Greetings! Here's a news item about the Hartford House that I thought might be of interest. We're proud as punch. -- Steve Courtney The Mark Twain House is Named to the Connecticut Freedom Trail, Which Commemorates Important State Sites in the Struggles of African Americans The Connecticut Freedom Trail Planning Committee has voted to include the Mark Twain House in its prestigious list of sites deeply important to the history of African Americans in Connecticut. In the words of Committee Chairman Alfred L. Marder, the home of America's iconic author fulfills the Connecticut Freedom Trail's requirement: that designated sites commemorate "efforts made against slavery and the legacy of slavery, and against racism in general." It was agreed that the efforts of Samuel L. Clemens -- Mark Twain -- in this regard are a major factor in American literature and history. Committee members noted in particular his help for Connecticut's State Heroine, Prudence Crandall, persecuted for her attempt to teach African American girls in her school in Canterbury, and his financial support of Warner McGuinn, the African American student at Yale Law School who went on to mentor Thurgood Marshall, the first African American U.S. Supreme Court Justice. Jeffrey L. Nichols, Executive Director of The Mark Twain House & Museum, said: "We are deeply honored at this recognition of Twain's role in the fight for racial tolerance in America." Nichols noted the contribution of Twain's seminal work, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, to the cause of humanity and equality in Connecticut, the nation and the world. "He depicted the terrible American moral flaw of slavery in a way that personalized it and brought it home," said Nichols. "He put a young abused white boy together with an escaped slave, on a raft on the Mississippi, and turned them into two of the most memorable figures in American literature." The honor comes as the museum launches a new exhibit,"A Sound Heart & a Deformed Conscience," which explores Twain's attitudes toward African Americans and how they evolved over his lifetime. As a child and young man in Missouri, Samuel Clemens knew slavery and racism as part of the accepted landscape. But by his mature years he was penning not only Huckleberry Finn and the racially charged novel The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson, but also essays and articles such as "The United State of Lyncherdom," on the spread of the brutal practive in late 19th century America, and "King Leopold's Soliloquy," which takes on colonial oppression in the Congo. Late in life, Twain wrote of family friend George Griffin (who was African American and had been the family butler in Hartford): "In some ways he was my equal, in some others my superior, & besides deep down in my interior I knew that the difference between any two of those poor transient things called human beings that have ever crawled around this world & then hid their little vanities in the compassionate shelter of the grave was but microscopic, trivial, a mere difference between worms." The museum's application to be part of the Connecticut Freedom Trail followed the visit of a Canadian journalist, Marie-Christine Blais. She was following the Trail for a story for La Presse, the country's largest French-language newspaper, and was surprised to learn that the museum was not yet part of it, given the international fame of Twain's stance against racism. The museum has received a plaque to be placed on the site, and will be added to the Freedom Trail tour map. The vote was taken at the Connecticut Freedom Trail Planning Committee's February 8 meeting. The mission statement of the Connecticut Freedom Trail (www.ctfreedomtrail.org <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109421503722&s=935&e=001EPICG85cct5m602vo nDJGKt2vM3F-q8fIEd0eB7npPeSjVXFHemY2HGOBfAHBfYNRVTWVP0NyqkaAh7_uOVJjRRZS 2X-CACK-dFWEuZ7CfuqaRic8gFk_w==> ) states that the organization "documents and designates sites that embody the struggle toward freedom and human dignity, celebrate the accomplishments of the state's African American community and promote heritage tourism." The Mark Twain House & Museum joins in this honor its neighbor, the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center; the Old State House, where the trial of the Amistad mutineers took place; the site of John Brown's birthplace in Torrington; the home of Marian Anderson in Danbury; and about 130 other state sites of interest to African American history. "A Sound Heart & a Deformed Conscience" may be viewed during regular museum hours, Monday and Wednesday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (closed Tuesdays through March) and Sunday from noon to 5:30 p.m. Admission is free with a Mark Twain House tour, or $5.00 for a museum-only admission. On March 29 the exhibit will be joined by a traveling show from Ferris State University in Michigan called "Hateful Things" -- an exploration of racist imagery intended to provoke discussion of prejudice. It will be accompanied by a series of discussions, teacher workshops, talks and films. Both exhibits are united under the name "Race, Rage and Redemption." See www.marktwainhouse.com <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109421503722&s=935&e=001EPICG85cct7yiKvtm 99n30k5w7Yb8FJVhcQXZnNSFQiz-maWy7wYBZ00rvzoEg923CyZpmERVV2s6xNge2v4YJmkT xAf3Tctr4TBfK9_f8yEDjcIqwmzpA==> for details. Steve Courtney Publicist & Publications Editor The Mark Twain House & Museum 351 Farmington Avenue Hartford, Connecticut 06105 860-247-0998 Ext. 243 [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>