New CT museum celebrates lost history of Black equestrians

On a sunny Friday morning, horses’ nickerings and children’s laughter could be heard at the opening of The Mary Fields Horse and Heritage Museum in Hartford’s North End.

“It’s a community museum, and heavy on the ‘community’, and so that means it belongs to you,” Heather R. Lawson, chairwoman of the Ebony Horsewomen, Inc. board of directors, said through the microphone as she faced the group of adults and Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School students sitting in chairs on the lawn.

The museum commemorates the first African American woman to work for the U.S. Postal Service, as well as the history of the Black equestrian, horsewomen and men across the country. It serves as a cultural landmark and archival center in the city’s North End.

Students from Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle Sch