June 2024

A VERY SPECIAL EVENT on JUNE 22

From the Historian:

    For the 2024 commemoration of Juneteenth, Jillian LaCaresse, representing the Marlborough Preservation Society and member of Marlborough Congregational Church, will be heading up a memorial service at Century Cemetery, which was owned in the distant past by the Marlborough Congregational Church. This service is held to commemorate the forty-one black citizens who were denied entry into the cemetery for burial during the first half of the 1800s based on their race.

     Marlborough is an old New England town, and our church is an even older Ecclesiastical Society. While we are an open and accepting place in 2024, the reality of history is that, like so many places within a young America, groups were marginalized by race, gender, sexuality, religion, and other aspects that make us human people.  

       However, the best part about history is that we can look back and say yes, this is what happened. It is important that we tell and hear these stories so that we will always remember that we are not the past, but we, all of us together, are the future. Further, all of us, whether distant past or farthest reaches of

the future, are deserving of remembrance. This celebration and dedication will serve to do just that.

EVENTS HAPPENING

JUNE 22, 2024

In the church meetinghouse 1:30-2:30 pm A self-guided candlelight viewing of all forty-one names. All are welcome to attend.  I would encourage everyone to drop by and explore this area of our history!

At the Century Cemetery at 2:30 pm, the ceremony to commemorate those individuals.  It will be a rain or shine event,  Pastor Val will speak at this ceremony, all forty-one names will be read, and a commemorative bench will be dedicated to those individuals. In addition, the church bell will be rung forty-one times in dedication to those individuals.

At the Richmond Memorial Library at 3:30 pm. CCSU History Department member Dr. Camesha Scruggs will be speaking on the importance of Juneteenth. A reception will follow. If anyone would like to know more about Juneteenth, this is a wonderful opportunity to hear Dr. Scruggs speak and to ask questions!

As historian, I am proud to be a part of this moment in our current history in which we remember our past and see that our church and town have become a place in which all are celebrated! We may have come once as strangers, but together we will live here and celebrate one another as friends. Please join us if you are able and inspired to do so!

Cheers!

Steve Pozzato, Church Historian History@marlcongchurch.org