A new mural that rests on the side of Waterbury鈥檚 North End Recreation Center on North Main Street was created to honor the memory of a man named Fortune, who was enslaved by a doctor in the city in the 1700s.
When Fortune died, the doctor used his remains for medical science, training and profit. Fortune鈥檚 bones were later donated to Waterbury鈥檚 Mattatuck Museum where they were put on display from the 1930s to 1970s.
In the 1990s, archaeologists and anthropologists studied his bones. And 215 years after his death, Fortune finally received a burial in 2013. His remains now reside at Riverside Cemetery in Waterbury.
The mural project was initiated by the Alex Breanne Corporation. The nonprofit organization is dedicated to researching the lives of formerly enslaved individuals like Fortune.
The goal is to raise awareness about these individuals and reconnect them to the communities where they lived, worked, or died, according to John Mills, founder and president of Alex Breanne Corporation.
Mills said he has been engaged in this line of work long before founding the group in 2022.
鈥淕enealogy helped me find my enslaved ancestors, of which really my sister found and would share with me. And I found my tie to slavery, where my name came from, which was just the name of an enslaver of my second great grandfather,鈥� Mills said.
Mills discovered that some of his ancestors were buried behind whites-only cemeteries in Texas. He shared that the grave of his third great-grandfather, William Cooper, who served in the Navy during the Civil War, now lies beneath a parking lot. The lot was formerly the site of Laurel Cemetery, an African American burial ground in Baltimore that was paved over in the 1960s.
鈥淭his made me start to revere these people, because they did so much in life to survive during a troubled time, and then they're buried in ways to be forgotten,鈥� Mills said. 鈥淭he documentation is scarce, and no one really reveres them. It's presented in this country like it's embarrassing that they were enslaved.鈥�
This revelation inspired Mills to uncover more information about other African Americans who were buried in similar fashion. He began working to locate their relatives and ensure they received proper burials.
He founded the nonprofit to gain additional support.
鈥淚t was just costing me a lot to do it alone,鈥� Mills said. 鈥淪o I was hoping that the followers of mine and people who aligned would kind of help me continue to tell these stories.鈥�
It was not until 2021 that Mills built upon the earlier research conducted by the Silas Bronson Library, Mattatuck Museum and the Waterbury NAACP chapter in the late 1990s and early 2010s on Fortune鈥檚 story.
With support from the Rise Up Group and the 海角换妻 Community Foundation, Mills helped raise just over $31,000 for the creation of Fortune鈥檚 mural in Waterbury.
Katiana Jarbath Smith, a local artist from Waterbury, was responsible for painting the mural, which depicts Fortune and his family.
Jarbath Smith said creating the piece served as a valuable opportunity for her to reconnect with and bring hidden stories like Fortune's to life.
鈥淭his mural has truly been a labor of love for me as a person of color, having the opportunity to tell stories of people of color on such a grand scale is a profound honor,鈥� Jarbath Smith said.
