Ruby & Calvin Fletcher African American History Museum — Attraction in Stratford

Visiting the R&CAAHM was a high point in life for me, though I have visited many AA history museums and exhibits.

Once we started the guided tour, I was struck by the intimacy of this museum and in just one small room, told the story of African Americans beginning with the Transatlantic slave ships journey to the Americas. I was engulfed in a visual and sensory experience.

From that room we entered the chapter of African slave labor and the torture they experienced...the penalty endured for seeking freedom. I was most struck by the photograph of a child about a toddler's age with a huge bag of cotton slung across his shoulder as he picked cotton in the field under the hot sun.

The intimate setting of this museum not only captures the maltreatment of Africans in America, but also segregation, misrepresentation and negative depictions of African Americans throughout history, right through the civil rights movement. The museum's owner even included one of his own experiences of being denied access to a restroom that his white colleagues were allowed to use.

This wonderfully guided and narrated tour also includes some brilliant points of joy such as the giant photographs that pay tribute to a great Connecticut sports hero who played for the Lakers...guess who. And, I particularly enjoyed the rich exhibit of genuine artifacts donated by families of some of the Tuskegee Airmen who lived in Connecticut.

This museum completely delivers on the history of Africans in America. We could not stop talking about this small but mighty museum and the owners plans for expansion to include the Afro-Latino experience. We're telling everyone we know that they must go.

I give this museum...

I visited the RCFAAHM with my mother-in-law, mother, and 1 month-old daughter. It’s a small, very physically accessible museum (I had a stroller with me and the exhibits are all on one level and the building/house has a ramp for entry.) So well done and well thought out. I loved how we were given a tour through time and how immersive it was. I especially loved how it starts showing how bleak things were for the enslaved traveling to and upon arrival in this country and how resilient they were and how far their descendants have come and the amazing works of art, advocacy, and change that have come from their passions, creativity, brilliance, and efforts. I can’t wait to visit again and see how the museum fills their new space when they move venues whenever that happens. It took us about an hour to see.

I marked that it is free - it is - but there is a suggested donation. Also happy ale a look at the cool sticker book that they sell for continued learning after you visit the museum. We got some for my nephews and my mother and father in law got one and they love it, so it’s good for a wide range of ages. Also, when we arrived, the door was locked, so we rang the bell (as the sign at the door says to do) and they came and let us right in. Just wanted to share that so you don’t think they’re closed when you arrive during their posted business...

When Americans think about African American history - and, unfortunately, African American history is underrepresented in the public sphere - we often think about Southern history. And at the Ruby and Calvin Fletcher Museum there certainly is discussion about the labor, segregation, and civil rights movements in the South.

However, the museum is also crucially telling Black history of the North, and the founder and curators have assembled an impressive collection of photographs, newspapers, objects, and even art to tell stories about power and resistance. We should be incredibly grateful that these stories are being told here with so much care and attention, and each room is thoughtfully planned out to create a sensory experience where the past mingles with present. Thank you to the wonderful staff for making this place so special and telling important histories in this part of Connecticut. It is a model for museums and a must see to understand the way that African American history is a crucial part of American history. You'll come out of the museum...