Sydney Barnett

Sydney Barnett (21 Nov. 1915 - 19 June 2012) was born in Westmoreland, Jamaica.

When he was a teenager he was recruited to work on the Panama Canal and was chosen because of his knowledge of mechanics. In December 1940, he was sent to the Canal Zone to help bomb-proof the canal. After he returned to Jamaica, he was given an opportunity to work in the United States with the War Food Administration. He was sent to Hartford, Connecticut, where he drove a truck for the Woodworth Tobacco Company. He lived on Brook Street in Hartford's North End.

Barnett was one of the founder's of the West Indian Social Club in 1950. He was a member of the Republican Town Committee and made an unsuccessful run for the state legislature in the 1970s.

Barnett was a well-known neighborhood activist in Hartford.

Source: Sydney Barnett's obituary published in The Hartford Courant on August 5, 2012.