Although this was a year when large indoor gatherings were discouraged because of COVID-19, there were plenty of outdoor gatherings, including protests in all the area towns against injustice toward Black Americans.

The protests were often large and always peaceful. Everyone wore face masks.

Unusually, many of the protesters were teens and college students; unusual because, often in the Northwest Corner, protests are mostly attended by retirees, including many who participated in historic anti-war and civil rights protests of the mid and early 20th century.

Not all the gatherings last year were protests about police brutality and civil rights. There was also a protest in Salisbury related to proposed cuts to postal service; and there was a memorial service on the Salisbury Green led by state Rep. Maria Horn following the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 

A new wrinkle on group gatherings this year were car parades, which allowed groups to express strong feelings while remaining in the relative safety (from COVID-19) of their cars and trucks. There were memorial parades and birthday parades. Groups of teachers drove by the homes of students to wave and let the youngest among them know they weren’t forgotten. There were graduation parades in spring, including the ceremony at Lime Rock Park for the Class of 2020 at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.

And there was a traditional Northwest Corner car parade: Lime Rock Park couldn’t hold its normal Labor Day weekend historic and vintage car festival, but car owners from the area turned out for the annual parade that normally kicks off the vintage festivities. 

Litchfield County residents came together on the Salisbury Green in front of The White Hart in May to protest police action following the murder of George Floyd, who was killed during an arrest in Minnesota on May 25, 2020. Photo by Alexander Wilburn

Photo by Alexander Wilburn

Photo by Alexander Wilburn