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New London CT

The New London Race Riots of 1919 Follow a Pandemic

The New London race riots broke out in 1919, a season of violence throughout the United States known as the Red Summer. White mobs killed somewhere between 180 and 300 black people during riots in just three places: Elaine, Ark., Washington, D.C., and Chicago. Elsewhere during the Red Summer, whites killed blacks by stoning, hanging and burning them alive.

Reasons given for the outbreak of violence vary. Historian Jan Voogd argues for two. One, the Great Northern Migration of poor black people to better-paying jobs in the defense industry. Northerners got competition from black workers and Southerners lost cheap labor on their plantations.

Two, World War I. Black soldiers and sailors not only had weapons, but they received better treatment in France than they did in the United States. They came home emboldened, and they fought back against their white persecutors. President Woodrow Wilson expressed his concern that black veterans would demand equal rights when he said “the American Negro returning from abroad would be our greatest medium in conveying Bolshevism to America.”

A Pandemic and Anarchy

Somehow, summer race riots and pandemics seem to go together. In 1919, the flu pandemic wound down, after wiping out as much as 20 percent of the young adult population.

Geoff Ward, a professor of African and African American studies at Washington University, explained how a pandemic inspires rioting: “These are moments of extreme precariousness, where people are suddenly uncertain about their fate, economic prospects and the social order,” he said.

White men looking for African Americans during the Chicago race riot of 1919.

Other factors led to the season of violence in New England. Two anarchist bombs went off in Boston on May Day, and in September the Boston Police went on strike. Immigrants from Europe and African Americans took the blame for the labor strikes and anarchist bombings that added to the turmoil.

Not every race riot that erupted in the summer of 1919 appeared in a newspaper. But Voogd believes at least 50 took place. One happened in Maine. The New London race riots numbered at least two.

An Attack in Orono, Maine

The Ku Klux Klan had all but disappeared in Maine in 1919, but within five years it would rise again. An ugly incident during the Red Summer foreshadowed the KKK’s regeneration.

Hamlin Hall

A Continental Press story reported on May 22, 1919, that a hazing party at the University of Maine turned into an angry mob. Roger and Samuel Cortney, the “only students of dark skin” attending the university, fought back against white intimidation.

It started when three freshmen tried to break into their room in Hamlin Hall while a student mob waited outside. The brothers knocked the freshmen unconscious. When the three young men didn’t return, the mob went to the Cortneys’ room, where they found them unconscious. The Cortney brothers had escaped.

The student mob divided into three groups to search for them, according to the paper. Some went off campus in Orono, some went to Oldtown, a Penobscot reservation. They found the Cortney brothers at Oldtown. The white students then brought them back to campus and formed a ring around them. First they made them explain why they attacked the freshmen. Then the mob forced the brothers to pour two jugs of molasses on each other and threw feathers on them, according to the news report. The Cortneys, it said, had been “exceedingly popular” among the students up until then.

Returning Home From War

New London, Conn., has always had a large military presence, and it led to trouble in 1919. Fort Trumbull, which dates to the American Revolution, hosted a Coast Guard installation. The U.S. Navy had a submarine base on the Thames River, with offices and housing in New London. The Groton shipyard lay just across the river and military fortifications dotted Long Island Sound.

African-American soldiers in World War I. Images courtesy Library of Congress.

Black and white sailors, home from World War I, mixed uneasily on the streets of New London. African-American servicemen had experienced a much different treatment in France than they had in the United States. They could move freely throughout French society, wrote Voogd. They could go to any business and associate with anyone they wanted, including white women.

African-American scholar W.E.B. Du Bois wrote that, when the black servicemen returned, the reaction of white people in 1919 was ‘almost unbelievable.’

“During that year 77 Negroes were lynched, of whom one was a woman and eleven were soldiers; of these, fourteen were publicly burned, eleven of them being burned alive…That year there were race riots large and small in 26 American cities.”

Du Bois probably counted only half the number of incidents and missed the New London race riots.

New London Race Riots

According to a local newspaper report, bad blood had existed between black and white seamen for some time. The story, typically, blames the African Americans for the trouble. Ward has argued the news media’s complicity in blaming the victim prolonged the summer of violence.

Fort Trumbull

On May 29, the headline screamed, “Negro Sailors Attack White at New London. Worst Riot in Years–U.S. Marines, with Loaded Rifles, Press Crowd Back.”

“Between 15 and 20 sailors and soldiers connected with the New London naval base were arrested by local police,” the newspaper reported. Police called it the ‘worst riot in years. ‘

“The trouble began when negro sailors went into the Coast Guard Academy and attacked white sailors,” according to the story. Six or seven colored sailors went to the Coast Guard Academy at Fort Trumbull and beat a white sailor, the newspaper reported.

Bank Street today

A number of white sailors pursued them through Bank Street, and they took refuge in the Hotel Bristol. The riot call sounded on the fire department whistle. Five thousand civilians “watched” the melee, and the marines came to quell the riot.

The Hotel Bristol

But other versions of the story found in the Visualizing the Red Summer archive tell a more sordid tale.

Twelve days after the riot, the Associated Negro Press reported black sailors complained white sailors attacked them. The white seamen charged the black sailors lay in wait for them at night when they walked over Long Cove Bridge. Then, police arrested two white sailors for fighting. That arrest inspired their white friends to raid the Hotel Bristol, a popular spot for African-American sailors. The whites grabbed the blacks, threw them into the street and beat them severely.

The U.S. Coast Guard Academy

Sailors on both sides, as many as 5,000, then showed up on Bank Street and fought for several hours. The police and fire departments armed with hoses couldn’t stop the melee, so armed marines rushed to the scene. In the end they arrested 15 people, though the news reports don’t identify them by skin color.

According to another news story, “much property was damaged and dozens of negroes were mobbed and severely beaten.”

And Yet Another

But Voogd said another New London race riot went largely unreported. That suggests even more violence occurred in New London, though the military suppressed the information.

A Navy memo revealed that marine guards from the base answered another riot call on June 29. A truck full of marines sped down Smith Street and hit a fire hydrant. The city billed the Navy for the fire hydrant, and the disagreement over that supplied the only paper trail of the incident.

No Riots Here

Meanwhile in Hartford on August 4, “colored clergy yesterday deplored the race riots in Washington and Chicago,” while Hartford police assured the public “there was no likelihood of a dispute between white and colored residents here.” News of a disturbance in Windsor reached police, who dismissed it as ‘phoney.’

With thanks to Race Riots and Resistance: The Red Summer of 1919 by Jan Voogd and Visualizing the Red Summer archive by Karen Sieber.

Images: Hamlin Hall CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1405898. Fort Trumbull By JERRYE AND ROY KLOTZ MD – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26599988. Bank Street By John Phelan – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34773845. This story was updated in 2023.

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The Six Oldest Courthouses in New England

Some of the oldest courthouses in New England have had revolutionaries argue cases in them. Patriots, heroes and traitors walked within their walls.

One of the oldest courthouses served as the seat of state government. One was built to replace a building burned by the British. One was once a tavern.

As places where disputes are argued and settled, courthouses have always been central to the civic life of the region.

Here are the six of the oldest courthouses in New England, one in each state. If you know of a historic old courthouse, please share it with us in the comments section.

New London County Courthouse

The New London County Courthouse was built from 1784-86 to replace the courthouse burned by the British during the American Revolution. It was an ambitious and expensive building for its time and place. Designed by Isaac Fitch of Lebanon, Conn., it was also used as town hall during its early years. Originally it sat at the head of State Street, but in 1839 it was moved to 70 Huntington Street. It is not only the oldest courthouse in Connecticut, but one of the oldest courthouses that continuously operates in America.

Patrick Henry, Daniel Webster, Marquis de Lafayette and Horace Greeley spoke at the New London County Courthouse.

For more information, click here.

Pownalborough Courthouse

Pownalborough Courthouse – still standing and open to the public

The Pownalborough Courthouse in Dresden, Maine, dates to 1761. Located at 23 Courthouse Road in Dresden, It is the only courthouse that remains from Maine’s colonial era.

The town of Dresden was named Pownalborough after Massachusetts governor Thomas Pownall. The court was established when Lincoln County separated from neighboring York. The building was designed by Boston architect Gershom Flagg and was visited by Benedict Arnold, Robert Treat Paine and John Adams, who tried cases there.

In addition to serving as a courthouse, the building also housed a tavern – as many early courthouses did. Adams’ trip there, though arduous, helped him build his practice, and he maintained fond memories of Pownalborough.

“I am sorry that the name of Pownalborough has been changed to that of Dresden,” he wrote, “that of a virtuous and sensible man to that of a scene of frivolity. Pownall was a Whig, a friend of liberty, a lover of his country, and he considered North America part of his country as much as England, Scotland, or Ireland.”

The courthouse today is maintained by the Lincoln County Historical Society and is open in the summer months as a museum. For more information, click here.

Plymouth Old County Courthouse

Plymouth Old Town House, Plymouth, Mass.

Known as Plymouth Old County Courthouse or the Old Town House, the oldest courthouse in Massachusetts was built in 1749. It is believed to be the oldest wooden courthouse in the United States. It stands on 4 Town Square, the site of the courthouse built in 1620 by the Plymouth Colony settlers. Another courthouse had been built in 1670, and parts of it may have been used in the Old Town House.

Like the New London County Courthouse, it was originally used as a courthouse and town hall. It was built by Peter Oliver, a Loyalist and brother of Andrew Oliver, the tax stamp administrator who was hanged in effigy by the Sons of Liberty. From 1820, when the town built a new courthouse, to the early 1950s, it was used for town offices.

The building was later restored and opened as the 1749 Court House and Museum. It is free to the public and open during the summer. Nearby are the Burial Hill cemetery, The First Parish Church, Brewster Gardens and Leyden Street, which was laid out by the Pilgrims. For more information, click here.

Old Grafton County Courthouse

Old Grafton County Courthouse, Plymouth, N.H.

The Old Grafton County Courthouse located at 1 Court Street in Plymouth, N.H., can claim roots dating at least to 1774.

It was used as a meeting house during the Revolution and later a library and a wheelwright shop. Its most famous moment came in 1805 when it was the site of Daniel Webster’s first court pleading.

Today the building has been restored, and it is maintained as a museum of the Plymouth Historical Society. It’s open for visitors during the summer. The building is not in its original location, however, as it was moved in 1823 when its service as a courthouse ended. For more information, click here.

Kent County Courthouse

The Kent County Courthouse in East Greenwich, R.I., was built in 1804-05 to replace the courthouse built in 1750, when Kent County was split off from Providence County.

The courthouse was used by the Rhode Island Legislature, which sat in each county seat on a rotating schedule until 1854. Then, only the buildings in Providence and Newport were used. The Rhode Island State House was built in 1901, and the courthouse was turned over to Kent County. In 1908, an architectural firm gutted the building and rebuilt the interior, which was common during the Colonial Revival. For years it was used as a town hall. Today the courthouse is used by probate court, which makes it the oldest active courthouse in Rhode Island.

Windham County Courthouse

Windham County Court House, Newfane, Vt.

The Windham County Courthouse in Newfane, Vt. dates to 1825, when it was built as a simple, boxy structure to carry out court business. Additions in 1853 and 1907 gave the courthouse its current Greek Revival appearance, with a porch and massive Doric columns.

The courthouse replaced the Westminster Courthouse, which dated to 1707 and was the site of the 1775 Westminster Massacre and was, in 1777, the location where Vermonters met to declare their independence.

The building is still an active courthouse. It can be found on the Newfane Green. For more information, click here.

Photos: New London County Courthouse, by By Beyond My Ken – Own work, GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29628529; Old Plymouth County Courthouse by Swampyank at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18002605

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Six Revolutionary War Battlefields in New England

Revolutionary War battlefields abound in New England, where, after all, the whole thing began. The patriots fought the British in every colony before and during the war, and many of the sites remain undeveloped.

Here is our choice for the best six Revolutionary War battlefields in New England, with one in each state.

Fort Griswold, Connecticut

Fort Griswold, one of the most infamous Revolutionary War battlefields.

Named after Deputy Gov. Matthew Griswold, the Connecticut Colony built the fort in 1775 in Groton to defend the supply depot at the mouth of the Thames River. The fort also protected privateers operating out of the harbor.

In 1781, the traitor Benedict Arnold led a company of British soldiers in an attack on New London. Meanwhile, another British commander, Edmund Eyre, attacked the fort. The British had the advantage. Arnold knew the angle to attack so the American gun positions couldn’t fire effective shots.

The British forces infamously massacred the American soldiers. After Col. William Ledyard surrendered his sword to the British, they ran him through with it. At the time of surrender, six Americans were dead and 20 wounded. When it was all over, 83 Americans were dead and 36 wounded. Arnold went on to burn New London.

The earthen walls of the fort still stand. The Ebenezer Avery House, which sheltered the wounded after the battle, has been restored on the grounds. A Revolutionary War museum also depicts the era.

For directions to Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park, click here. For information from the Friends of Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park, click here.

Fort George, Maine

Fort George, the Revolutionary War battlefield where the Penobscot Expedition ended in ignominy.

Castine, located in Downeast Maine, is one of the oldest European communities in North America. Since the early 1600s, French, Dutch and English colonists have built trading posts, forts, missions and permanent settlements there.

In 1779, the British sent troops to occupy Castine with the hope of establishing a colony called New Ireland. They built a fort and named it after King George III.

Massachusetts, alarmed by the British occupation, sent a combined naval and military expedition to capture the fort that summer. Known as the Penobscot Expedition, it had 19 warships and 24 transports. Though the patriots outnumbered the British, they failed to take Fort George and suffered the worst U.S. naval defeat until Pearl Harbor. Paul Revere, in charge of ordnance, ended up court martialed for cowardice and insubordination. He fought the charges and won his acquittal.

Some of Fort George still remains, as does the British canal built in 1779, gravesites of Revolutionary War soldiers and historic houses, taverns and churches. Castine has marked its many historic sites with signs. (Click here for a map.)

Minute Man State Park, Massachusetts

North Bridge, the granddaddy of all Revolutionary War battlefields.

It doesn’t get much better than Minute Man National Historic Park in Lexington, Lincoln and Concord.

The 970-acre park memorializes the opening battles of the American Revolution – and then some.

Lexington Battle Green, site of the shot heard round the world, belongs to the Town of Lexington. The Buckman Tavern sits on the green, which leads to the five-mile-long Battle Road Trail. Patriot militia skirmished with the British regulars along the trail, now a restored colonial landscape that includes the Hartwell Tavern.

In Concord, Daniel Chester French’s famous Minute Man statue stands by the North Bridge, where the colonial militia shot back at British soldiers in the second battle of the day.

The Wayside also belongs to the park. Authors Amos Bronson Alcott and his daughter Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Margaret Sidney lived there (not all at the same time).

The Town of Lexington owns and maintains Lexington Battle Green, site of the shot heard round the world.

Fort Constitution, N.H.

Fort Constitution and the Portsmouth Harbor Light.

An important skirmish before the war took place in New Castle, N.H. A handful of British soldiers manned Fort William and Mary there in 1774, when tensions rose between the colonies and England. The stone fort stood at the mouth of the Piscataqua River, guarding access to the harbor and to Kittery, Maine (then Massachusetts).

Paul Revere rode to Portsmouth in December to warn patriots that British troops might seize powder and guns at the fort. A raiding party of 400 men then stormed the fort. They subdued the six soldiers inside and took the gunpowder, muskets and cannon.

The fort, renamed Fort Constitution, now belongs to the State of New Hampshire. The Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse stands inside the fort.

Fort Constitution Historic Site is a great spot for a picnic. For more information click here.

Quaker Hill, R.I.

The most famous Rhode Island battle of the American Revolution is called the Battle of Rhode Island or the Battle of Quaker Hill. By August 1778, the British had occupied Newport, on Aquidneck Island, for almost two years. That month, Continental Army troops led by Gen. John Sullivan sailed from Tiverton to Portsmouth and set up a siege on Aquidneck. They planned to drive the British soldiers back to Newport and then recapture the town with the help of French naval forces.

But a hurricane prevented the French naval commander, Count d’Estaing, from attacking the 6,000 entrenched British soldiers. D’Estaing instead sailed his fleet to Boston for repairs. The patriots then tried to withdraw, but the British attacked them in Portsmouth in a valley among three hills. The Americans retreated to Tiverton without a single soldier killed. The 1^st Rhode Island Regiment, comprised of African- and Native-American soldiers, took part in the action.

The 365 acres of the battlefield had no structures on them at the time of the conflict, but since then 36 houses and a barn have been built.

At the intersection of Route 2 and West Main, the state chapter of the NAACP put up a marker to commemorate the 1st Rhode Island’s role in the battle. And a granite memorial stone marks the Battle of Rhode Island on the corner of Union Street and Route 138 in Portsmouth.

A site of another skirmish is nearby. On the night of July 11, 1777, Col. William Barton and about three dozen infantrymen sailed from Tiverton to Middletown and captured British general Richard Prescott in his bed.

Prescott was occupying a farm owned by a Loyalist, despite warnings of inadequate security. That farm, now known as Prescott Farm, was restored with the help of heiress Doris Duke. The public can now visit. Visitors can tour the house where Barton captured Prescott, a windmill, a country store, a guardhouse and a historical vegetable garden. For more information, click here.

Hubbardton Battlefield, Vermont

Vermont’s only Revolutionary War battlefield, in Hubbardton.

The Hubbardton Battlefield in Hubbardton is the site of the only Revolutionary War battle fought entirely in Vermont (or what would become Vermont). (The Battle of Bennington was actually fought in New York state.) It’s also one of the best preserved battlefields in America.

The battle started on July 7, 1777, when British forces caught up with the American rear guard of the forces retreating after they withdrew from Fort Ticonderoga. The Americans, led by Seth Warner, fought with discipline and inflicted heavy casualties on the British. Though they lost the battle, they halted the British and prevented them from pursuing the main American army.

The battlefield itself and the small museum that explains it lie off the beaten path, but they feature stunning views of the Vermont landscape. It’s off Exit 5 on Route 4, between Rutland and New York state.

Click here for more information.

Photos: Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse and Fort Constitution By Kenneth Dupont – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62728239. Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park by By Staxringold via English Wikipedia. Fort George earthworks and cannon by Jerrye and Roy Klotz via Wikipedia. Old North Bridge By Daderot at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5942756. This story about Revolutionary War battlefields was updated in 2023.

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New England Places: Murderers, Mariners, Marriages and Windmills

When Salem, Mass. comes up in conversation, many historic topics come to mind. The infamous witch trials. The China trade. The House of the Seven Gables. But how about murder?

Preserved among Salem’s many antiquities is the Gardner-Pingree House, site of the infamous murder of Captain Joseph White by the offspring of a well-known Salem family. A short walk to the wharves and other Salem amenities, the Gardner-Pingree House is now part of the Peabody Essex Museum and one of the historic properties the Salem museum includes on its tours.

This week we revisited a story about Jackie Kennedy and her roots. The wedding of Jack and John Kennedy was the Newport event of the season in September of 1953. The couple were wed at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, where they attended mass during summers their whole lives. The newlyweds shook hands with some 1300 guests for over three hours on their wedding day.

Today, visitors can relive that storybook day with a musical show and presentation that runs throughout the summer.

And while we’re on the topic of Rhode Island, we recalled this week Governor Benedict Arnold’s refusal to join in the short but violent persecution of Quakers by colonial settlers in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

newport tower Arnold, no fan of the Quakers, argued that A.) Rhode Island had no laws on the books with which to charge the Quakers and B.) Persecution was exactly what the Quakers wanted because it drew attention and members to their cause.

Arnold had a long history as a Rhode Island leader, and is also associated with one of the state’s most visited sites: The Newport Tower in Touro Park. Though any number of theories have been advanced about the object, it’s most likely the base of a windmill Arnold had on his property. The park is a pleasant spot just a short stroll from Newport’s famous mansions and its many restaurants and watering holes.

We also wrote this week about Thomas Prince, the historian’s historian. Prince, a minister, was obsessed with New England history and exasperated his publishers by taking ten years to finish his first volume – a manuscript that ballooned so large it was nearly unpublishable.

Among Prince’s other pursuits was serving as minister at the Old South Meeting House, a building with an unmatched history, including a playing a major role in the Boston Tea party. The house is open daily.

Schooner (National Gallery of Art)

Finally this week we took a look at three New England mathematicians who literally rewrote the book on teaching arithmetic in the late 1700s to reflect the new currency adopted after the American Revolution. Probably the best known of the three was Nathan Daboll. In the early 1800s, scholars who wanted to emphasize the correctness of a calculation would say it was true, “according to Daboll.”

Daboll was a product of Connecticut who was known best his adopted hometown of New London for teaching sailors (as many as 1,500) the skills of navigation – essential training in the coastal community that still celebrates its maritime heritage with institutions such as the Custom House Maritime Museum, which is open year round.

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The Green Book Guides African-Americans to Safety in New England (and Elsewhere)

African-Americans driving through New England from the 1930s to the 1960s carried the Green Book to guide them to friendly hotels, restaurants and service stations.

It was a time when they might find themselves in sundown towns, which banned minorities from within municipal limits after dark. The practice wasn’t limited to the Jim Crow South — it happened in New England, too.

James Loewen, a historian who researches sundown towns, found evidence of a sign in Connecticut that said, “Whites Only Within City Limits After Dark.”

Always alert to potential embarrassment or danger, African-Americans carried blankets, packed lunch and even toted cans of gasoline when they took to the road.

And they carried the Green Book.

The Green Book

Victor H. Green was an African-American letter carrier in New York City. Among his deliveries were Jewish guides that told Jewish readers what restaurants and hotels didn’t admit them. He asked his colleagues in the postal service to help him by asking around on their routes about good places to stay. He then published the first Green Book in 1936, focusing on metropolitan New York City.

The 10-page book, which sold for 25 cents, included listings for restaurants, service stations, hotels, tourist homes, taverns, liquor stores, beauty parlors, nightclubs, drugstores and tailors.

It included a quotation from Mark Twain on its cover:

Travel is fatal to prejudice.

Expansion

The Green Book expanded over the years to include every U.S. state. It also included advertisements for lodgings, for Ford automobiles and for service stations. During World War II, Victor Green suspended publication, but by 1949 it ran to more than 80 pages.

Esso (now ExxonMobil) promoted the Green Book because of the work of James ‘Billboard’ Jackson, the company’s first black marketing specialist. Esso sponsored the guide, telling its black customers it allowed them to ‘go further with less anxiety.’ African-American drivers could buy the Green Book and get maps at Esso stations. Shell, on the other hand, had a reputation for turning away black customers.

Green’s timing was good. African-Americans were buying cars as soon as they could afford them to avoid the indignities of traveling on trains or buses. The interstate highway system was still in the future, so motorists had to drive through unfamiliar towns where they might not be welcome.

Journalist George Schuyler, a Rhode Island native, explained in 1930,

…all Negroes who can do so purchase an automobile as soon as possible in order to be free of discomfort, discrimination, segregation and insult.

Obsolescence

Green looked forward to the day people wouldn’t need the Green Book. In the 1949 edition he wrote,

There will be a day sometime in the near future when this guide will not have to be published. That is when we as a race will have equal opportunities and privileges in the United States. It will be a great day for us to suspend this publication for then we can go wherever we please, and without embarrassment. But until that time comes we shall continue to publish this information for your convenience each year.

The year the Civil Rights Act passed, 1964, was the Green Book’s last. By then Civil Rights activists demanded equal access and discouraged voluntary segregation.

Jim Crow Bible

Charlie’s Sandwich Shoppe

During the Jim Crow era, the Green Book was the Bible of black travel. Today it is a guide to a past that hasn’t completely vanished.

In the 1949 Green Book, for example, listings for the African-American neighborhood in Boston’s South End include eight hotels and guest houses, nine restaurants, a couple of barbers, the Savoy Nightclub (where Malcolm X once shined shoes) and a half-dozen tailors.

Charlie’s, one of the restaurants listed on Columbus Avenue, was where Sammy Davis. Jr., used to tap dance for change as a young boy. Charlie’s, now known as Charlie’s Sandwich Shoppe, closed in 2014 but reopened under new ownership.

As New Haven revives the jazz that once made it a mecca for musicians, the 1949 Green Book limns the Dixwell neighborhood where Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday performed. There was the Phillis Wheatley Hotel, the Dr. M.F. Allen tourist home, the Belmont Restaurant, the Elks Nightclub and Lillian’s Paradise.

The Monterey Café, where owner Rufus Greenlee danced with Josephine Baker, lasted long enough to foster New Haven’s Hip Hop scene in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.

Providence

Most of the accommodations listed in the Green Book in New England were small hotels and tourist homes owned by African Americans. In cities, they were usually found in marginal or minority neighborhoods.

One notable exception was the Providence Biltmore, an elegant 19-story hotel in the middle of downtown. It was built in 1922 after the Providence Chamber of Commerce campaigned for a signature hotel where people could gather for important civic and cultural events.

The hotel had an open occupancy policy, accepting both black and white guests. But it took a step further by actually paying for a listing in the Green Book. Beginning in 1941, it simply reads, “Biltmore” under the heading “Providence.”

The Providence Biltmore closed in 1975, but reopened four years later after renovation and a landmark designation. It changed hands, underwent another renovation, changed hands again, and was renamed Graduate Providence.

Oak Bluffs

Today, the Town of Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard is a resort community visited by such prominent African-Americans as Spike Lee, Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. In 1956, it provided even more of a reprieve for upper-middle-class African-Americans like Martin Luther King, Jr., who wrote speeches on the porch of an Oak Bluffs cottage.

In 1948, Dorothy West wrote a novel about the town’s social life, The Living Is Easy. That year the Green Book listed eight places where cottages could be rented in Oak Bluffs. (You can watch an online documentary about Oak Bluffs for free here.)

The Shearer Cottage on Martha’s Vineyard catered to black vacationers starting in 1912. Charles and Henrietta Shearer built their wooden tourist home in the Highlands area of Oak Bluffs. Charles had been born into slavery but graduated from Hampton Institute in Virginia, then worked as a teacher.

Shearer Cottage is still in business and still run by the Shearer family.

Ironically, the Green Book didn’t list the Shearer Cottage until 1963, along with such establishments as Brownie’s Cottage, Cinderella Cottage and Dunmere-By-The-Sea.

Rock Rest

Rock Rest in Kittery, Maine

One New England destination popular among African-Americans did not list in the Green Book: Rock Rest in Kittery, Maine. Clayton and Hazel Sinclair once owned the 2-1/2 story wooden Cape, running it as a guest house from 1946 to 1977. They advertised by sending postcards to their mailing list.

Clayton worked as a chauffeur in New York, Hazel as a ladies’ maid to a family that summered in Maine. When Clayton and Hazel decided to relocate, Clayton found a dilapidated house on Route 103 and Kittery and promised to fix it up. He did, and Hazel’s reputation as a cook drew enough guests to run Rock Rest as a business in the summer. Clayton Sinclair also worked in the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and Hazel catered in the off season. Today the house is on the National Register of Historic Places. On June 4, 2022, two historic markers were scheduled to be unveiled commemorating Rock Rest.

For an interactive map showing places listed in a 1956 Negro Travelers’ Green Book, click here. View the text of the 1949 Green Book, courtesy The Henry Ford, here.

Photos: Oak Bluffs by Elkman at Wikipedia, Charlie’s Sandwich Shoppe by John Phelan at Wikipedia. Rock Rest By Robm154 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35858018.

This story was updated in 2023. If you enjoyed it, you may also want to read about New England’s sundown towns (which only allowed white people to stay after dark) here.

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Tarzan Brown, The Narragansett Indian Who Twice Won the Boston Marathon

Minutes before the 1939 Boston Marathon, a Narragansett Indian named Tarzan Brown was seen eating hot dogs and drinking milkshakes.

Tarzan Brown winning the 1939 Boston Marathon. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

He wore a running outfit, and he had won the race in 1936. He won it again that day.

The eccentric, mercurial Tarzan Brown dominated the sport of long-distance running in America along with John A. Kelley and Les Pawson throughout the 1930s. He once said,

In my heart I always felt, if I was in shape, I could beat any man living up to 50 miles.

Tarzan Brown

He was born Sept. 22, 1919, into deep poverty on the Narragansett Ashaway Reservation in Rhode Island to Byron and Grace (Babcock) Brown. He grew up in a shack. A sportswriter called him ‘a penniless redskin.’ It was said he didn’t show bitterness about the prejudice toward him, though he wasn’t oblivious to it. He once said he had to go to the barber in New London, Conn., because the barber in Westerly, R.I., wouldn’t cut his hair.

Ellison Brown was his American given name, but his tribe knew him as Deerfoot. He lived up to his reputation. One day in 1926, he followed a well-regarded Narragansett runner named Horatio ‘Bunk’ Stanton along his 20-mile training route. When Stanton arrived he told his trainer, Thomas ‘Tippy’ Salimeno, that some kid had followed him the whole way.

Ten minutes later, 12-year-old Ellison Brown showed up and introduced himself to Salimeno. The trainer told him to come back when he turned 16 and he’d manage his career.

He dropped out of school to learn traditional Narragansett stone masonry from his father. (Narragansett stone fences survive for hundreds of years.)

Tarzan Brown running the 1939 Boston Marathon. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones collection.

Barefoot Runner

At 16, he won his first foot race, a 10-mile event in West Warwick. He won many others, sometimes barefoot because he couldn’t afford running shoes.

Along the way he earned the nickname ‘Tarzan’ because of his Johnny Weismuller imitation and his ability to leap from tree to tree.

Intensely proud of his Narragansett roots, Tarzan Brown married a Narragansett woman named Ethel Wilcox.

Tarzan Brown seemed to run whenever he felt like it. He loved the outdoors and would disappear into the woods, living off the land for a week at a time.

One reason he ran was that he hoped to win the attention of an employer. He worked as a stonemason and a shell fisherman, but sometimes had to sell his trophies and medals to feed his wife and four children.

Heartbreak Hill

He first won the Boston Marathon in 1936 in a contest that inspired a sportswriter to name a hill in Newton, Mass., ‘Heartbreak Hill.’ Tarzan Brown took off quickly, but at mile 20 Johnny Kelley caught up with him and patted him on the back. They dueled for the final six miles, with Tarzan Brown taking the lead on the downhills, Kelley on the uphills. Tarzan finally went ahead of Kelley on the last Newton hill, breaking John A. Kelley’s heart.

That victory earned him a place on the U.S. Olympic team, but at the games in Berlin he dropped out of the marathon because of an injury. He did get into a fight with Nazi brownshirts in a beer garden.

The year before he had shown up wearing raggedy sneakers and an outfit sewn together from a dress. At mile 21 he tossed off his shoes and ran barefoot the rest of the way, finishing 13^th.

In 1938 he ran the race again, but jumped into Lake Cochituate mid-race to cool off.

He won the Boston Marathon again in 1939, the first runner to break the 2:30 mark. That year he entered two different marathons within 24 hours of each other and won both of them.

He retired from running in 1946.

Tarzan Brown was killed on August 23, 1975 after a van struck him outside a tavern in Westerly, Rhode Island.

The annual Tarzan Brown Mystic River Run in Mystic, Conn., has been run every year since 1975 in his honor.

With thanks to Ellison “Tarzan” Brown: The Narragansett Indian Who Twice Won the Boston Marathon by Michael Ward. This story was updated in 2023.

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