Norwich — Allegations of racism and insult split the Emancipation Proclamation Commemoration Committee Wednesday and led the group to postpone a planned event Saturday that would have celebrated adding the David Ruggles Freedom Courtyard the committee had built to the Connecticut Freedom Trail.

Committee member Shiela Hayes launched strong criticism against Chairman and City Historian Dale Plummer for planning and publicizing the event without notifying or involving the committee as a whole.

Plummer's press release stated that the planned event — a dedication ceremony, speeches and music — was sponsored by the Lincoln Forum of Eastern Connecticut, rather than the committee.

The committee oversaw the planning, fundraising and commissioning of the city's Freedom Bell, forged to mark the 150th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.

Adding the site and recognizing Norwich Native David Ruggles' years of work on the Underground Railroad was supposed to be the culmination of that effort, bringing state recognition to the city.

“After five years, we've been shipped to the side,” Hayes said to Plummer and committee member Peter Nystrom, co-founder of the Lincoln Forum, who planned Saturday's event without committee input.

After two hours of heated debate, the committee voted to postpone any major dedication of the site as part of the Freedom Trail Saturday.

Instead, Plummer will go to the courtyard at 10 a.m. Saturday to lead an informal discussion of Ruggles life and work on the Underground Railroad and will lead the 11 a.m. walking tour of African-American historical sites downtown.

The event already has been published in the Walktober brochure of local events.

Hayes on Tuesday contacted city officials and leaders of the Connecticut Freedom Trail and asked them not to attend Saturday's planned dedication.

Norwich NAACP Branch President Jacqueline Owens said she was told that NAACP members had been asked to boycott the event as well.

The debate turned heated when Nystrom defended Plummer after he apologized and accused Hayes of the same thing, acting on her own to contact city and state officials to tell them not to come.

“How dare you two white privileged boys ...” Hayes started to say to Plummer and Nystrom at one point before she was halted by other committee members.

“That can only be described as racist,” Nystrom said later in the meeting. “'Privileged white boys?'”

Hayes shouted in response that she is a “proud black female,” and it was her ancestors whose history and rise from slavery the entire project was meant to commemorate.

“You took that proud black female away from me,” she said.

c.bessette@theday.com

Twitter: @Bessettetheday