HARTFORD — The Hartford School Board has taken the unusual step of publishing an open letter to Hartford residents and Vermont citizens, addressing long-standing issues of racism and racial harassment in towns across the state and calling for Vermonters to speak out against those incidents.
“Look at what’s been happening around the state and in our own community,” School Board Chair Kevin Christie said in an interview last week. “Something had to be done.”
The letter follows several incidents of racial harassment in Hartford over the last year, including directed at two women of color involved in town politics. In November, Rachel Edens said she faced racist backlash online after she joined the Hartford Selectboard. Then Alicia Barrow stepped down from the Selectboard in January, citing racist threats from at least one resident.
For many residents, the renewed attention to those incidents only scratches the surface of a pervasive racism that they say has long woven its way through Vermont communities.
Christie, along with fellow School Board members Russell North, Michelle Boleski, Peter Merrill and Nancy Russell, signed the letter in late February and published it on the school website and in the Valley News.
“We, the citizens of Vermont, have a problem we must address,” the letter started. “We have repeatedly permitted the forces of bigotry, hatred and racial prejudice to silence the voices of BIPOC women of color who have had the courage to attempt to participate in the civic life of our communities.”
(BIPOC stands for Black, Indigenous and people of color.)
The letter pointed to three Black women politicians who have faced major incidents in the last few years: State Rep. Kiah Morris, D-Bennington, who faced such harassment and stalking she decided not to run for reelection; local NAACP head Tabitha Moore, who decided to move from her home of Rutland County after racial harassment; and Barrow, who said in her resignation letter she faced “blatant bigotry” from some residents while serving on the Selectboard.
“You can say you want to be welcoming,” Christie said, “but when you see the behavior we’ve seen, it’s antithetical to ‘welcome.’ ”
School officials in their letter called for law enforcement around the state to make a “top priority” of investigating racial harassment crimes, and for Vermont residents and politicians to speak out against racial harassment and threats.
Interim Hartford Police Chief Braedon Vail wrote in an email Wednesday that he applauds the board for publishing the statement and that the police department “is committed to investigate to the fullest extent possible any complaint that is perceived to be hate- or bias-related.”
He also wrote that the department has submitted 12 incidents — ranging from calls about an offensive flag, to racial slurs or threats — to the Civil Rights Unit of the Vermont Attorney General’s Office since the beginning of 2020.
“It is hard to specifically state whether they have become more common in recent years,” Vail wrote of the racial harassment reports. “However, from an optical standpoint it certainly does seem like there has been an increase in reported incidents over the past couple of years.”
One of the most talked-about happened in Quechee last year, when new Hartford resident Christopher Brown, who is Black, said he was stopped by two white men where his road intersects with Route 4. One of the men told Brown, a history professor at Columbia University, “we don’t want your drugs and your crime and your COVID” in Vermont.
Republican Gov. Phil Scott apologized for the incident, which he said had clear “racial undertones,” and said, “This virus cannot be used as an excuse for hate, bigotry or division.”
The Vermont State Police investigated the case but could not identify the men, and has since closed the investigation, Vermont State Police spokesman Adam Silverman said in an email on Friday.
Allene Swienckowski, chair of the Hartford Committee on Racial Equity and Inclusion, or HCOREI, said recent incidents of racial harassment speak to a long-standing issue the state — and the country as a whole — has with racism.
“All of these things that have reared their ugly heads over last 4½ years — they were not new. They were just underground,” Swienckowski said, adding that the problem is particularly bad for Black female politicians. “These women who have been on the forefront, have received an incalculable amount of pushback,” she said.
Swienckowski said confronting deep-rooted issues of racism will take time and systemic change. That change includes everything from making sure pictures hanging in town buildings and schools include images of people of color, to examining how students are being taught Black history.
“Anti-bias training … for two hours once a year — that doesn’t cure anything or change anyone’s heart,” she said. “When I say we have fundamental issues we need to address, I mean across the board.”
Selectboard Chair Dan Fraser agreed the town still has “tons of work to do” to confront racism.
“Addressing these issues will not be easy, as it is difficult work, but NOT doing the work has consequences that produce results much scarier — violence — which we will not tolerate,” he said via email.
Now that the board has hired a town manager, officials can focus on issues that “haven’t been fully addressed,” he said, with racism being a “top priority.”
“It will be a topic on each Selectboard agenda moving forward, giving it whatever time is needed to end the threats and violence against residents, particularly female politicians and leaders,” he said.
The school district has also made strides recently to confront the issue, first by issuing an anti-racism policy in June. Under the new policy, teachers will undergo anti-racism and cultural awareness training, and the district will “oppose teachings that perpetuate white supremacy,” according to the policy.
Swienckowski said HCOREI is also working to develop a racial equity resource library, which they plan to share with the school district when completed. The library has documents, videos and podcasts on Black history and anti-racism, as well as analyses of current cultural events like the pro-Trump riot at the U.S. Capitol building in January.
Christie, who serves on the Vermont Human Rights Commission, said he knows the process of confronting racism in the community will take time, but it’s important for students to see that their school district is putting in the work.
“Now’s the time. If we’re not going to address the situation that we’re in as a community, as a state, as a country, then we’re going to stay where we are,” Christie said. “And where we are is not a good place. It’s not good for our kids, it’s not good for us.”
Anna Merriman can be reached at amerriman@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.