Prudence Crandall - Hartford. CT - Civil Rights Memorials on Waymarking.com

Prudence Crandall was a Quaker schoolteacher who operated a girls school in Canterbury, CT. In 1833, she admitted an African-American girl to the school. This was widely considered to be the first integrated classroom in the United States. A curved metal marker, described as a sculpture, is attached to a light pole inside the fence on the south west corner of the old State house grounds. It tells the story of Prudence Crandall's struggle to integrate her private school. Prudence Crandall is now an official Connecticut state heroine. The sculpture is inscribed:

Prudence Crandall
Where You Are Standing
on May 24, 1833

The Connecticut General Assembly passes the
Black Law expressly forbidding Prudence Crandall
from recruiting African-American women
for her school in Canterbury.
Prudence refuses to obey the Black Law
and is arrested and jailed.
Her case is taken up by the Abolition Movement
to attract nationwide attention to the
injustices of slavery and prejudice.
After almost two years of legal struggles and
harassment of her students,
Prudence's conviction is overturned by
the Connecticut Supreme Court meeting in this place,
and in 1838 the Black Law is repealed here.
Even so, Prudence is forced to close her school
for fear of her student's safety.
Towards the end of her life, the General Assembly
meeting here awards Prudence a pension
to compensate her for the injustices done to her.
Prudence Crandall sculpture by Randy Nelson, 1996
Made possible by a grant from
The Hartford Courant Foundation

Civil Right Type: Race (includes U.S. Civil Rights movement)

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