Harris' grandson Day'Shawn Lyons, daughters Vanessa Harris and Faith Brown, son Fred Harris III, granddaughter Shamay Ampadu, co-organizer Pamela Monk Kelley and co-organizer Sophie Edelstein.
When they began thinking about the life and legacy of activist Fred Harris, Dr. Pamela Monk Kelly and Sophie Edelstein knew that they wanted all New Haveners to know his name, no matter how far removed they were from the history of the Hill Parents Association or the grassroots beginnings of the Connecticut Mental Health Center (CMHC). So they wasted no time pounding the pavement for a street sign in his honor, the efforts which took almost two years.
Last Friday, the dynamic duo—alongside many Hill boosters and Harris’ friends and family members—celebrated the culmination of those efforts with a sign unveiling at South Frontage Road and Park Street. Gathered beneath the sign, attendees and advocates lifted their fists up in the air, channeling the work of the man they had come to honor. Their voices rose above the bustling traffic that surrounded them.
“Fred Harris Way! Fred Harris Way!,” they cheered.
John Guillemette, Sha McAllister, and Shannon Miller.
Close to 50 New Haveners gathered at that corner Friday morning to celebrate Harris, a longtime New Havener (although he now lives in Detroit, where he is a pastor), organizer and activist who made history when he reimagined public education and community safety in the 1960s. The event, organized by the Community Histories Lab at the Yale School of Medicine and Hill North Community Management Team, included a sign unveiling.
Featured speakers included Connecticut NAACP President Scot X. Esdaile, Life Kingdom Outreach Ministries Rev. Donald Morris, Harris’ son Fred Harris III, and many members of the Hill North Community Management Team (team treasurer Jose Orlando DeJesus emceed the ceremony). Following the unveiling, organizers held an afternoon reception at the Wilson Branch Library.
“I think having our history, our Black and Brown history in public, it's so important,” DeJesus said. “It's because folks are going to eventually ask, ‘Who's Fred Harris?’ and they're going to Google him, and they're going to learn about the struggles of the Hill Parents Association and the struggles of the Black Panther Party here in New Haven.”
Sophie K. Edelstein.
That enthusiasm echoed through the group Friday morning, in a testament to the power and reach of Harris’ footprint years after he moved away from New Haven. In the 1960s, Harris’ organizing work began at home, when he saw that his daughters were headed to school with extra toilet paper in their hands.
When he asked his then-wife, the late Rose Harris, he learned that they did not have toilet paper in the school’s bathrooms.
It led to years of hyper-local organizing at a time when Black power movements, including and especially the Black Panthers, were also gaining a foothold in New Haven. With Hill stalwart Ann Boyd, Harris co-founded the Hill Parents Association, building on what was then the Hill Neighborhood Union (HNU). For years, the HPA advocated for better school conditions for Black and Brown kids, in what was and still is New Haven’s largest and most diverse neighborhood.
Harris believed (as he still does) in the power of education: he published a community newspaper, “Ram and Sheep,” that blasted white figureheads for their vision for urban renewal, and how it was destroying Black neighborhoods. He advocated for “Freedom Schools,” where Black educators could freely teach and pass on their history. He rallied for stronger jobs and better schools, never afraid to criticize Yale when he saw it doing something wrong.
Carlah Esdaile-Bragg and Jane Edelstein. “I have been a New Haven resident for 56 years, and I have learned so much of the history of New Haven that I didn’t know until Sophie started doing this work, and I am so proud to be a part of it,” Edelstein said.
Lifelong New Havener Carlah Esdaile-Bragg, director of marketing and community relations at the Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center, said Friday that she can still feel Harris’ spirit all around her, despite the fact that he is now hundreds of miles away. In the late 1960s, Harris helped found the Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center (previously known as the Hill Health Center), where Esdaile-Bragg found a professional home. She can’t imagine the history of New Haven without him.
“He was such a monarch in our community,” she said. “Like, he worked so hard. to uplift [others]. He was a soldier. He's still a soldier!
For Shamain (Sha) McAllister, associate director of education and community impact at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, Friday’s reveal also felt emotional. She remembered collecting signatures alongside Shannon Miller, community impact coordinator at the festival, in support of the street sign. Despite a bone-cracking cold that descended on New Haven as they pounded the pavement, McAllister and Miller were determined to help make the sign into reality.
“To have him have his own street right in front of the Connecticut Mental Health Centers is full-circle,” she said. “It shows you that hard work does produce a beautiful harvest.”
Hill Alder Angel Hubbard.
Throughout the ceremony, speakers also paid their dues to Hill Parents Association co-founder Ann Boyd, who passed away Thursday night after a long illness. Born in Ridgeville, South Carolina, Boyd lived a life of activism, juggling a dedication to justice work with her love for a big, generations-deep family of New Haveners that she welcomed neighbors into for her whole life.
After moving to the Hill as a kid in the 1950s, she spent her life making the neighborhood a kinder and more just place for those who call it home, from members of the Black Panthers in the 1970s (read more about that here and here) to groups like the Columbus West Tenant Association and Project MORE. Along the way, she raised nine children, working to defend their rights and the rights of other young people as a leader of the Hill Parents Association (HPA).
“For me to follow in behind [of] big shoes, from Mr. Fred Harris and also Ann Boyd, that is such an honor for me to also be a voice in the city of New Haven,” Hill Alder Angel Hubbard said.
Hubbard added that the fight for social justice is still ongoing, from improving conditions in the city’s public school conditions to pushing Yale to increase its voluntary contributions to the city. That resonated for Harris’ daughter, Vanessa Harris, who said that the trek from Detroit to New Haven was well worth it.
“It’s a great honor to see them name a street after him years later,” she said.
Hill North Management Team Treasurer Jose DeJesus.
Throughout, Edelstein referenced Harris’ charismatic nature, which was very much present Friday even though he could not be due to health issues that kept him in Detroit. She remembered an encounter she had with a resident on Congress Avenue, who often saw Harris drive his motorcycle up and down the street as a child.
It made the neighbor fall in love with Harris. From then on she was hooked on Harris’ escapades and became a fervent supporter of his work.
“I think one of my favorite things about even just collecting the signatures and working around this effort was meeting so many neighbors who group up in The Hill and hearing their stories and hearing their memories of Mr. Fred,” Edelstein said.
DeJesus added that obtaining signatures for the petition took over a year, with efforts that started back in summer 2024. As a Puerto Rican—another history that runs deep in the Hill— DeJesus ultimately saw the sign as a catalyst to encourage public inquiry and information.
He recalled his own experiences being confronted with limited representation in the curriculum as a student at Roberto Clemente and highlighted similarities between how Black and Puerto Rican historical figures and culture are under-covered in schools.
For Harris’ grandson Day’Shawn Lyons, seeing his grandpa etched into the fabric of New Haven was “surreal” and said he was “honored’ to be a part of it.
“You always see your grandfather as someone who does special things and helps the community, and runs his church,” he said. “But right now, it’s just a blessing to see him get his flowers while he’s still alive, you know?”
Lucy Gellman contributed material to this article. For more about Fred Harris, read more from the Arts Paper’s previous coverage.