Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez Joins Partners at Welcoming Ceremony for The Amistad in Hartford
Hartford Public Schools | September 10, 2021

 
 
 
 

The famous tall ship Amistad will be on display at Riverfront Recapture’s Mortensen Riverfront Plaza for a three-week visit to Hartford, beginning September 9. The ship will be the focus of the Amistad Journey to Freedom – a series of free educational programs, musical events and community gatherings.

Superintendent Dr. Leslie Torres-Rodriguez addresses the crowd, with Paula Mann-Agnew, Executive Director of Discovering Amistad

Speakers at the welcoming ceremony included Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, State Representative Bobby Gibson, Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez, Pastor AJ Johnson and Riverfront Recapture President and CEO Michael Zaleski.

The Amistad Journey to Freedom will commemorate the 1839 trial at Connecticut’s Old State House of 53 natives of Sierra Leone who were kidnapped and illegally sold into slavery. They fought for their lives and their freedom aboard the Amistad. The trial, which found those involved in the Amistad Uprising not guilty marked an early victory for Black and White abolitionists and led to the eventual return of the captives to their native land.

 

Amistad, Bridgeport, CT. Caryn B. Davis Photography

 

Discovering Amistad’s team of educators, assisted by student educators at Eastern Connecticut State University, will spend the month teaching at middle and high schools in Hartford, Farmington, Windsor, Bloomfield and East Hartford.

Superintendent Dr. Leslie Torres-Rodriguez, right and Shellye Davis, President. Hartford Federation of Paraprofessionals, AFT Local 2221, center, with Discovering Amistad supporters

Two hundred and fifty HPS students at five of our schools — Burr Middle School, Classical Magnet School, McDonough Middle School, Milner Middle School, and Pathways Academy of Technology and Design — will have the opportunity to receive instruction in social studies classes this month with the assistance of educators from Discovering Amistad. Later in October, up to 15 of our students will take part in a symposium with students from the other districts to use what they’ve learned to discuss issues facing their generation.

“That is the type of high-quality teaching and learning that encourages our students to think critically, and link history to the present,” said the Superintendent. It also exemplifies culturally responsive teaching that supports accelerated learning.