By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — Although only 1 percent of the town’s population is Black, according to 2020 Census data, a group of mostly young, educated and professionally successful Black men who have made Westport their home in the last few years is dedicated to changing that percentage — and perceptions.

They are building community connections within the town and working to raise their families in an atmosphere of caring and multi-culturalism, with the hope of creating a more inclusive community. 

Called the Westport 10, the group of “gentlemen of color,” as they call themselves, now numbers over 50 members, and meets monthly in Westport for friendship, support and to further their goals.

“We want to be change agents for the town in a positive way, not just from a black and brown perspective, but also for different cultures,” said Jay Norris, CEO of Guesst Software and the founder of Westport 10.

“In relation to education, the community at large, and economics — everything moves forward when you have a multi-cultural community,” agreed Ted Parker, another member of the group and co-president of Vibrant Health, a nutritional supplement company.

Westport 10 meets the first Friday of every month for lunch, usually at Westport restaurants, organizes social events with spouses and families, and often meets with other groups in town for events, such as recently attending a performance of “Ain’t Misbehavin’ ” at the Westport Country Playhouse.

Many of the men in Westport 10 also serve as mentors to young Black male students at Staples High School, who are part of the A Better Chance (ABC) program, dedicated to helping young men of color assume “positions of responsibility and leadership in American society,” according to its website. The mentors take the students to games, movies and other events, and offer support to the students, who live in town away from their families.

Westport 10 was born in an atmosphere of racism and anger across the U.S. three years ago when George Floyd, a Black man, was killed by police officers in Minneapolis.

“That’s essentially when we started,” Norris said. “We were sitting down with four other gentlemen at Bar Taco. We were talking about the toxic environment that was going on [in the country] and racial disparity.”

Many of the men in Westport 10 had lived in New York City or Westchester County and wanted to move their families to the suburbs. They considered different towns, weighing the advantages and disadvantages of each.

“We initially knew that Westport checked a lot of boxes for us — the first box was a great school system, the housing stock, the taxes were good and it had amazing amenities— Main Street and, of course, the beach,” Norris said. 

“The only box it didn’t check was diversity,” he said and so he and others decided to form a group to offer community and support to people of color already in Westport and perhaps to attract others.

As word of the Westport 10 spread, Norris received calls from residents of other states, including Ohio and California, as well as from the New York City metropolitan area, inquiring about moving to Westport, Parker said.

For Parker and some of the others in the group, who had owned homes or vacationed in the Black community on Martha’s Vineyard, Westport seemed to be the perfect place to re-create what they had enjoyed there, Parker said.

He and his family passed through Westport between their New York City home and their home on Martha’s Vineyard frequently and eventually decided to sell the house on the Vineyard and buy a home in Westport. “For us it was the ability to have the best of both worlds — a wonderful beach community but with more to offer than just a summer town,” Parker said.

Parker grew up in the Bronx in Black and multi-cultural communities. “That’s the kind of community I was interested in — it’s hard to find when you have achieved a certain status in life economically,” he said.

Although 1 percent of the population is still a small number of people, that’s about 300 Westporters, he said, and Westport 10 is helping them to connect with each other. 

Westporters of all backgrounds and races have been very welcoming to him and his family, he added. “I’ve never had so many people to be so welcoming and friendly — very different here in the way we are treated,” than when the family lived in Westchester County, he said.

Norris, who grew up in Detroit, said he experienced racism growing up as an all-state swimmer, a sport without many athletes of color. “I was a little tired of racism. I was the 1 percent at the [swim] meets,” he said. 

But he decided he couldn’t let that stop him. “I understood that it was up to me to let someone else stop my growth, or I had to keep going to meet my goals. You have to rise above it — when people go low, you go high,” he said, quoting former first lady Michelle Obama.

Both Norris and Parker agree that Westport isn’t perfect when it comes to accepting all people, especially in light of recent racist incidents in town and controversy that erupted over efforts to remove books in the Staples High School library. 

“I know that Westport has its problems, but it’s happening everywhere,” Parker said. “How we combat this is by coming together. When you think about it, that’s how you combat hate — you combat it with love.”

“We come together and we break bread and we share ideas and experiences … we like to envision Westport for our children in the future,” Norris said of the Westport 10 members.

“We live in the same town together … we’re going to eradicate racism with love.”

For more information, visit the Westport 10 website.

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Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist and journalism teacher for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman newspaper for 10 years and teaches journalism at Southern Connecticut State University.