M.L.K. Event with Meal by Bear's B.B.Q.

Come join the CT Valley Tobacco Historical Society for a special event and meal honoring Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. whose youth experience working with Connecticut Valley tobacco farms was transformational.

"After that summer in Connecticut, it was a bitter feeling going back to segregation," he wrote in his autobiography.

This catered event—featuring a menu inspired by Dr. King’s favorite meal items and his memories of dining in Hartford—celebrates community, Connecticut history, and the glimpse of equality the future Civil Rights leader had at his first integrated restaurant encounter away from the oppressive caste system imposed by Jim Crow segregation laws. In a 1944 letter to his mother, he wrote, “I never thought that a person of my race could eat anywhere, but we ate in one of the finest [restaurants].”

• Menu consisting of King's favorites: ribs, collard greens, sweet potatoes, cornbread; courtesy Bear's B.B.Q., Hartford
• Letters M.L.K. wrote from Connecticut recited aloud
• Museum collection tour with curator

Proceeds support the museum’s programming and preservation efforts, including our collection centered on student summer labor from Historically Black Colleges and Universities.