In the suburbs of Hartford, far from the streets and pulpits where he would gain fame later in life, a young Martin Luther King Jr. experienced life outside the segregated South for the first time. King worked in the tobacco fields of Simsbury as a teenager in the 1940s, and it was here, he later said, that the call to the ministry first came to him.

The greatest Civil Rights leader of the 20th century considered his time in Connecticut to be formative to the growth of his worldview, and this deserves to be commemorated. But there is more to history than putting up a monument, and honoring the past should be about action instead of gestures.

It was only in recent years that Simsbury leaders began publicly exploring ways to more explicitly commemorate that past. Not coincidentally, this happened alongside a plan to keep out what the town doesn’t want.

Simsbury, which is rich and white even by Connecticut standards, is far from alone in Connecticut suburbs in fighting affordable housing. Many suburbs have turned saying no into an art form, with ever-more-esoteric reasons for denying housing abundance offered each year. What’s different in this town is the shamelessness.

Opinion: How a little CT town could really honor MLK, not just talk about it, Hugh Bailey, Hartford Courant, August 1, 2025, available here