Black Middletown Lives: The Future of Middletown's African American Past

Black Middletown Lives: The Future of Middletown’s African American Past
AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES 307, Spring 2023
Instructor: Jesse Nasta
WESMAPS LINK

In this service learning course, students did hands-on history by uncovering, preserving, and sharing Middletown’s rich African American past. We focused on the history of the Beman Triangle. This African American neighborhood, now part of Wesleyan’s campus, served as a regional and national antislavery and Underground Railroad center and home to one of the nation’s first handful of independent Black churches. Students partnered with local archives, libraries, and museums to help preserve and share this neighborhood’s remarkable history. Our projects included building a website and an exhibit to share this history with the Wesleyan and Middletown communities.