Norwich – The Class of 1962 from the Wally H. Bates High School of Annapolis, Md., is still learning about American history, politics and art, as the group frequently travels the country to learn more about their own heritage and culture.

The Wally H. Bates High School was the only high school for black girls and boys in Anne Arundel County, Md. when it opened in 1932. The school closed in 1966, but graduates have remained close, graduate James Bourdley said.

The Class of 1962 spends its reunions visiting sites important to African-American history. Next year, they will travel to Paris for a tour of African sites and to view African art at the Louvre, said tour organizer Paulette Levy, wife of Class of '62 graduate Leon Levy.

About 40 people, most of them members of the Class of 1962 – along with retired business teacher Rheeta Brooks Norman – stopped at Norwich City Hall Wednesday on their bus trip titled “Eastern Connecticut Abolitionist Trail” to African-American cultural history sites. The group is staying at the Foxwoods Resort Casino for the four-day trip.

Norwich city Historian Dale Plummer greeted the group and later boarded the bus as it continued to the Prudence Crandall Museum in Canterbury and to the famous Roseland Cottage – the Pink House – in Woodstock. Original owner Henry Bowens, a 19th-century wealthy textile industrialist, funded anti-slavery efforts in New York City, Plummer said.

The group gathered in the David Ruggles Freedom Courtyard outside Norwich City Hall to learn of Norwich native Ruggles' daring efforts to help escaped slaves in the early and mid 19th century. Plummer said Ruggles was credited with helping more than 500 escaped slaves, including Frederick Douglass.

“If only one person he helped was Frederick Douglass, that would be have been a major thing,” Plummer said. “He helped over 500 more people.”

On Jan. 1, 1863, the date President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation took effect, Norwich held a raucous celebration, Plummer said, with a 100-gun salute and an hour of church bell ringing. The sentiment wasn't universally positive, however. The mayor was sued and ended up having to pay for the event himself, Plummer told the group.

The Freedom Bell in the Ruggles Courtyard was commissioned to mark the 150th anniversary in 2013. Plummer passed around the remote control to allow all tour participants to ring the bell one time each.

On the third floor of City Hall, the tourists saw the bronze bust of Norwich folk artist Ellis Ruley and a memorial display.

Roberta Vincent, who is active in the city's efforts to recognize Ruley, handed out brochures with a brief biography of Ruley – including his mysterious death in 1959.

Vincent described Ruley's colorful art that mainly featured animals in natural settings he envisioned from his wooded homestead on Hammond Avenue. She said Norwich hopes to create a public art park on the property in the next few years.

“We want to have people go there and visualize what Ellis saw,” she said.

On the City Hall second floor, visitors admired the restored 1860 Lincoln campaign banner created for his campaign stop in Norwich. The image of Lincoln is beardless. He didn't grow the beard until election time, as legend goes, taking the advice of a young girl to grow a beard to hide his ugly face, Plummer said.

While Norwich voters strongly supported Lincoln in 1860 and 1864, Plummer noted that the state electorate at the time included only white men. The 1818 state Constitution still in effect prohibited African-Americans and women from voting.

Civil War era Gov. William Buckingham of Norwich strongly supported a movement to allow African-Americans to vote, Plummer said, and Norwich voted overwhelmingly in favor in a vote that failed statewide.

“But strangely enough,” Plummer said of Buckingham, “he was not in favor of allowing women to vote.”

c.bessette@theday.com