The Connecticut Freedom Trail is honoring a site in New Haven that was central to the 1970 May Day protests.
On May 1, 1970, thousands of protesters came to New Haven in support of two members of the Black Panthers who were on trial for murder.
The New Haven Armory was used as a National Guard staging ground for the protests.
Molly Ingram
/
WSHU
According to Paul Bass, New Haven Independent reporter and author of “Murder in the Model City: The Black Panthers, Yale, and the Redemption of a Killer,” members of the National Guard were told that they would not be prosecuted if they killed protesters on the New Haven Green that day.
“We had become the flashpoint for all the currents at the end of the 1960s that were ready to explode on some city in America,” Bass said.
But instead of violence, Black activists, Yale University administration and members of the Black Panthers were able to organize and keep the peace.
“That day, despite some tear gas in the air, it was a non-event. It was completely peaceful,” Bass said “Everybody in New Haven who was trying to struggle with each other about how best to run the city came together quietly, to make sure there was no violence.”
The Armory became a gathering space for the Black community after the protests.
NAACP of Greater New Haven President Doris Dumas said she grew up going to the Armory for events like the Black Expo.
Molly Ingram
/
WSHU
“Music, dancing, art and culture, seeds were being planted that positively impacted the people and children like me, and this community,” Dumas said. “The Armory was also a site for other events and meetings and activities for African Americans.”
Mayor Justin Elicker said the building represents the work that the city still needs to do.
“I don’t think it should be lost on any of us that just next to the Armory is the correctional facility,” Elicker said. “And that is a reminder to us of just how much more work we have to do in the justice of resources that are distributed throughout the nation, the work that we have to do in our criminal justice system to ensure that everyone has a real opportunity to get a fair shot.”
Connecticut has designated more than 160 Freedom Trail sites. Twenty-one of them are in New Haven.