June 1st: New London’s Black Heritage Trail
Tom Schuch, Black Heritage Trail, researcher
Join us on Wednesday, June 1st at noon when we will have Tom Schuch, unofficial New London historian and researcher for the new Black Heritage Trail in the city. The Trail celebrates three centuries of Black strength, resilience, and accomplishment through 15 sites. Together, the sites tell a story about Black life in New London while tying into larger stories about enslavement, the Great Migration and the struggle for civil rights. Mr. Schuch will share about his connection to the Trail, the process to create it, and some of the interesting sites he discovered along the way.
Tom Schuch is a New London native and a graduate of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., with a longstanding interest in social justice issues. He retired after 38 years as executive director of a local residential facility for troubled adolescent males. He has an avid interest in history, particularly John Brown and the Civil War, but, as a lifelong Sherlock Holmes fan, his area of special interest has become unknown, hidden, forgotten or suppressed local history. This interest is what led him to the discovery of a number of previously unknown or forgotten stories of New London History, including New London’s 10 Green Book sites, as well as the stories of Ichabod Pease, Frederick Douglass in New London, Sadie Dillon Harrison, Sarah Harris Fayerweather, and Robert Jacklin, all of whom have now been commemorated with sites on the New London Black Heritage Trail.