After 89 years, Coast Guard Academy and Springfield man use racist episode to teach a better future

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When Rear Admiral William G. Kelly learned of a dark episode from his cherished institutions past, the Superintendent of the US Coast Guard Academy was deeply astonished and deeply disturbed.

That it happened in 1934 did not deter Kelly from seeing if a cure could be made, and a positive outcome could finally be drawn from such a miserable time. But he wasn’t sure the family of the wronged man would be so docile.

I didn’t know about the 1934 episode until we saw a February 14, 2021 story in the Hartford Courant, Kelly said. This motivated him to reach out to Harrison Brooks Fitch Jr., an 80-year-old Springfield resident and the son of Harrison Honey Fitch, who suffered racial bias during the college basketball season nine decades ago. .

However, when honest people with the best intentions communicate, good things can happen, even from the ashes of bad memories. For Kelly, Fitch and the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, that is what is happening now.

Immediately after the article appeared in the newspaper, Kelly wrote a letter to the editor, apologizing for the incident. In January 2022, the academy learned that the elder Fitch was inducted into the Huskies Hall of Honor, the hall of fame at the University of Connecticut, where Fitch had been a star athlete in the 1930s.

In February, Kelly sent a congratulatory letter to Fitch, Jr., who likes to go by the name Brooks. The Admiral wanted the chance to do more, but he wasn’t sure how the man from Springfield would react.

When I reached out, (Fitch) didn’t immediately call back. He saw us, watched us, and researched us to see if the academy’s actions matched his words.

He did his duty. When he accepted our approach, I was thrilled, Kelly said.

In 1934, the elder Fitch was a star guard on the basketball team at Connecticut State College, as it was then called UConn, and also a hugely popular student on campus. His demeanor, decency and friendship contributed as much to conveying the often unspoken message of racial harmony as his talent as a basketball player, according to his son.

But when Connecticut State College went to play Coast Guard, the team was told Fitch wouldn’t be allowed to play.

In another incident that night, an African-American boxer from the University of New Hampshire boxer was not cleared to compete.

It was not a good night for the Coast Guard, or for the nation, Kelly said.

For me, it was a low point for an institution I love, said Kelly, who played Coast Guard sports before graduating in 1987 and considers athletics an essential extracurricular part of the academy. What happened in 1934 was no indication of what I experienced in the 1980s, or what the institution is like today. Reaching out to his son was just the right thing to do.

The son was not convinced. At least at the start.

I was very skeptical, said Fitch Jr. People can be nice in a letter for (PR) or a photo shoot. You can pose and shake hands. I didn’t want that.

Neither does Kelly. Still, Fitch needed proof that the academy practiced what Kelly preached.

He studied our retention and graduation rates, and specifically whether African Americans were successful in the academy, Kelly said.

We know the timing is really good. This is an opportunity for us to do more.

This is also what Fitch wants. On October 19, eight months after Kelly contacted him, Fitch visited the Coast Guard campus.

I wanted face-to-face interaction. I developed a bit of face-to-face discernment (ability), Fitch said.

I spent time with the cadets, had a chance to share questions, and got a sense of (Kelly’s) philosophy. The letter addressed to me was sincere.

He added: I would refuse to do a PR moment, but this is a chance to do something positive. The lessons of the past can help us face the reality of the future if we approach it together.

That the incident happened in 1934 is coincidental with another watershed moment in Western Massachusetts sports and race relations. That year, members of an American Legion baseball team from Springfield refused to participate in a tournament in Gastonia, North Carolina, because their black teammate, Ernest Bunny Taliaferro, would not have been allowed to player.

It wasn’t until the 21st century that these two communities found healing and friendship in the early 2000s with a series of friendship baseball games. Until Fitch and Kelly met, Coast Guard history had not had such a positive epilogue.

The 1934 match at the Coast Guard Academy was delayed as coaches and officials questioned whether Fitch, whose graceful style of play had earned him the nickname Honey, could play. The basketball game then continued.

According to accounts from the time, it was a tough case with great emotions that the State of Connecticut won. Even the Coast Guard’s northern location didn’t protect the player from mistreatment, perhaps in part because a high percentage of academy students were from the south, which serves as a point of context but no excuse.

The eldest Fitch, who lived in Springfield. graduated from American International College and worked at Monsanto Corp. before his death at age 72 in 1984, bore his scars mostly internally, according to his son.

My dad didn’t talk about it much. He was very humble, and besides, African-American parents didn’t want to traumatize or cloud their children’s hopes and vision, Fitch said. You can’t let people destroy your dreams. I try to continue what he believed.

Fitch said he was working with Kelly and the academy to plan activities for the spring to address diversity and inclusion. Were considering an academy-wide discussion, he said.

It will include how lessons from 1934 can be used to address society in 2023. There will also be activities with the basketball programs, which Kelly says are the most diverse units on campus.

Abused by the Coast Guard Academy in 1934, Honey Fitch was not forgotten at UConn. A college basketball, baseball and football star, his inclusion in the Huskies of Honor prompted Kelly to contact his son with a letter of congratulations, an apology for the 1934 incident and an invitation to visit the academy to hopefully move forward together.

Some things have already changed. The gymnasium named after Johnny Merriman, the Coast Guard’s basketball coach from 1930 to 1945 and its leader at the time of the incident, is now called Alumni Gymnasium, Kelly said.

The academy and Fitch are exploring possible high school programs and an ongoing relationship with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Fitch wants the impact to extend beyond the New London campus.

I am a Springfield person and have been here since I was 2 years old, he said. Relationships with Springfield Public Schools and local colleges are on the table.

Fitchs’ son, who is also a UConn alumnus, started the Harrison Fitch Leadership Fund. It emphasizes leadership and creates opportunities for underrepresented students to better prepare for their future.

The Coast Guard Academy’s partnership with the fund will link with institutions of the Loy Institute for Leadership, the Office of Inclusion and Diversity, and the athletics program.

Kelly supports these initiatives, even if – or perhaps especially because they speak of a dismal past.

It was the honor of my time as superintendent to meet Mr. and Mrs. Fitch. The Fitch family owed us nothing, but they were brave enough to give us the opportunity to demonstrate our growth as an institution and a service, Kelly said. We have evolved as a nation (since 1934), but we struggle to deal with our past. But working with Mr. Fitch was an easy decision, I am grateful for his strength of character and his part in our daily efforts to make things right.

Fitch is convinced that it is impossible to progress without understanding even an unpleasant past. A student of history, he believes telling the story of what went wrong is essential to creating a better society and a better day.

When I looked at my position, as disappointed as I was with what had happened, I wanted to do something positive for future generations to come, he said. That’s what I do now.

This plaque honors Harrison “Honey” Fitch who was racialized by the Coast Guard Academy while playing basketball for Connecticut State College in 1934. He was inducted into the Huskies Hall of Honor in the University of Connecticut, as the college is now known.

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