Virtual Presentation!
At first glance, alcohol and racial equality might seem unrelated—but for Black activists, the temperance movement was a powerful vehicle for social change. This virtual talk by Mackenzie Tor, New England Regional Fellowship Consortium grantee, will highlight the often-overlooked story of Black temperance activism in 19th-century Connecticut by following the state’s African American reformers as they navigated the era of slavery and freedom. In the process, it reveals how they used temperance as a strategy for civic inclusion. Through their words and organizing efforts, from newspaper columns to church halls, abstaining from the bottle became a radical tool for political belonging in the hands of Connecticut’s Black communities.
In this virtual talk, Mackenzie will also include research findings from her recent visit to the Connecticut Museum’s Waterman Research Center.
This virtual event is free and open to the public. Get tickets to receive the Zoom link.
Questions? Contact Jen Busa, Public Programs Coordinator at jbusa@connecticutmuseum.org.
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About the speaker: Mackenzie Tor is a PhD Candidate in History at the University of Missouri with research interests in the history of reform movements, African American intellectual history, and American political culture. Her dissertation, “Spirited Struggles: The Black Temperance Movement in Nineteenth-Century America,” uses Black anti-alcohol advocacy as a lens for understanding the ways race and racism shaped the temperance movement during the long nineteenth century. Her research has been supported by organizations such as the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, the American Antiquarian Society, the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy, and the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium.
Image: “Connecticut State Temperance Convention,” Colored American, September 25, 1841.
