By David Fortier
A close friend of Martin Luther King Jr., one of the first female bass players in the region and a former mayor of the city of Bristol were among those local activists honored at a NAACP Black History Month celebration held the last Saturday in February at the Carousel Museum.
“My guy, Mr. Johnie Macon Floyd, Morehouse grad, veteran, track legend, was a personal friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, served as the president of the NAACP, served as the director of admissions at Central Connecticut State University, was great friends with my grandfather,” said emcee Morris “Rippy” Patton in kicking off the portion of the program where he shared anecdotes about each honoree.
The Black History Month event, “Honoring Local Activists of Our Time,” presented by the Greater Bristol Branch NAACP on Saturday, Feb. 24, honored 11 activists, including Pastor Daniel R. Collins, Anthony Floyd, the late Johnie M. Floyd, the late Barbara Hudson, Jay Maia, Laura S. Minor, Frank Robinson, Ellen Zoppo-Sassu, Dayna Snell, the late Pastor Eddie C. Whitehead and Gail Williams.
“The 2017 recipient of one of the 25 most influential African Americans of our district,” Patton said, referring to Williams who was born in Bristol and raised in Plainville. “What most impressed me, because I am a history buff myself, I look at the work you have done to preserve our legacy on the Freedom Trail, which a lot of people don’t know runs through Plainville.”
Clockwise, from upper left, former Bristol Mayor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu, Plainville community activitist Frank Robinson, Bristol Eastern High School girls varsity basketball coach Tony Floyd, Nzinga’s Dancers founder Dayna Snell and Bristol Boys and Girls Club CEO Jay Maia. | David Fortier
“And the fact that you, very similar to Ms. Hudson (another honoree) have decided on your own to preserve that legacy so that people who come after my child will always know how pivotal this place was in getting us the freedom that we have fought for and ultimately deserve. You are a legend in doing that. So thank you.”
Aside from her work as a historian, Williams is one of the first female bass players to perform with several touring bands beginning in the 1960s, a dressmaker who created many of her own outfits for the stage and one of the founders of Queen Ann Nzinga Center that empowers young people through the arts.
“Eight years on city council, chair of the task force that helped keep what we now refer to as BAIMS, the former memorial Boulevard School, in the hands of Bristol, creator of the diversity council, creator of city conversations on race, four years served as our mayor,” is how Patton introduced Zoppo-Sassu.
“There is a phrase that I think about when it comes to Ellen often,” Patton said, “‘Men lie, women lie, numbers don’t.” When Ellen took the mayor’s job in 2017, the city of Bristol had three people, on its city boards and commissions, of color, three. By the time her service in that role was done, there were 43.”
Patton provided anecdotes and acknowledgement about each of the honorees.
“As you go through the biographies that detail the work of these eleven honorees,” he said, “I think that you will find it very obvious that they just don’t believe in it, they live it.”
About Collins, Patton said, “His service to the community began in 1964, 60 years ago. Since then he has served on over 35 different community-based organizations over several, several communities.”
Among his work over the years a major accomplishment was his work in prison ministry, according to family members, Patton said.
“Often they are able actually to run into former inmates that have changed their lives and give him the credit,” Patton said.
“Mr. Tony Floyd, if you are anywhere around Bristol, you know Mr. Tony Floyd,” Patton said and shared what he learned from a former player.
“Mr. Floyd was more than a coach, he was a life mentor,” Patton said, relating what the player had told him.
“What mattered to Barbara (Hudson) was her service to other people,” Patton learned from family members, “rarely herself, as a quality to be admired. She was an entrepreneur, she was a curator, and a lecturer.”
She had foresight and vision, Patton said.
“And that is never more evident than the fact that if you were to go to the Bristol Historical Society, Barbara Hudson is the only person that has documented the history of African Americans in Bristol. She saw it, she knew that it was important enough that that story would have to be told someday, and rather than waiting for someone else to do it, she did it herself.”
About Maia, the current president and CEO of the Bristol Boys and Girls Club, Patton said, “A friend, I will tell you this that every city in America needs a Jay Maia, anywhere that there are children in need, they need Jay Maia.”
Patton related how Maia started working at a Boys and Girls Club in Omaha, Neb, washing clothes for $4.50 an hour.
Clockwise, from upper left, Joseph Hudson addresses the gathering on behalf of his late sister Barbara, who was among those honored, Plainville musician and historian Gail Williams, the late Rev. Eddie Whitehead’s daughter Gloria Hall addresses the gathering on behalf of the Whitehead family, | David Fortier
About Minor, Patton recalled how she was born in New Jersey but raised in Kenya where her father was working to establish trade schools.
“One of the first justices of peace in Connecticut to start doing same-sex weddings,” Patton said about Minor, “because Laura Minor believes everyone, that every single person, deserves common decency.”
He said when he became a justice of the peace, she was the first person he turned to for advice.
Minor, he said, is one of the founders of the Bristol Interfaith Coalition, an early member of the local NAACP chapter, member of the HIV/AIDS task force, advocate for women’s rights, African American rights, religious rights.
“If there is an opportunity to make things better for someone else,” Patton said, “you can always call Laura Minor.”
About Robinson, Patton said, “Another U.S. Army veteran, has an unparalleled record of his commitment to people with special needs.” Robinson received a shout out, from Patton, for being last year’s grand marshal of the Plainville Memorial Day Parade.
About Snell, Patton said, “Dayna refers to her work for the community, for other people as simply ‘Life’s work,’ as something we are supposed to do, because it is.”
Snell, a Dept. of Children and Families retiree, founded a rites of passage program for young women in DCF custody who needed an advocate and is one of the founders of Queen Ann Nzinga Center, choir member, choir director and host of Plainville’s first ever Juneteenth celebration in 2023.
Patton called Whitehead “a legend, WWII veteran, former head of the NAACP, and his name rings bells with anyone who was in Bristol, …, ever.”
“I do remember being a child in Bristol, I remember when the KKK came here, I remember when the Beulah AME Zion, the church that I attended when I was child, the church my grandparents helped found, the bus was vandalized by people who wrote KKK all over the bus,” Patton said.
And, he said, he remembered every day, Whitehead being out front, addressing the issue.
Patton recalled a story he heard recently about Whitehead.
Patton said he heard it from a mayor, who said, “‘Man, anytime anything happened, I would just open the door to the mayor’s office and wait for him to walk in. He didn’t have an appointment. He didn’t need one. He would just walk in.'” Rev. Whitehead was truly a warrior for the rest of us.”
In his introductory comments Patton, who has run for city council and been vice president of the local NAACP chapter, referred to his own family roots here in Bristol.
“This is the place where my grandfather moved from Mississippi back in the 40s, just to have a job at a fair wage for a fair day’s work,” he said.
Clockwise, from upper left, volunteer servers from the Bristol Boys and Girls Club, emcee Morris “Rippy” Patton with Olga Calendar, honoree Laura Minor and honoree Johnie Floyd’s granddaughter Cherise Floyd-Pickering, who thanked the NAACP on behalf of the Floyd family. | David Fortier
He could not imagine his grandfather, in his wildest dreams, Patton said, seeing how the city had transformed over the years so that a crowd looking like the one might gather for the Black History event.
“I sincerely thank you for being here and bringing those dreams to fruition,” Patton said.
“The call to serve is something that can happen by chance,” he said, “but actually serving is a choice that not everyone makes. The eleven people being honored here today deserve every applause and this blessing because that is what they have been, in the struggle for equality for a whole lot of people. They all chose to sacrifice family time and lives for the greater good.
Patton called the honorees “warriors for the fight for equality and equity for everyone, for people of all colors and creeds.”
Patton turned over the microphone to former chapter president Lexie Mangum and current president Tim Camerl for the presented of awards.
In his comments, Mangum said, “MLK Day, we talked a little about our unsung heroes. These are some of our unsung heroes. They didn’t do it for money, they didn’t do it for bragging rights, they didn’t do it for popularity.”
They saw need and got into the race and decided to do something for the betterment of society, he said.
“All of these men and women have somewhere down the line influenced my life and gave me the courage to do the little I do,” he said, “because they so willingly give up their time that we might get involved and have a say in our communities.”
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