NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (AP) — Central Connecticut State University has renamed a building after its first African-American graduate.
More than 200 people were in attendance Wednesday as the university renamed its social sciences building as Ebenezer D. Bassett Hall.
Bassett graduated from what was then called the Normal School in New Britain in 1853, and later became a teacher and an American diplomat.
CCSU counselor William Fothergill says Bassett was a man who “tirelessly gave of himself in order to leave the world a better place.”
New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart says they will put a memorial plaque at the original location of the Normal School, about where the police station is now.
The CCSU building will be included as a site on the Connecticut Freedom Trail.
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