New Haven Independent

Mitchell is something of an American history aficionado. He is a student of several Yale professors, now buried at Grove Street, who had been founders of Yale’s Afro-American Studies department. He’s a regular attendee of the annual July 4 Grove Street event. He said the ceremonies usually are “patriotically neutral.” The event is a celebration of Roger Sherman, buried at Grove Street, and the other signers of the Declaration of Independence. It launches New Haven’s July 4th festivities with historical heft.

This July 4th’s event featured a smoky musket volley courtesy of the 6th Connecticut Regiment re-enactors and the drum and fife music of the Second Company Governor’s Foot Guard , and the moving calling out of the names of the signers. Nevertheless it also featured an exclusionary aspect.

The proceedings were initiated by a talk delivered by John White, of Cheshire. White describes himself as an author, amateur historian, and an aspiring member — that is not yet a member — of the sponsoring organization, the David Humphreys Branch of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR).

He gave a ten-minute talk on what he described as the principles of American government and liberty. Others among the 100 listeners eager for the musketry and fifes to begin called it a bit of a rant.

Others turned their backs as White cited phrases in the texts of the country’s founding documents that would be evidence of the founders’ beliefs in a divine power or providence. He said the sovereignty of “We the People” was in effect derived from God — and while it was a god of no particular denomination, still God.

He concluded by saying that while “the war for independence is over, our revolution goes on, and justice and constitutional republican government, under God, must go on — this is the American spirit — to embrace the earth.”

Mitchell said that each year’s ceremony was slightly different, and that this speech, especially its religious overlay, was unusual and, he implied, not particularly welcome. “Maybe it’s because of the election,” Mitchell speculated, as he stood listening to the past president of the branch and the state SAR, Marshall Robinson, preside over the recognition of Roger Sherman. “Maybe next year it will get back to normal.”

Perhaps Mitchell might have been a little more disturbed had he heard Marshall Robinson answer a reporter’s question about what to him, Robinson, was the essence of patriotism, beyond, of course, the wonderful uniforms and evocations of the ceremony.

“Well,” said Robinson, as we walked from Sherman’s stone to that of the eponymous David Humphreys, “it’s of course love of country. I mean look who they’ve given us,” he said, “as president lately. A white trash draft dodger and now they’re trying to give us a Muslim.”

“You don’t really believe Obama is a Muslim, do you?”

“From everything I read on the Internet, I do. And you can quote me on it.”

When this conversation was conveyed to Mitchell, he replied with impressive equanimity:

“He should know that Obama is a member of the United Church of Christ. Many of the members of the UCC church were founders of America. Many are buried here where we’re walking.”

Mitchell went on to say that he felt comfortable among the stones not only of his African-American studies professors who are buried here — he cited Sylvia Boone and John Blassingame - but also the gravestone of Hannah Gray, a poor woman who lived on Dixwell Avenue and set aside money to send the first black divinity students to Yale.

It was against the gravestone Simeon Baldwin that Mitchell was leaning most notably when Robinson spoke at Sherman’s nearby stone. Baldwin, Mitchell said, was the grandfather of Roger Sherman Baldwin, the lawyer who argued, successfully, for the release of the abducted Africans in the Amistad case.

The ceremony has been organized for the past 57 years by the SAR Humphreys Branch. Although Grove Street is the final resting place of some 100 Revolutionary War veterans, the only signer of the declaration buried there is Roger Sherman. He was a signer of not only the Declaration but also of the three other foundational documents of the republic, to say nothing of a stint at that other tough job, being mayor of New Haven.

At Roger Sherman’s gravestone Tim Wilkins, of the Sons of the American Revolution read the names of the other 53 signers, state by state. As each state was called, a representative of Troop Five of the Boy Scouts (Wallingford) walked out with the state flag.

Wilkins, who traces his family both to the second wave of boats to Jamestown and to the Mayflower, said, “by calling the names aloud, we’re evoking them, making them come alive again; it’s not only a public statement of respect for what these people did, but to bring that into our own lives today.”

As the ceremonies ended, Captain Swartwout of the Sixth Connecticut Regiment re-enactors finished reading the Declaration of Independence. Another audience member, Bob Oliver, a former New Haven alderman, suggested, “Patriotism should never be used as a club to beat up others with.”

Mitchell nodded in agreement. “I hope next year the ceremony will be back to normal. If not, maybe we could start one of our own.”

Members of the Sixth Connecticut shouted “Huzzah, Huzzah, Long Live the United States of America,” and threw their hats into the air over the Grove Street Cemetery.

Tim Wilkins, of Woodbridge, on the right in the photo with Doug Lemay of New Haven, and a long-time SAR member and official at the event, agreed. “Yes, that initial speech could have been better chosen. I was uncomfortable too.”