Name: How the North End of Hartford Became an African American Community
Start: 2026-04-09T18:00:00-04:00
End: 2026-04-09T19:00:00-04:00
Location: 1 Elizabeth St, Hartford, CT, United States, Connecticut 06105

How the North End of Hartford Became an African American Community

Join us at the Museum for a FREE presentation with Professor Fiona Vernal, who will explore how and when Hartford's North End became a Black community. What kind of stories did the community tell about themselves? And why does it matter for how we think about Hartford today?
A companion program to to the Making History, Making Change Lecture Series, organized by Smithsonian Affiliations.
About the Speaker:
Fiona Vernal is Associate Director of the Africana Studies Institute (ASI), Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies at the University of Connecticut and the Director of Engaged, Public, Oral, and Community Histories (EPOCH), at UConn. EPOCH is a public-facing initiative aimed at integrating research, teaching, and scholarship in broader public policy interventions and capacity-building for community organizations.
She is currently working on a book and digital humanities project, "Hartford Bound" that integrates oral histories, archival research, and GIS methodologies to offer new visual and spatial histories of race, ethnic belonging, migration, and community succession in Hartford, Connecticut.