The state Board of Regents for Higher Education has voted unanimously to name the Central Connecticut State University Social Sciences Hall in honor of Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett.
A number people from New Britain and others spoke in support of the naming in honor of Bassett at the meeting on December 13, 2018, including the Rev. Thomas Mills, Jr., Pastor of Grace Church in New Britain, John McNamara, Lisa Nkonoki and Alphonse Wright. Other New Britain residents attended the meeting to show their support.
The Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett Social Sciences Hall will stand as a testament to one of New Britain’s most accomplished figures, a leader for civil rights who worked with Frederick Douglass and the first African American Ambassador from the United States.
First African American CCSU Graduate and Educator
Bassett (1833-1908), was the first African American graduate of the New Britain Normal School, the institution that would become CCSU.
After graduating from New Britain’s institution of higher education, Bassett would go on to a life of great accomplishment. He was an educator, teaching in New Haven and serving as principal at the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia, the school that would become Cheyney University of Pennsylvania.
Under Bassett’s leadership as principal, the Board of Regent noted, the Institute, “established a Normal School division whose pedagogy was based on the educational reforms initiated by the Connecticut State Normal School.”
Abolitionist Leader
A prominent abolitionist, Bassett met and befriended Frederick Douglass while he was a teacher in New Haven.
According to an article by Chris Teal in the Foreign Service Journal, during the Civil War, Bassett rallied African Americans to join in the fight for justice, by joining the Union army, saying,
Men of color, to arms! Now or never! This is our golden moment. The government of the United States calls for every able-bodied colored man to enter the army for three years of service, and join in fighting the battles of liberty and the Union. A new era is open to us. For generations we have suffered under the horrors of slavery, outrage and wrong; our manhood has been denied, our citizenship blotted out, our souls seared and burned, our spirits cowed and crushed, and the hopes of the future of our race involved in doubts and darkness.
But how the whole aspect of our relations to the white race is changed! Now, therefore, is the most precious moment. Let us rush to arms! Fail now, and our race is doomed on this soul of our birth.
Ambassador and Trailblazer for Human Rights
In 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant, appointed Bassett as U.S. Minister to Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the head of the diplomatic mission. This made Bassett the first African American Ambassador level diplomat, ever, from the United States.
According to Teal, Bassett served with distinction after President Grant appointed him as Ambassador. Teal described that Bassett advocated for the safety of refugees from a raging civil war. “Bassett not only negotiated safe passage for the refugees but personally escorted them to safety.”
“Bassett’s courage in literally placing himself in the line of fire to protect the rights of refugees and noncombatants should still inspire us a century-and-a-half later,” said Teal. “Similarly, his eloquence and determination in justifying those decisions to his government are precursors of the key role human rights would eventually assume in U.S. foreign policy.”
New Britain Support and Recognition
According to the official record of the Board of Regents proceeding, Richard J. Balducci, the Chair of the Board’s Finance and Infrastructure Committee, “noted that the naming honor was both well deserved and long overdue.”
Balducci also thanked, “the committed, tireless efforts of the supporters from CCSU, Grace Church, and many others.”
The motion to approve the measure was seconded by Board Member Peter Rosa, who is a former member of the New Britain City Council. Rosa also previously served as Vice President for Student Affairs at CCSU.
