A funeral procession carried the body of former Hartford Mayor Thirman Milner to his namesake Thirman L. Milner Middle School, Hartford City Hall, the Connecticut state Capitol and Spring Grove Cemetery for burial on Friday afternoon.
Dignitaries and mourners first gathered at Hartford’s Metropolitan AME Zion Church Friday morning for the funeral.
Milner became New England’s first popularly elected Black mayor when he took office in 1981. He died in November at the age of 91.
Hartford State Sen. Douglas McCrory said during his childhood in the North End, Milner was ever present.
“Mayor Milner was there. He was a part of us. He was us,” McCrory said. “He was a real representation of who we are and where we come from. His voice was our voice. If we couldn’t say it, we knew he was going to say it, and he was going to say it the right way.”
Francisco Borges served as deputy mayor of Hartford during Milner’s mayoralty.
“Mayor Milner was more than a public servant,” Borges said. “He was a beacon of hope, a visionary, and a visionary who saw possibilities where others saw challenges.”
“When I think of Mayor Milner, I’m often reminded of words by the late Dr. Martin Luther King, who said, ‘No man has learned to live until he can rise above the narrow confines of his own individualistic desires to the broader concerns of all humanity,’” Borges said. “Mayor Milner lived, friends. He lived.”
Incumbent Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said he wasn’t yet born when Milner first took office, but he still takes lessons from his predecessor.
“We don’t have to take the rules that were given to us – we can chart our own path,” Arulampalam said. “The question as we walk out of today is, will Mayor Milner’s memory be a moment, or will it fuel the movement that will drive our communities forward? For me, his memory will live on in the work we do every day.”
Being ‘the first’ of many
U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, the first Black woman to represent Connecticut in Congress, said Milner inspired her.
“Being the first is never easy,” Hayes said. “Being the first to represent a community that you are connected to and that you love so deeply is even harder.”
“I thank you, I guess posthumously, for giving me the audacity to believe that I could be the first, and the unwavering responsibility to make sure that I am not the last,” Hayes said.
Milner’s family was presented with a number of honors. Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives Matt Ritter presented a flag that flew over the state Capitol on the day of Milner’s death. U.S. Rep. John Larson, who served in the state Senate alongside Milner, presented a flag that had flown over the U.S. Capitol. Former Hartford City Councilmember and state Treasurer Shawn Wooden read a condolence proclamation from the Congressional Black Caucus. Greater Hartford NAACP and Connecticut State Conference of the NAACP First Vice President Virginia Monteiro, Milner's stepdaughter, presented a Fallen Soldier Clock from the state conference, “as a symbol that the time which you served as a civil rights icon will never be forgotten.” Additionally, Gov. Ned Lamont, Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas, Attorney General William Tong and Treasurer Erick Russell all sent proclamations.
Milner’s niece, Dalia May, remembered the man she called “Unc” as strong but caring.
“My uncle transformed not just the city he served, but the hearts and minds of everyone, people who had the privilege of knowing him, including me,” May said. “It was not just his accomplishments that made him special. It was his unwillingness to yield – boy oh boy, did he not yield his quiet strength and his unwavering dedication to the people.”
In a rousing eulogy, the Rev. Samuel Blanks compared Milner to the Biblical prophet Elijah and said the world could use more people like the former mayor.
“He was a man of progress,” Blanks said. “I mean, think of the projects that he was able to accomplish, speak of the many doors that he was able to open, by the progress. And I just wish that we just really had more people that were about their own business and about making progress. Not taking us backwards, but making progress!”
Laid in state at City Hall
Milner laid in state at City Hall on Thursday, the first former leader of the city to receive such an honor.
A steady stream of mourners paid their respects Thursday to a man who paved a trail for increased Black representation in Connecticut politics.
AJ Johnson, the senior pastor at the Urban Hope Refuge Church in Hartford’s North End, said he was inspired by Milner.
“Becoming the first black mayor of New England is not an easy feat, but he had the faith and the strength and the ability to do it,” Johnson said.
But John Murphy, who worked in the state senate during Milner’s term as a state senator, said Milner was more than just a trailblazer, he was also a decent man.
“He was a really good guy," Murphy said. He had his priorities straight. He worked for the people.”
Milner’s nephew, Ted Milner, said his uncle was an advocate for people of color.
“Uncle Thirman was a man who loved everyone," he said. "He wasn't anti-white, but he was pro-Black. And so in many ways, he was always fighting for Blacks and for Latinos and for minorities as a whole."
Reflecting on Milner’s legacy
Family members shared their memories with Connecticut Public soon after news of Milner’s death.
Virginia Monteiro, first vice president of the Connecticut State Conference of the NAACP and its Greater Hartford branch, is Milner’s stepdaughter. She remembers the man she called “Pops” as a champion of civil rights, with a particular eye toward equity in education.
“He wanted to make sure that whether you lived in the North End, South End or West End, that education, the same thing that was going on in one side of town, that it was equitable,” Monteiro said. “I think the biggest thing with Pops is it’s important that everyone has the opportunity to have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Everyone, he felt, had that right, that civil right.”
Monteiro remembered the elation she and her family felt when her stepfather became Hartford’s first Black mayor.
“We were literally dancing in the street,” Monteiro said. “We were crying. We were dumbfounded. We couldn’t believe that this could even be possible. The impossible became the possible.”
Milner also served in the Connecticut Senate and House of Representatives, and was president of the Greater Hartford NAACP. In his 2014 autobiography, “Up from Slavery: A History from Slavery to City Hall in New England,” Milner wrote about his time marching with Martin Luther King, Jr., during the Civil Rights Movement.
“In order to force change, you’ve got to be willing to stand in the fire,” Monteiro said. “And he really did do that.”
