Connecticut History Day 2017

America’s First Ordained Woman Minister: Olympia Brown and Bridgeport’s Universalist Church

November 26, 2018

Long-time Bridgeport resident Olympia Brown was the first woman ordained as a minister in the United States and campaigned vigorously for women's suffrage. …[more]

Categories: Belief, Bridgeport, Connecticut History Day 2017, Women

“Negroes Who Stand Up and Fight Back” – Paul Robeson in Hartford

November 15, 2018

Called the "greatest mobilization of police in the city's history," the event that brought law enforcement out in force to Keney Park was not a riot, not a strike, but a concert by this singer-actor and activist. …[more]

Categories: Arts, Connecticut History Day 2017, Enfield, Hartford, Social Movements, Work

Connecticut Lawyer Prosecutes Nazi War Criminals at Nuremberg

November 9, 2018

In the immediate aftermath of World War II, Thomas Joseph Dodd, a Norwich-born lawyer from Connecticut, served on the United... Read more » …[more]

Categories: Connecticut History Day 2017, Crime and Punishment, Great Depression and World War II, Law, War and Defense, World War II

Literacy Tests and the Right To Vote

November 5, 2018

Connecticut was the first state to require a literacy test of would-be voters and, even as the practice came under fire as a tool of discrimination, the state held steady until 1970.  …[more]

Categories: Agriculture, Business and Industry, Connecticut History Day 2017, Law, Politics and Government, Postwar United States, Social Movements, Windsor, Work

The Rise and Fall of Silas Deane, American Patriot

October 2, 2018

Esteemed by his fellow patriots as a savvy diplomat who helped cement a strategic alliance with France during the American Revolution, Deane spent his final years under a cloud of suspicion.  …[more]

Categories: Connecticut History Day 2017, Groton, Politics and Government, Revolutionary War, Silas Deane, Wethersfield

The Amistad

August 24, 2018

After slaves revolted and took control of the Amistad in 1839, Americans captured the ship off Long Island and imprisoned the slaves in New Haven. A US Supreme Court trial in which Roger Sherman Baldwin and John Quincy Adams defended the slaves, ultimately won them their freedom. …[more]

Categories: Connecticut History Day 2017, Crime and Punishment, Expansion and Reform, Law, New Haven, New London, Slavery and Abolition

A First Amendment Lesson: Weaver High Students Teach Their Elders

May 3, 2018

In the 1960s, Hartford high school students published a controversial newspaper that sparked debates about freedom of speech and freedom of the press. …[more]

Categories: Connecticut History Day 2017, Education, Hartford, Social Movements

World War I Flying Ace Raoul Lufbery

April 6, 2018

Although his time as a Connecticut resident was short, this aviator left his mark on Wallingford and a generation fighter pilots.  …[more]

Categories: Connecticut History Day 2017, Emergence of Modern America, Wallingford, War and Defense, World War I

Connecticut and the Comstock Law

March 28, 2018

The federal Comstock Law of 1873 made it illegal to sell or distribute materials that promoted contraception or abortion, to... Read more » …[more]

Categories: Catherine Roraback, Connecticut History Day 2017, Health and Medicine, Law, P.T. Barnum, Politics and Government, The Industrial United States, Women

Henry Barnard Advances State and National Education Initiatives

January 26, 2018

This 19th-century reformer sought to promote harmonious social and civic behavior by revamping the US school system. …[more]

Categories: Connecticut History Day 2017, Education, Expansion and Reform, Hartford, Henry Barnard