The refurbished gravestone of Thaddeus and Mary Newton sits beside the new memorial marker for their son Stephen, a Civil War soldier who perished during the battle for Fort Wagner, in the Evergreen Cemetary in New Haven, Conn. June 21, 2024. The markers were unveiled during a celebration of life ceremony for the Newton Family, the culmination of a restoration and research project by John Mills, the founder of the Alex Breanne Corporation, which also unveiled the restored grave marker of Newton’s parents, Thaddeus, a former slave, and Mary, a free woman, who worked with prominent abolitionists like Henry Ward Beecher and Henry Highland Garnet to secure the funds needed to purchase the freedom of Thaddeus and many other enslaved families in the South.