![]() “The three-fifths compromise is a compromise in favor towards freedom,” Fiorello said. Northern states objected, then consented to counting a slave as three-fifths of a person in the census. Southern slave states wanted to count each slave as a person for purposes of the census. Kimberly Fiorello, R-Greenwich, voted to designate Juneteenth as a holiday but clashed with Black lawmakers over racial history. Unlike her Black colleagues, Fiorello also saw glimmers of America’s early promise in the compromise struck in 1787 over how to count slaves in the census that would apportion seats, and therefore political power, in the new House of Representatives. “We have to stop, get out of this mindset that disparities mean discrimination.” And that is all that we all have to grapple with,” Fiorello said. “Disparities do not come from discrimination. Juneteenth was for all Americans, a celebration of the nation’s inevitable arrival at equality and freedom, she said.įiorello spoke twice, the second time to contradict the Black lawmakers on their view of history and their opinion that racial disparities remain. It is time, she said, to set aside the lens of race. She arrived in America as a 10-year-old and graduated from Harvard as a young adult, then settled in one of the nation’s wealthiest ZIP codes as a wife and mother. And that is why Juneteenth is so important.”įiorello saw Juneteenth as an American story, not a Black one. There is no price that you can put on the lives lost, on the bloodshed, on the history unknown. Family members sold from one plantation to another, never understanding the true identity of their culture, of their existence. “My great-great grandfather beaten, his father killed. One is not able to be present without the other,” said Rep. ![]() “American history is Black history, and Black history is American history. The Black lawmakers spoke broadly but also personally. And I hope that we take an opportunity to be cognizant of that,” said Rep. The shackles still remain around our necks. “In so many ways, the shackles are still on our feet. Jobless benefits for strikers in CT? Idea dividing labor committee It is a celebration of Black resilience and a reminder of the racial disparities that remain in educational and wealth attainment, how they fare in the courts and in the housing market. Constitution as three-fifths of a human being. It marked the end of their ancestor’s status in the U.S. One after another, the Black lawmakers who spoke before Fiorello cast Juneteenth as serving multiple purposes. Toni Walker, D-New Haven, in a show of support as she explained the significance of Juneteenth. But she put a gloss - a “whitewash,” a Black colleague said - on how America got past slavery and where it stands today on questions of race and opportunity. Kimberly Fiorello, R-Greenwich, a Korean immigrant and unabashed believer in the American experiment, enthusiastically embraced what Juneteenth symbolizes, promising her vote. The debate had gone sideways, not unlike a holiday dinner where race is broached, turned by a what-did-they-just-say moment. Please reload the page and try again.īut an anticipated moment of celebration on the session’s final day was souring. Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Gale Mastrofrancesco, R-Wolcott, who objected to a holiday that might eventually mean another day off for state employees. There was no question how the debate about Senate Bill 350, which the Senate passed 35-1 the previous day, would end: The House would vote nearly unanimously (142-1) to designate Juneteenth Independence Day, the end of enslavement on June 19, 1865, as a legal holiday in Connecticut. “How far have we come?” Walker asked, her voice neither plaintive nor angry. Toni Walker, a child of the South and citizen of New Haven, shared childhood stories of hiding from the Ku Klux Klan, of pets killed and crosses burned in retribution for her father’s voter registration efforts, of the everyday indignities of denied access to a whites-only bathroom. Without prodding or plan, legislators glided to the corner of the state’s gilded-age House chamber, where a tired Black woman stood talking Wednesday about America’s original sin and its second day of independence - Juneteenth, a holiday not yet recognized in Connecticut. Read more of CT Mirror’s “Best of 2022” stories here. Editor’s note: This story was originally published on May 4, 2022.
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