Community Day: New Haven, Yale, and Slavery Exhibition at New Haven Museum

Join the New Haven Museum on Saturday, February 15, 2025, for a special Community Day exploring the exhibition “Shining Light on Truth: New Haven, Yale, and Slavery”, presented by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library and Yale Library. This exhibition highlights the vital role of enslaved and free Black individuals in New Haven and at Yale and will close on March 1, 2025.

Featured Programs:

 

1:00 PM – Welcome & Reflections

Curators Michael Morand and Charles Warner and Designer David Jon Walker reflect on the exhibition’s impact and the ongoing work of engaging with this history.

1:30 PM – Film Screening: “What Could Have Been”

A short documentary on the 1831 proposal for America’s first HBCU in New Haven, followed by a Q&A with the production team.

3:00 PM – Ubuntu Storytellers: Sweeps and Scholars

Story artist Denise Manning Keyes Page shares her journey uncovering an enslaved ancestor’s history, tracing connections to Yale students and New Haven’s past.

This exhibition complements the book “Yale and Slavery: A History” (Yale University Press, 2024) by David W. Blight and the Yale and Slavery Research Project. It sheds light on early Black Yale students and alumni, local Black education pioneers, and influential figures such as Jupiter Hammon, Jacob Oson, William Grimes, and Mary Ann Goodman.

 

Admission is free, made possible by Yale University. Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with New Haven’s history and its ongoing legacy.