Alumnus Uses Collection of Artifacts to Teach Story of African-American History

When Jeffrey Fletcher ’79 was a student at the University of New Haven, he remembers questioning his mother as to why she collected so many items related to African-American history.

Upon his mother’s death, Fletcher and his siblings inherited the collection. Unsure what to do with the items he received, Fletcher initially planned to throw them out, but he then realized there was a story behind them.

“This stuff was a way of telling my mother’s story of growing up in the Jim Crow south,” said Fletcher, a former student-athlete who played basketball while at the University. “I had an epiphany – I knew I had to tell her story.”

Fletcher began going to tag sales and auctions, seeking more items to add the collection. A retired New Haven police officer who spent more than 20 years on the force, Fletcher now has more than 3,000 items – and counting – in storage.

As part of the University’s commemoration of Black History Month, Fletcher returned to his alma mater last month with a portion of his collection to discuss African American history with students. His mobile exhibit, titled “Images of America/Challenges of the Badge,” enabled students to see and experience what motivated trailblazers who fought for equality and freedom, while learning about the suffering they faced.

Among the items Fletcher showed students were two of the chairs from the Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina, where four African American college students who were refused service staged a sit-in that helped ignite a movement to challenge racial inequality. He also brought a jacket worn by a Tuskegee airman and some of the more than 150 shackles in his collection.

"People don’t always want to learn about this history because it is difficult or makes them feel embarrassed.”Jeffrey Fletcher '79

“This makes us uncomfortable, which is a good thing,” said Juan Hernandez, director of the University’s Myatt Center for Diversity and Inclusion, which hosted Fletcher’s talk. “I hope we can allow ourselves to be uncomfortable out of respect of the struggles of the people who were on the receiving end.”

Among the items in the collection that Fletcher acknowledges cause the most discomfort is a Ku Klux Klan robe. Pretending to be a white man, Fletcher was in touch with the robe’s owner – a man in North Carolina – for months before he bought the item, which came with two masks, a confederate flag, and a photo of the man wearing the robe. When he, ultimately, told the owner over the phone that he was Black, Fletcher said the man hurled racially-charged insults at him and threatened him. Fletcher now uses the items to educate.

“This is very hard to look at, but it existed,” he explains. “People don’t always want to learn about this history because it is difficult or makes them feel embarrassed.”

Not all of Fletcher’s items are associated with a negative history, and his collection includes advertisements and pieces related to the entertainment industry. He hopes to soon have the collection under one roof where everyone can see it, and a museum is now in development in Stratford, Conn.

“It is important to learn more about history that is not always taught in schools,” said Alicia Martin-Conyers ’20, a biology major who attended Fletcher’s talk. “When these items and their history are there in front of you, it’s eye-opening.”