Social studies leaders Steve Armstrong and Tony Roy connect with educators and advocates from across the state on their Social Studies ConneCTion podcast. Witness Stones Project founder and Executive Director joined them for a fascinating discussion on how school districts across Connecticut embark on a journey into our state’s dark past. Dennis’s work in the Witness Stones Project not only commemorates the lives of those who endured enslavement but works to honor those of the past and help students and educators appreciate localized history coming to life. We invite you to listen to the episode here.
In The Media
Thank You for Support of Church Program
On behalf of the entire Kingston Congregational Church and our Kingston Witness Stones Project task force, we want to offer a tremendous “thank you” for all of the efforts in helping to promote our Witness to History event on Saturday, March 4. It was a smashing success with broad community attendance!
Thank you all for the support of Dr. Christy Clark-Pujara’s timely presentation. Many attendees expressed that they were grateful they came.
The writers are senior pastor and communications director, respectively, of Kingston Congregational Church.
Witness Stones Project, Telling the Stories of the Enslaved Across Connecticut
Clint Smith Discusses the Witness Stones Project
Atlantic writer and best-selling author Clint Smith joined Michel Martin to discuss his cover story on what America can learn from German efforts to memorialize the Holocaust.
A group of teachers and students in Connecticut began the Witness Stones Project…. Ultimately it is those small, neighborhood-, community-, and city-based initiatives that make the most impact and have the most potential to change minds, to change hearts, to change our understanding of ourselves. –Clint Smith, best-selling author of How the Word Is Passed
Praise from Clint Smith

We are honored to have our work recognized by Clint Smith in The Atlantic. In an interview with Atlantic editor Isabel Fattal, the best-selling author of How the Word Is Passed said:
There are examples of communities in the U.S. that are not waiting for the government to tell them that they should build a memorial or they should create sites of public memory. I think one of the most compelling is a group in Connecticut that’s doing a Witness Stones Project, based on the stumbling-stones project in Germany. Middle- and high-school students are placing stones to mark the spaces where enslaved people lived, worked, and worshipped.
We invite you to read the full article here.
What America Can Learn About Atonement
We are honored to have our work recognized by Clint Smith.
Some in the U.S. have undertaken efforts reminiscent of those in Germany. In Connecticut, a group of educators started the Witness Stones Project, modeled after the Stolpersteine in Germany. The group works with schoolchildren in five Northeast states to help them more intimately understand the history of slavery in their town….
None of these projects, whether in the U.S. or Germany, can ever be commensurate with the history they are tasked with remembering. It is impossible for any memorial to slavery to capture its full horror, or for any memorial to the Holocaust to express the full humanity of the victims. No stone in the ground can make up for a life. No museum can bring back millions of people. It cannot be done, and yet we must try to honor those lives, and to account for this history, as best we can. It is the very act of attempting to remember that becomes the most powerful memorial of all.
We invite you to read the full article here.
The Project Is Honored As a Game Changer
On October 6, 2022, the Witness Stones Project was honored by Connecticut Explored as a Game Changer initiative that advances the way we study, interpret, and disseminate Connecticut history.


Witness Stones Project Students Recognized by Hopewell Valley Historical Society

By Amie Rukenstein on MercerMe.com on October 3, 2022
At its annual meeting on Sunday, September 18 at the Watershed Institute, the Hopewell Valley Historical Society announced award winners and attendees were treated to a talk about the historic Drake house and its most famous inhabitant, Muriel Gardiner Buttinger, who went to Europe to meet Sigmund Freud, fought the nazis with her husband Joseph Buttinger, and finally settled on the grounds of what is now the Watershed Institute.
Among the award winners were the entire 2021/22 8th grade class for their work on the Witness Stones project. Their Principal, Nicole Gianfredi told MercerMe: “I am so proud of our Timberlane students and their work with the Witness Stones Project. With the guidance of our social studies teachers, our eighth grade students engaged in research and civic engagement, while restoring the history and honoring the humanity of Friday Truehart. While it was an extraordinary learning opportunity for the students, it was an incredibly impactful experience for everyone at the [Witness Stones] Ceremony.” Continue reading.
New Jersey Witness Stone Affiliate Set to Expand
Witness Stones Project Honored As a Gamechanger
Connecticut Explored has recently named the Witness Stones Project as one of its
20 Game Changer Honorees that advance the way we study, interpret, and disseminate history. Over the past five years, we have worked with more than 6,600 students in 45 communities to help restore the history and honor the humanity of the enslaved individuals who helped build our communities.
We thank Connecticut Explored for this honor and our community for your continued support!