Courtland Seymour Wilson, Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s father, is shown lifting her up as a child to look at various panels depicting her family’s long legacies of resistance. One such panel (right in the middle!) is of Gilmore’s father at the Winchester Repeating Arms Company for the Machinists Union vote. In addition to forming this union, Wilson also organized and built union power with students and staff at the Yale Medical School and Yale-New Haven Hospital as the Assistant Dean of Student Affairs. Dr. Cynthia McCraven, who attended Yale Medical, said that Wilson was “the first diversity, equity, and inclusion officer” who emphasized teaching students “how to be providers for people of color,” which usually was not a central focus of professors.

Wilson later moved on to serve as the executive director at the Hill Housing Corporation. He’d play a crucial role in the creation of the corporation, which bought and restored homes to make them liveable for Hill residents. As his son Peter Wilson would say – even though Wilson and his family were not technically from the Hill, they became a part of the neighborhood through his father’s work.

Photo by Olivia Charis

In 2006, Courtland Seymour Wilson would become the namesake for the Hill branch of the New Haven Free Public Library (NHFLP), honoring his work in making affordable housing accessible in the neighborhood. As Ruth Wilson Gilmore herself said about her father: “He threw wrenches into the system of decision making … He worked to figure out how to get resources from where they’re at, to where they need to be.” Read more about honoring Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s father and his role as a pillar of the New Haven community here.

The first panel depicts Gilmore’s mother, Ruth Wilson, alongside her friend and comrade at the Black Women’s Boycott which she helped organize. Ruth Wilson was a member of The Girl Friends (a social and service organization of African American Women), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the New Haven Arts Council, and used her work in these organizations to fight for civil rights alongside Courtland Seymour Wilson. 

The third panel is of Ruth Wilson Gilmore when she was little, during the years she lived in New Haven. She is among a group of fellow New Haven youth including her brothers. These panels together illustrate a family's multi-generational commitment to building a more just and equitable world, highlighting how their efforts have left an indelible mark on the New Haven community and beyond. Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s life and work stand as a testament to the enduring impact of her parents’ legacy and their teachings about the power of collective action.