation in accordance with its founder's goals. The building is included in the Winchester Repeating Arms Company National Register Historic District.

Varick A.M.E. Zion Church,
242 Dixwell Avenue

Varick African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church was organized in 1818 when more than 30 African Americans left the Methodist Church to form their own congregation. In 1820 it became officially affiliated with the Zionist church movement of James Varick, who helped lead a separation from white Methodism because African American preachers were not permitted to be ordained. By 1841 the church had a building on Broad Street, but it relocated in 1872 to Foote Street. In 1908 the present building was constructed, and it was here that Booker T. Washington made his last public speech before his death in 1915. The church is included in the Winchester Repeating Arms Company National Register Historic District.

Roger Sherman Baldwin Law Office Site, 
123 Church Street

Roger Sherman Baldwin (1793-1863), New Haven lawyer and abolitionist, represented the Amistad captives before the U.S. Circuit and District Courts in Connecticut, 1839-1840. With John Quincy Adams, he won freedom for the captives before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1841. Baldwin was the grandson of Roger Sherman (1721-1793), a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the author of the Connecticut Compromise at the Constitutional Convention. Roger Sherman Baldwin served terms in the Connecticut Senate, the Connecticut House of Representatives, and the U.S. Senate; he was also Governor of Connecticut from 1844 to 1846.

Freedom Schooner Amistad Long Wharf Pier 
389 Long Wharf Drive

The freedom schooner Amistad was launched in mid-May 2000 and participated in OpSail 2000 in New York City and New London before sailing to its homeport of New Haven. The Amistad travels as an educational ambassador, teaching lessons of history, cooperation, and leadership to Americans of all ages, interests, and cultural backgrounds in the many ports it visits.

Edward A. Bouchet Burial Monument
Evergreen Cemetery 92 Winthrop Avenue

With a major in physics, Dr. Edward A. Bouchet was the first African American to obtain a doctorate in any discipline and the first to be inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He was the sixth person awarded a doctoral degree in the Western Hemisphere. As a youngster he attended the Artisan Street Colored School and graduated summa cum laude in 1874 from Yale University. The monument to Dr. Bouchet in Evergreen Cemetery was unveiled in October 1998.

Hopkins Street Center,
34 Hopkins Street

Located at the corner of Hopkins and Pearl Streets, this building was once known as the Pearl Street Neighborhood House. It served as a settlement house for Waterbury's African American community, particularly migrants arriving from the South after the First World War. It continued to be a settlement house and community center from the 1920's into the 1980's and is now used for cultural events in conjunction with its owner, the Zion Baptist Church. The Waterbury NAACP was founded in this building in 1942, and it was once the home of the city's Urban League.

Lighthouse Archaeological Site,
People's State Forest, East River Road

At this site was a village made up of Native Americans, African Americans, and whites who in their time were considered outcasts. The village was established ca. 1740 by Molly Barber, a white woman from Wethersfield, Connecticut, and her husband, James Chaugham, a Narragansett Indian from Block Island in Long Island Sound. They moved to the northwestern Connecticut wilderness to escape the wrath of Molly Barber's father. The community was abandoned around 1860 after nearly 120 years of occupation. Today, as an archaeological site inside People's State Forest, it commemorates people who lived on the margins of society. They were ordinary individuals who created an extraordinary multicultural community. The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

James Mars Grave, Center Cemetery,
Old Colony Road (off Route 272)

James Mars was born into slavery in Connecticut in 1790 and became free through the gradual emancipation law enacted by the state in 1784. Mars wrote a pamphlet about his experiences which can be found in the book Five Black Lives. Mars was freed at the age of 21 and spent much of his life in Hartford and Norfolk, Connecticut. Always active in the church, he became a deacon of Talcott Street Congregational Church in Hartford. Mars helped organize meetings to promote freedom for slaves and to improve conditions for free African Americans. In 1842 he petitioned the Connecticut General Assembly in an effort to gain the right to vote, which was denied African Americans in the state's constitution. Mars lived his later years in Norfolk and supplied information on the history of that town which appeared in the 1900 publication History Of Norfolk, written 20 years after his death. Mars is buried alongside his father, Jupiter Mars, who served in the American Revolution. Nearby are graves of the Freedom family, who are also mentioned in the above town history. These stones are located to the rear and left of the first entrance into the cemetery. To the right of this entrance, and near the wall next to Old Colony Road, is the grave of Alanson Freeman, who served in the all-black Connecticut Twenty-Ninth Regiment of the Civil War.

Milo Freeland Grave,
Hillside Cemetery, Route 44, East Canaan

Milo Freeland is credited with being the first African American to volunteer for the Union Army during the Civil War. He did this as a member of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the subject of the film, GLORY. His picture appears in the book, A BRAVE BLACK REGIMENT by Luis F. Emilio. Originally a resident of Sheffield, Massachusetts, Freeland died in 1883 while living in East Canaan. The stone that now marks his grave was placed there in 1996 following a rededication ceremony in his honor and is located in Lot B8 to the rear of the cemetery, immediately to the right of the center driveway.

John Brown Birthplace,
John Brown Road (Route 4 west of 272, take University Drive one mile)

One of the most famous abolitionists in America was John Brown, whose armed raid on the U.S. arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, in 1859 for the purpose of ending slavery foreshadowed the government's war two years later to achieve the same end. Brown was born in Torrington, Connecticut, in 1800 at this site. The house was destroyed by fire in 1918, but the property is maintained by the John Brown Association. The image of Brown's house is incorporated in the City of Torrington's seal. Pikes used by John Brown and his men in the Harper's Ferry raid were made by the Collins Company, located in the Collinsville section of Canton. The Canton Historical Museum has one of these spikes on display.

Paul Robeson House,
1221 Enfield Street

Paul Robeson was an All-American football player, a Phi Beta Kappa scholarship student at Rutgers University, and a graduate of the Columbia University Law School. An African American of extraordinary artistic gifts, he later became an internationally known actor and singer, and he was an activist in civil rights causes. Robeson purchased this house during the height of his popularity and used it to entertain his guests. His family owned it from March 1940 until December 1953. Robeson's refusal to remain silent about racism in the United States, along with his ardent desire for full human justice, resulted in his being ostracized by American society. He was barred from appearing at concert halls, had his passport revoked, and saw his name removed from the football records he had established. He spent the last 15 years of his life in exile abroad or as a recluse in Philadelphia, dying in January 1976. In 1995 Robeson was posthumously inducted into the National Football Foundation's College Football Hall of Fame. The house is privately owned and not open to the public. It is included in the Enfield National Register Historic District.

Shakers Village,
Shaker Road

This area was once occupied by the only Shaker settlement in Connecticut. Dissenting from many activities of American society, the Shakers were associated with reform movements, including feminism, pacifism, and abolitionism. The diary of one member records the visits of fugitive slaves to the settlement, including Sojourner Truth, who spoke at the Meeting House on Shaker Road. Now owned by the State of Connec-ticut and administered by the Department of Correction, the Meeting House was built in 1827 and is sited adjacent to Shaker Road. The entire Shaker complex is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Harriet Beecher Stowe Center,
71 Forest Street

Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), an antislavery novel of enormous impact in the United States, had lifelong associations with Hartford. She permanently moved to the city in 1864 and resided at 73 Forest Street from 1873 until her death in 1896. Her home is operated as a museum by the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, which maintains a significant research library with collections that focus on nineteenth-century literature and social history, with particular emphasis on race relations, women's issues, architecture, and decorative arts. The Stowe House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and open to the public.

Wadsworth Atheneum,
600 Main Street

The Wadsworth Atheneum, which is the nation's oldest continuously operating public art museum, houses the Amistad Foundation African-American Collection. This unique collection of Americana is comprised of over 6,000 art objects, posters, broadsides, photographs, memorabilia, and rare books that evidence the many contributions of African Americans to American culture. The Amistad Foundation provides for public access to this collection, along with changing exhibitions and special interpretive programs, including scholarly and public forums and cultural performances, during the year. The Wadsworth Atheneum also maintains the Fleet Gallery of African-American Art to complement exhibitions in the Amistad Gallery and to further illuminate the role of African American visual artists in American art and culture. The Atheneum is on the National Register of Historic Places and open to the public.

Soldiers and Sailors Monument,
Bushnell Park/State Capitol

The Soldiers and Sailors Monument (Memorial Arch) honors those from Hartford who served in the Civil War. A marker noting the contributions of African Americans in that conflict has been added to the monument. On display inside the nearby State Capitol are two banners that were used by Connecticut's all-black Twenty-Ninth Regiment. The Capitol is open to the public.

Frank T. Simpson House,
27 Keney Terrace

Dr. Frank T. Simpson was born in Alabama in 1907, graduated from Tougaloo College, and moved to Hartford in 1929. He was active in social work in the city and in January 1944 became the first employee of the Connecticut Inter-Racial Commission, one of the first state civil rights organizations in the United States. Simpson eventually became executive secretary, and during his years with the agency, now known as the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, he worked to end discrimination in education, housing, unions, and employment. Simpson purchased this house in 1952 and resided there until his death in 1974. Built in 1913 near Keney Park (then under construction), the house is on the National Register of Historic Places and is privately owned and not open to the public.

Union Baptist Church,
1921 Main Street

Through its leaders and members, Union Baptist Church has made significant contributions to the early civil rights movement on the local and state levels. The Reverend John C. Jackson, who began his ministry at the church in 1922, worked tirelessly to open up employment opportunities for African Americans, especially for teachers and social workers. C. Edythe Taylor, a member of the church, was the first African American teacher in the Hartford public school system. Other members were the first African Americans in the city to serve on the school board, on the welfare board, and with the police department. In 1943 Jackson helped establish the Connecticut Inter-Racial Commission, now the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities. The church is a life member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and created the local chapter of the Urban League. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

North Cemetery,
North Main Street

Located in the center of this cemetery are the graves of a number of African Americans who served in the Civil War. These can be found by taking the entrance next to the building on Main Street and following the paved drive to a path. Between this path and another located a short distance to its right are stones marking the burials of six or more men who served in Connecticut's all-black Twenty-Ninth Regiment. There are also graves here of African Americans who served in other Civil War units. Nearby is the stone of James Law, with the inscription: "Born a slave in Virginia, Died in Hartford 1881, the Freedman of the Lord."

Faith Congregational Church (Talcott Street Congregational Church),
2030 North Main Street

In 1819 Hartford's African Americans, rejecting being seated in the galleries of white churches, began to worship by themselves in the conference room of the First Church of Christ. Later established as the African Religious Society, the group built a church at 30 Talcott Street in 1826 and soon became associated with the Congregational denomination. By 1860 it was known as Talcott Street Congregational Church. In 1840 the church opened one of only two district schools in the city where African American children could study free of harassment by white students and teachers. Hartford poet Ann Plato and photographer Augustus Washington were among the teachers at the church's school. Also associated with it were Amos Beman and James Pennington, two of the most prominent African American leaders in the United States. On November 19, 1953, Talcott Street Congregational Church merged with Mother Bethel Methodist Church to become the present Faith Congregational Church. The building at 2030 Main Street was purchased and renovated, with the dedication taking place on June 13, 1954. The church is on the National Register of Historic Places.