New Haven Independent

A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge was poised Tuesday morning to decide the destiny of a collection of archives and artifacts from the shuttered Dixwell Community “Q” House — until a group of Q House veterans stepped in.

The hearing Tuesday morning was postponed indefinitely as trustee Michael Daly worked to settle an ongoing tug-of-war over where the collection should go.

Daly is negotiating a settlement between the Ethnic Heritage Center at Southern Connecticut State University, which currently houses the collection, and the Concerned Citizens of the Dixwell Community House, a group of African-American leaders who’d like to restore the Q House.

Now, a recent development concerning the Q House’s fate — the city’s offer to rescue the property from bankruptcy court — has given the Concerned Citizens more time in their struggle to regain control of their community history.

The city proposes to buy the Q House property, then give the Concern Citizens Organization six months to come up with a viable plan to take it over. The proposal won approval from an aldermanic committee on June 26; it awaits a vote from the full board on Aug. 3. Trustee Daly supports the city’s newly hatched plans to take over the Q House property. He said after city approvals are complete, he will introduce a motion in Bankruptcy Court to make that sale possible.

Hanging in the balance is a much-valued collection of out-of-print books, correspondence, news articles, photos, clothes and artifacts that document African-American history. The items were abandoned when the Q House closed in 2003 after serving the city’s oldest black community for over 75 years. The collection includes the photo above, which shows then-State Sen. John Daniels, who went on to be the first black mayor of New Haven; Hartford Mayor Thirman Milner, the first black mayor in New England; activist Emma Jones, James Brown and Willis Pritchett at a meeting of the Connecticut Afro-American Historical Society.

Under orders from the court, the collection was packed into a moving truck and taken to the Ethnic Heritage Center in March 2007 for a probationary period of two years, giving the Concerned Citizens time to come up with plans to permanently house the historical relics. Some of the items were displayed in a 2008 exhibit.

The collection tells the story of important African-American institutions like the Hannah Gray Home and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, a black congregation that broke off in 1844 from the Trinity Parish on the New Haven Green. Sunday school teacher and parishioner Margarthe A. Roberts, who lived to be 102, is pictured at left in a photo from the collection. (In photo below: writing on a 1922 photo points out the names of black students at the Dwight School.)

The Ethnic Heritage Center’s temporary custodianship ended in March. Trustee Daly introduced a motion to transfer the title of the collection to the Ethnic Heritage Center, which would serve as a permanent home. He described the center as a secure location to maintain and preserve the relics in a place that’s accessible to the public.

Concerned Citizens sought to block Daly’s move in an objection filed in March by attorney Ilan Markus. Markus cited the brewing deal to revive the Q House and asked for an extension of time to take back the rights to the archives. (Click here to read it.)

The group’s mission is to “is to restore the Q House to its former glory as a beacon of hope for the African-American community in the greater New Haven area.” The collection is “an integral part” of that plan, Markus wrote.

“The Collection’s greatest value will be achieved if it can be permanently accessed by current and future generations of African-Americans in the Dixwell area of New Haven in a manner that resembles the former Q House,” Markus noted in the objection.

He said because of the future of the Q House is uncertain due to the pending real estate deal, and because of progress the Concerned Citizens are making, there’s no need to decide a permanent home for the collection at this time. The group has already started raising money, reaching out to Q House alums, and has secured the commitment of a former Q House archivist to help guide the collection’s return to the Q House. Markus called for delaying the hearing on the collection’s fate until at least six months after the real estate deal goes through.

With Daly’s motion opposed, the matter was headed for a trial, according to the trustee. Daly said he’s been engaged in discussions to work out a settlement with the Ethnic Heritage Center and the Concerned Citizens.

Markus called the settlement discussions “productive.” The Ethnic Heritage Center declined comment.

Reached Tuesday, Daly remained optimistic.

“We have a number of groups working to the same goal: preservation of the archives and the artifacts,” said Daly. “We think that we’ll be able to work something out that will be satisfactory to everybody, rather than have the expense of a trial.”