Oral histories documenting New Haven, Connecticut

Scope and Contents: Interviewer: Horowitz, Adam

Scope and Contents: Charles Grady joined the New Haven police department in 1959, and remained on the force for 32 years. In the late 1960s, he was assigned to the Youth Services Division of the NHPD. Among other activities, Grady worked as a plainclothes detective within New Haven high schools. Grady describes a number of incidents that occurred during his years in the schools, including a threatened take over of Lee High School by a black nationalist organization, which may or may not have been the Black...

Scope and Contents: Edward Grant was born in New Haven in 1922. During World War II, Grant was stationed in New Orleans, deep in the segregated South. Grant was involved in a few minor acts of civil disobedience in New Orleans, and returned from the war with a determination to overturn racism and segregation in New Haven. Grant pursued this goal on a number of fronts -- working to include black history in school curriculums, involving himself the Civil Rights group CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), and working...

Scope and Contents: Interviewer: Johnson, Erin

Scope and Contents: Rachel Hamenachem runs the Westville Kosher Market. Born in Jerusalem, Hamenachem moved to New Haven in 1985. Her husband opened the Market with a partner, whose retirement forced Rachel Hamenachem into the business. The market caters to a small but faithful clientele, how appreciate the freshness of the market's meat, its ability to meet special orders and special requests, and the personalized service provided by Hamenachem. Hamenachem considers her store to be part of the community in which...

Scope and Contents: Rhea Hirschman was a leading participant in the women's movement in New Haven in the 1970s and early 1980s. She discusses her initiation into the women's movement through a group called Women vs. Connecticut, which aimed to challenge the state's anti-aborition legislation before Roe vs. Wade. After Roe, Hirschman continued her participation in a variety of women's causes. She worked closely with the Speaker's Bureau, which sent individuals or teams of women to various public sites to lecture on...

Scope and Contents: Irene Hladkyj moved to New Haven in 1950, joining an already sizable and active Ukrainian community. Hladkyj describes the church as the centerpiece of the Ukrainian community, and remembers that she "always, always" lived near other Ukrainians. The peak years of Ukrainian immigration to the U.S., Hladkyj reports, were between 1947 and 1953. After this point, immigration slackened and the Ukrainian population of New Haven began to decline. Hladkyj raised children, and worked in an...

Scope and Contents: Mary Johnson attended New Haven Teacher's College during the Great Depression. After graduation, she taught in Milford, CT, then in Cheshire, CT, eventually moving to Troupe Middle School in New Haven. Johnson's husband worked at Winchester Repeating Arms factory, where he was very involved in the union, before being hired by his international as an organizer. Early in her tenure at Troupe, Johnson became involved with the New Haven Federation of Teachers, and was a lead negotiator in teachers'...

Scope and Contents: Dr. Edward Joyner arrived in New Haven in 1968 and began teaching sociology and African-American history at Hillhouse high School in 1970. Joyner aligns himself with a crop of activist teachers who arrived in New Haven in the late 60s and early 70s. He talks about the student movement which sought to bring courses in African American history and literature into the Hillhouse curriculum and to hire teachers and counselors more in touch with the African-American experience in New Haven. He...

Scope and Contents: Laura Keegan recently moved from State College, PA to the Chatham Square Area of North Haven. She shares an apartment with her boyfriend, Walter, who works at Sikorski. Keegan talks about her adopted neighborhood, talking at length about her landlord, Arthur. Upon moving into the neighborhood, Keegan had no expectations, but quickly heard a number of negative stories about Fair Haven from her co-workers. These stories, she says, have proven entirely untrue, and she comments on Fair Haven's bad...