By Steve Thornton For some Bridgeport workers in the early 20th century, union organizing was both a family affair and a love affair. Matilda Rabinowitz and Benjamin J. Legere were such a couple. (Think of the film stars Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton, who played John ...
by Andy Piascik Between the Hills and the Sea Bert Gilden was born in Los Angeles in 1915 and moved to Bridgeport with his family when he was a young boy. He graduated from Central High School in 1932 and then from Brown University in 1936. Katya ...
By Steve Thornton Bridgeport has long been known as the third poorest city in the country, but there is another statistic that completes the poverty picture. Only 28 miles away, Greenwich, Connecticut is one of the wealthiest towns in America, and, not coincidently, the home turf ...
by Professor Sonya Huber, Associate Professor of English, Fairfield University The life work of an activist can often be portrayed as a bold stance taken at a single defining moment, such as the image of Rosa Parks not giving up her seat on the bus. But ...
By Andy Piascik In September 1956, the House Committee on Un-American Activities, commonly known as HUAC, came to Connecticut. The purpose was to hold hearings about activities of the Communist Party in New Haven and Bridgeport. HUAC had been formed in 1938 and was in its ...
If it is true that the test of a society is how well it cares for its most vulnerable people, then Bridgeport’s health care workers can be proud of the high standard they have set. For decades they have fought for improved patient care, increased ...
by Steve Thornton Their names are not well known today: Ruth Scott, Elsie Vervane, Mrs. C. Weaver and her daughter Eva, But these Bridgeport workers played an important role in the historic campaign for the right to vote.They were four of thirteen Connecticut women who had ...
This young lady was amazing. In 1942, Marge Schneider lived with her family on Barnum Avenue near Central Avenue. With the flurry of war around her, Marge took a job at the Bridgeport Brass Company on Grand Street. Marge walked to work. With the men all ...
by Andy Piascik As Puerto Rico began to more acutely experience the economic ravages of colonialism in the years after the Second World War, more and more people from the island began migrating en el norte. Though most settled in the nation’s largest cities, Bridgeport was ...
The Bridgeport History Center is pleased to announce that the recently acquired Papers of Katya and Bert Gilden are now open for research. Focused on the rich, creative lives of the Gildens individually and as the author duo K.B. Gilden, the collection includes material related ...
by Andy Piascik On July1, 1979, 400 members of United Steelworkers Local 7201 employed at the Handy and Harman precious metals factory in Fairfield went on strike. There was nothing particularly unusual or exceptional about that; workers at factories in Bridgeport and the surrounding area regularly ...
by Cecelia Bucki, Professor of History, Fairfield University On Monday, August 16, 1915, one thousand women corset workers struck the Warner Corset Company, demanding the eight-hour day, elimination of fines and other work rules, and recognition of their union shop committee. “Chaos reigned in manufacturing circles,” declared ...
By Andy Piascik Rarely has an American play met with the kind of government opposition that Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty faced in 1935. Mayors and police departments forbade the staging of the play in a number of cities and stopped performances mid-play in others. Audience ...
By Carolyn Ivanoff Reading a newspaper you can witness the first draft of history from world to local news. In the spring of 1915 the sinking of the Lusitania factored largely in headlines along with the war in Europe. Local and national labor news would also ...
by Andy Piascik It was an event that lasted less than a day and involved only 50 people directly. It was organized, led and carried out by everyday workers and thus contradicted the mainstream narrative that only big people make history. Many of the participants were ...
As doctors in the late 1800s, brothers Dr. Lucien and Ira De Ver Warner became concerned with the use of the corset in women’s fashion. The corset was a piece of underclothing meant to give women an “hourglass” figure desirable at the time. But the ...
By Stephen Thornton On stage at Bridgeport’s Park Theater in the fall of 1944 stood “Republico, The Little Mechanical Man.” He was an empty-headed dummy that the stage barker described as “handy, dandy, and works like a whiz.” With his slick hair and neat mustache, the ...
By Mary K. Witkowski, Editor: Ann Marie Virzi In her 99 years on earth, Viola Bridgeforth, born in 1897, lived through many if not most of the profound changes that African-Americans and women in general experienced in the 20th century. Through all the changes, Viola Bridgeforth ...
