Torrington and John Brown Featured on NBC-CT’s Connecticut in Color

Torrington’s John Brown homesite, Historical Society Director Mark McEachern, and the John Brown Project were a focus of a 7-minute segment on Connecticut in Color with Leslie Mayes.

McEachern talked about the history of the homesite on John Brown Road, which is part of the Connecticut Freedom Trail, established in 1996.

He also spoke on John Brown’s passion for equality, taught to him by his parents, Owen and Ruth Brown. As early as 1790, Owen Brown adopted a firm stance against slavery, but the Brown family took anti-slavery to a level not common in 19th-century America: egalitarianism. The Browns believed not only that slavery was deplorable, but that people are people and therefore, they are equals.

It is that passion for equality that we celebrated in our John brown Project, which is the second item Mayes focused on in her segment, an interview with Culture 4 A Cause Executive Director Jacque Williams and Secretary Dan Morrison, where much of the film was shot, the Red Room Sound Studio on Water Street.

“I think one part that most proud of is the historical context that we’ve been able to set up through this musical documentary so that kids can look at a historical figure in a more open context, where they can see how over the decades, over the centuries how music has played such a huge role in how our culture has come together” Williams remarks in the interview.

Morrison cites a message from John Brown historian and biographer Louis A. DeCaro Jr., who consulted on the project,

“I’m not interested in teaching about John Brown to give Black people another hero. There are plenty of Black heroes in history. But it’s important for White kids to see that somebody actually cared about equality, stepped up, walked the walk, and talked the talk.”

Williams adds, “…the ironic thing is that we’re still dealing with some of the same social issues today that they were dealing with back then.”

Musical sections featured include the rock and roll part, the acoustic fingerstyle blues part, the “churchy music” part featuring Mick Connolly of Torrington, Charles Bickford of Old Lyme, Ysanne Marshall of Enfield, Chorus Angelicus of Torrington, Darlene Battle of Torrington, and Keith Leak and New Mercy of Dayton, OH.

Culture 4 A Cause is thrilled to be included in this segment and thanks The Torrington Historical Society and Leslie Mayne for making it happen.