DEI Continues to Flourish

Winter was not a time of hibernation for the Quechee DEI Council. Several events kept the Quechee community awake, aware, and informed.

Mobocracy and Abolitionism in New Hampshire and Vermont

On January 28, the Council hosted Dan Billin, a New Hampshire historian and former news reporter, who spoke on “Mobocracy and Abolitionism in New Hampshire and Vermont.” Billin began his talk by reminding the audience how important it is “to keep DEI going in these times.”
Billin enumerated how racism was not a “Southern” issue, because slavery divided northerners from each other, as well. There was, he said, a wave of lawlessness in the 1830s throughout the country, and violence erupted against Catholics, Irish, and other minorities, but especially against Blacks. Lynchings were rampant, and there was a huge backlash against any abolitionist movements. The Upper Valley was hardly spared the violence. Woodstock, in fact, witnessed much racist violence. Abolitionist and Baptist minister Orson Murray was so threatened by racist mobs that he was unable to deliver a speech there.

More than 90 people attended the production of Letters from Anne and Martin.

Perhaps one of the most unfathomable events of the 1830s racism was the movement of an entire school of higher learning. In 1835, abolitionists founded Noyes Academy in Canaan, New Hampshire, as a racially integrated school that also admitted women. The school opened in March of 1835, with seventeen African American students and twenty-eight white students. While the white students were from the local area, the Black students traveled far to attend. Several future and renowned abolitionists, such as Henry Highland Garnet, Julia Williams, and Alexander Crummell were among its first— and last — class. On July 4, 1835, only months after its inception, the townspeople of Canaan plotted the removal of Noyes Academy. On August 10, 1835, hundreds of white people, with hundreds of oxen, destroyed the school as they dragged it to the town common. Students had fled the night before.
In 1838, Abraham Lincoln gave a speech to the Young Men’s Lyceum in Springfield, Illinois, and issued “a stark rebuke to the to the dangers of mob violence and an enduring defense of the rule of law.” In that speech, Lincoln warned against “outrages committed by mobs … from New England to Louisiana.” Lincoln’s urgent response to the violence of “this mobocratic spirit” was for “every lover of liberty” to revive the laws of the nation.

Letters from Anne and Martin

Undeterred by winter, on February 22, 2026, the DEI Council hosted another free event for the community: Letters from Anne and Martin, a production of the Anne Frank Center, USA. Actors Julie Sandler as Anne Frank and Andrew Tejada as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., with moderator Deb Radloff, brought together dual monologues reflecting on confinement and injustice. Integrating excerpts from MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail with Anne Frank’s diary, the performers brought to life both writers’ impassioned pleas for hope, resistance, and justice.
In the after talk with the audience (ninety attended in person and twelve remote), the actors shared their own reactions to this profound re-enactment of the written words. Julie Sandler said, “Anne didn’t know what her end would be … activism is important even if we might not know where it will go … her diary ends with her thinking people want to be good.” Andrew Tejada reminded the audience that MLK and Anne Frank believed that “more people want to love than hate.”
Perhaps we can all reflect on Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s words to keep us keeping on: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only Love can do that.”

DE&I Council members at the Mobocracy and Abolitionism event.

Courageous Conversations

The DEI’s Courageous Conversations continued its book discussions for anyone interested, in person or remotely.
March and April discussions focused on the recently published book How Equality Wins: A New Vision for an Inclusive America by Kenji Yoshino and David Glasgow. A book to be read by both the “DEI orthodox” and the “DEI non-believers,” the authors create bridges of communication to stem the flood of polarization. They look, for example, to Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender member of Congress who allows for “imperfect allies.” Her pragmatic point is to get support where possible for “basic nondiscrimination protections” and for access to “medically necessary care.” Supporters needed for these measures “may oppose trans-people in participating in sports.” Be that as it may, McBride does not “dismiss them as bigots or remove them from our coalition.”
The authors urge equality advocates to make space for dialog with allies and doubters in order to hear their concerns. They agree with human rights advocate Suzanne Nossel who writes in her book, Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All, “concerns of diversity and inclusion can — and must — be reconciled with robust protections for speech.” While those concerned for diversity and inclusion worry about how speech can harm members of marginalized groups, those whose concerns are about free speech worry about stifling of “authentic self-expression.” Yet Nossel’s point (and the authors’) is that speech and equality most often work together. Speaking inclusively can make it possible for everyone to be heard. Yoshino and Glasgow assert the “marriage between equality and free speech needs to become a rallying cry for the new era of equality work.” The attorney authors remind us that changing unjust laws can be a long process. Thurgood Marshall led the way in how to pragmatically overturn the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision that said segregated schools were separate but equal. He did this little by little, with stepping stone cases that showed how wrong this decision was.
There is no room for cynicism in the path toward justice. Yoshino and Glasgow exhort us not to collapse into fatalism but to follow Dr King’s words: “accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope.”

Upcoming Activities

Abenaki Garden
Earl Hatley, who has been a major creator of the Abenaki Garden, reports there was a successful community fundraiser last fall, which will help defray the cost of maintaining the garden. There will be new plantings of pawpaw and butternut trees, wild plum, ground nuts, service berries, and guild plants. There are also plans for more varieties of the “three sisters” (corn, beans, and squash), sunflowers, ground cherries, sunchokes, and bush beans. “Provided the woodchuck stays out of the way, we should have a plentiful harvest to feed our needy Abenaki families, and continue building our stock of seeds for future giveaways. … This is a community effort to help Abenaki feed Abenaki while teaching our agricultural and cultural practices and history,” said Hatley.
For more information and/or to sign up for work day announcements and updates go to AbenakiGarden.org.

Annual Frederick Douglass Fourth of July speech
On July 4, 2026, the DEI Council, in partnership with the Quechee Library, will present its annual reading of Frederick Douglass’ speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” at the gazebo on the Quechee Green. Kent and Amy Hikida attended this even last year, and Kent noted how moving the reading was. The reading on the Green led Kent to bring the production of Letters from Anne and Martin to Quechee!
This year’s event will include the presentation of a $1,000 scholarship to the winner of the Declaration of Interdependence Essay contest. Sponsored by the Quechee DEI Council and the Quechee Library, the scholarship competition invites Hartford High School juniors and seniors to reflect on what freedom, responsibility, and civic life mean today. Students are asked to create their own Declaration of Interdependence “that shows how your voice, talents, and actions can help shape the future of democracy.”