During Black History Month, we asked you to test your knowledge of these Connecticut Black History icons and moments. Here are the answers:
1. Born in New Haven, Edward Alexander Bouchet graduated valedictorian of his grammar school. He completed his bachelor’s degree in 1874 at Yale University. He later made history becoming the first African American to earn a doctorate degree in the U.S.
2. In December 1969, Black Panther Party led a Weaver High School student boycott that turned into a march downtown to meet the mayor.
3. Charles S. Johnson published several reports on the African American populations in different cities. In Johnson’s 1921 report, “The Negro Population of Hartford, Connecticut,” readers learn why African Americans migrated to Hartford, their challenges, and how they made the communities their own.
4. Marietta Canty, an actress born on September 30, 1905 in Hartford, was known for Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Father’s Little Dividend (1951) and Father of the Bride (1950).
5. Denise Nappier is the first African American woman elected State Treasurer in the U.S. and first African American woman elected to statewide office in Connecticut. Treasurer Nappier is also the only woman to be elected Treasurer in Connecticut history.
6. Edythe J. Gaines, the first African American and first woman to head the Hartford school system. She lived in Hartford for more than 30 years, coming from New York City in 1975.
7. Adrianne Baughns-Wallace was the first African American TV newscaster in New England and Connecticut’s first female TV news anchor.
8. Anna Louise James, born on January 19, 1886 in Hartford, the daughter of a Virginia plantation slave who escaped to Connecticut, grew up in Old Saybrook. Anna became the first African American woman to graduate from the Brooklyn College of Pharmacy. The first African American pharmacist in Connecticut, she operated a drugstore in Hartford until 1911.
9. John Bradley Steward, Jr. graduated from Weaver High in 1948 and received his bachelor’s degree from UCONN in 1991. Chief, as he was known, joined the Hartford Fire Department in 1952 and in 1980 became one of the first African American fire chiefs in New England.
10. Gwen Reed, an actress and educational advocate, grew up in the early 20th century, in Hartford’s North End. Working alongside her mother in the area tobacco fields. She was responsible for numerous theatrical productions around Hartford.
11. Dr. Rollin Charles Williams was the first African American professor at UCONN. He worked in the School of Social Work from 1957 to his retirement in 1985.
12. Elected mayor of Hartford in 1987, Carrie Saxon Perry was the first African American woman to serve as mayor of a major U.S. city.
13. Midway through the Civil War, Connecticut created the state’s first African American regiment, the 29th Regiment Connecticut Volunteers. Fighting bravely for the final year of the war, the regiment won many important battles and became one of the first Union regiments to march through the Confederate capital of Richmond. Established late in 1863, it was honorably disbanded in November 1865.