By Brooke Wasserman
WILTON—On the evening of Wednesday, June 19, the community of Wilton and the Diocese of Bridgeport as a whole came together at Our Lady of Fatima Parish to celebrate Juneteenth, or “Freedom Day”.
Though newly federally recognized in 2021, Juneteenth is a long-celebrated holiday among African-American communities. It commemorates the effective end of slavery in the United States, when on June 19, 1865, as the Civil War came to a close, the Union General arrived in Galveston, Texas to inform over 250,000 African Americans of their freedom from slavery.
Father Reggie Norman, pastor of Our Lady of Fatima and the Episcopal Vicar of the Apostolate of Black Catholics celebrated Juneteenth with music, prayer and speeches from Wilton First Selectman Toni Boucher and Dr. Julie Hughes, a historian and archivist for the Wilton Historical Society. Additionally, at the celebration, books and study guides were distributed which offered education on six Black Catholic people on the road to Sainthood, funded by Foundations in Faith. At the end of the celebration, there was an opportunity for refreshments and reflection on these readings, as well as the celebration itself.
First Selectman Boucher began with an overview of the relationship between Black oppression and the development of the United States as we know it. Afterward, Dr. Hughes helped paint a picture of life in Wilton in 1865 for African-Americans, either freed during their lifetimes or born free. According to Dr. Hughes, while practices of slavery had fizzled out in Connecticut in the 1850s, other pressures made life for Black residents in Wilton quite difficult.
First, they lacked economic security; “Not a single one owned land. No one owned a house. If you look at the census, the only jobs they had were either laborer or domestic servant”, Hughes said.
According to Dr. Hughes, they also struggled to find a community within Wilton as their population dwindled, “by the early 1800s, there’s around 40. By 1860, there were 25, and by 1870, there were ten.” With so few people around them who could relate to their experiences, Dr. Hughes said that for Black residents of Wilton, “there was not a lot of potential for community.”
Within her speech, she highlighted three African Americans who had roots in Wilton in 1865 — John C. Walley, John Tonquin, and Susan Dullivan — to demonstrate that when considering the legacies of slavery, it is essential to have a multifaceted view of African Americans post-slavery.
“We shouldn’t just look back and say, ‘Oh, slavery was awful, and they had survived such awful conditions.’ We should also look back and say, ‘Look what John achieved. Look what Susan did … She’s on the Census a decade after fighting with the government for her pension as a widow, renting a house in Bridgeport in the middle of little Liberia, and she’s working as a laundress.’” Dr. Hughes said, “I’m just so proud of her.”
In their survival, Dr. Hughes sees much to celebrate.
Dr. Hughes said, “We’re impressed with settlers and pioneers because they had thrived in difficult situations. Should we not be so proud and inspired by these individuals and what they did to survive their difficult situations?”
It was Dr. Hughes’s work that located Tonquin family graves (While John himself is buried elsewhere), as well as the graves of eight others which were unmarked and lost to the modern maps of Wilton. These eight graves are only estimated to take up about 10% of the total cemetery. She fights to preserve The Spruce Bank Cemetery (331 Danbury Rd.) which is currently for sale and in danger of being developed, posing a serious risk to the 90% of the human remains still unlocated on the property.
Additionally, John C. Walley’s house at 232 Danbury Rd. also still stands in Wilton. That house is the only remaining house in Wilton to be previously owned by a slave. Yet it is currently on sale, and thus at risk of demolition. Dr. Hughes hopes that the house can be listed as a local historic property, legally protecting it from any future demolition.
Dr. Hughes finds that it is essential to preserve physical monuments of our past within the modern world, so that we never forget “to let the past inform the present,” and how we engage with issues of racial equity today.
Father Norman echoes this statement, adding “If we can have empathy for persons who are different than us, even if we don’t understand it, that’s the beginning of change.” He hopes that through the Juneteenth celebration, those who may not have a history of engaging with African-Americans’ histories and systemic realities have an opportunity to learn more about it.
“Many people don’t even fathom what the effects of slavery did onto the Black community. If you’re a Black person, you live with it every day of your life, whether you want to or not … And I think this is the beginning, and we have an opportunity to educate —not to condemn—but to educate people of some of the hardships and things that go along with this that they would never even fathom.”
Father Norman is grateful for the support of the diocese and its community for their willingness to learn more about the history of Juneteenth and celebrate the strength and fortitude of African Americans.
“It doesn’t matter where you come from. We are all God’s children. We celebrate as one. We live as one. We stop letting the differences separate us, but let our comments unite us,” said Father Norman.
