CCSU'S CENTER FOR AFRICANA STUDIES
Mount Pleasant Project
New Britain consistently experienced housing crises. When African Americans, Jamaicans and Cape Verdeans (known as Portuguese in the 1940s and 1950s) arrived sometimes, people lived in chicken coops and corncribs according to Joe Willis, Alton Brooks and Gail Williams. Chestnut Street at numbers 47 and 51 also was a rooming house where people lived. After Hartford Avenue homes were leveled, many families moved to Pinnacle Heights and Mount Pleasant.
The Mary Mcleod Bethune Club
The Mary McLeod Bethune Club was organized in 1955. The club raised fund to erect the Martin Luther King Monument and developed a scholarship fund to inspire young people and continue the work of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of Bethune Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Florida.
The kimble band
Sam Kimble, Gail Williams, Henry Bentley, Taffie Bentley played together in Kimble’s band integrated by both gender and “race”. Kimble was denied permission to play in New Britain with a mixed band and audience. They played throughout New England.
Hartford Avenue
Hartford Avenue, now identified as Martin Luther King Street and Stanley Street, was once a vital multiethnic neighborhood. However, the Redevelopment Commission relocated many of the families to public housing and approved the land left after the interstate highway was routed through the area for senior housing. Only the Martin Luther King Monument stand as a symbol of past days.
Historical Map of New Britain
(click to enlarge)
