February Social Justice Reading Circle

Book Discussion

Social Justice Reading Circle

February

February 14, 2024

Join us each month for our Social Justice Reading Circle. The 2^nd Wednesday of each month we will have a book club-style meetup to discuss a book that relates to social justice across a range of topics and genres. Our selections will include our Stowe Prize Shortlist, fiction, and non-fiction works to explore the many ways that writers engage social justice issues. We invite you to meet for refreshments, reading, and lively conversation.

February 14th

6:00 – 7:00 pm

Stowe Center, Day House

Light refreshments provided

Our February 14 selection is the novel Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge. Libertie is a freeborn Black girl growing up in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn. Libertie struggles with the vision of her future held by her mother, a physician who dreams of passing her practice onto Libertie, and her own interests in music and independence.

“Inspired by the life of one of the first Black female doctors in the United States and rich with historical detail, Kaitlyn Greenidge’s new and immersive novel will resonate with readers eager to understand our present through a deep, moving, and lyrical dive into our complicated past.”

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Get your copy and start reading!

TO BORROW

Hartford Public Library
Libby app (use any library membership)
Hoopla (audiobooks through any library membership)
Google Books

Location Stowe Center, Day House

Doors Open 5:45 pm

Program 6:00 - 7:00 pm

School Group Interest Form

School Group Interest Form 2024

Thank you so much for your interest in a group tour at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center! Please help us schedule your visit by answering the questions below.

School name:

Please suggest three dates and times when your group would like to visit. (Note: the Stowe Center is closed on Sunday and Tuesday.)

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If yes, have you already contacted The Mark Twain House?

Yes

Adult Group Interest Form

Group Tour Interest Form 2022

Thank you so much for your interest in a group tour at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center! Please help us schedule your visit by answering the questions below.

Group Name:

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Are there special accommodations that can help us serve you best?

Are you interested in a joint visit with our neighbor, The Mark Twain House and Museum?

Yes, please.

No, thank you.

If yes, have you already contacted The Mark Twain House?

Yes

Isabella Beecher Hooker

Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker (1822-1907)
An ardent member of the woman’s suffrage movement, Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker joined in the cause along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Isabella was the first child of Lyman Beecher and his second wife, Harriet Porter Beecher.

Isabella began her education at Catharine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary and lived with her sister Mary Perkins. In 1841 she married John Hooker, a descendant of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Hartford. John Hooker was a lawyer and an abolitionist.

In the early 1860s Isabella got involved in the woman’s suffrage movement. Isabella joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as a member of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in 1869. She was a founding member of the Connecticut Woman’s Suffrage Association. Isabella’s ideas of equality were influenced by John Stuart Mills’ On Liberty and the Subjection of Women.

In 1871, Isabella organized the annual convention of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in Washington D.C. and presented her argument before the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate. Her husband, John Hooker, believed in his wife and supported her activities. He helped Isabella draft a bill to the Connecticut Legislature giving married women the same property rights as their husbands. The bill passed in 1877. Isabella annually submitted a bill granting women the right to vote, but it did not pass in her lifetime.