For four centuries, New Jersey’s black community has helped shape the state’s history, culture, arts, sciences, government, educational and religious institutions, and business and industry. During the same time, black residents have been seeking equality, justice, and an end to racism.
From north to south, this state we find ourselves in is filled with places where significant events in black history occurred. Some are well known, like the museum in Cape May honoring abolitionist Harriet Tubman, and the stadium in Paterson that housed the first professional Negro baseball leagues. But many are obscure, known to few outside their immediate area.
Thanks to a bill recently signed by Gov. Phil Murphy, it will soon be easier to visit places that can help illuminate largely untold stories of the black experience. The bill creates the Black Heritage Trail, which will take visitors on a meandering journey across the state, using historical markers to describe the contributions of notable black residents and institutions.
The bipartisan bill was proposed by Cape May County Assemblyman Antwan McClellan and passed unanimously in both houses of the state legislature. It allows for the creation of a Black Heritage Trail Commission, which will be given a budget of $1 million to choose the sites, design and place the markers, and promote the trail.
“This trail will highlight Black abolitionists, veterans, artists, entertainers and other leaders who have left their indelible marks on New Jersey history and deserve to be recognized and celebrated,” McClellan said in a statement.
Believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, the Black Heritage Trail is expected to boost tourism and provide an educational resource like no other. Visitors will be able to download itineraries and maps for a trip of up to three days to tour a multitude of landmarks, heritage sites, museums and attractions.
Here are some must-see places:
- Cape May: The Harriet Tubman Museum opened in 2021 to honor the civil rights icon who escaped slavery and helped free dozens of others enslaved on the Underground Railroad. Tubman lived and worked in Cape May for a period of time raising funds to support her missions.
- Paterson: Hinchliffe Stadium, currently undergoing renovations, is one of the last surviving Negro League venues from the early 20th century. It’s where Larry Doby, a native of the city and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, spent his formative years before becoming the first black player in the American League in 1947.
- Next to the lawn: This town in Camden County, founded in 1840, is the first incorporated and self-governed black township north of the Mason-Dixon line.
- red bench: This is the town where legendary jazz musician, bandleader and composer William James “Count” Basie grew up and learned to play the piano. There is now a thriving performing arts center named after him.
- Atlantic City: The city best known for casinos and nightlife has a long black history. In the age of segregation, black families who wanted to swim in the ocean had to go to “Chicken Bone Beach,” now a famous spot. Today, Atlantic City also has a Civil Rights Garden and a Museum of African American Heritage.
These are just a fraction of the important and fascinating black heritage sites in the state.
There is also the African American Historical Society Museum in Jersey City, the SMA Fathers African Art Museum in Tenafly, the Macedonian African Methodist Episcopal Church and Butler Cemetery in Camden, the grave of Thomas Mundy Peterson in Perth Amboy , the first black American man to vote in an election; and the Shady Rest Golf and Country Club in Scotch Plains, the first black-owned golf and country club in the United States.
Some lesser-known black heritage sites that should be part of the trail include the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum in Montgomery Township; Marshalltown, a settlement in Mannington Township where freeholder African Americans prospered during the 19th century; Timbuktu in Westampton Township, a 19the century settlement believed to have been founded by runaway slaves; and the Medford Township office of Dr. James Still, a renowned herbalist and homeopathic healer known as “The Black Doctor of the Pines.”
“The inclusion of the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum (SSAAM) on New Jersey’s Black Heritage Trail represents an important recognition of the history of African American communities in the Sourland region, spanning from the days of slavery to the present, and their substantial contributions to the cultural and economic development of central New Jersey,” said Donnetta Johnson, executive director of the museum.
“Including the Dr. James Still Historic Office Site on the Black Heritage Trail would be incredible and well deserved,” said historian Samuel Still, a descendant of James Still, noting that it is the only historic site in the state park system that named after an African. American.
Other candidates include the Red Bank home of T. Thomas Fortune, a prominent African-American journalist and civil rights advocate in the early 20th century; the school in Trenton at the center of a 1940s New Jersey Supreme Court decision that ended segregation, and a Bordentown school for blacks once known as the “Tuskegee of the North.”
This legislation and funding are an excellent start to highlighting and connecting these places, but we must also continue to find ways and means to protect, restore, and manage these important places that have contributed to who we are as a state and nation.
New Jersey is one of the most diverse states in the United States, and the Black Heritage Trail will highlight the achievements and contributions of the Black community, as well as their trials and tribulations. In the state’s quest for equity, unity and inclusion, this type of educational tourism is necessary and welcome!
Much of the groundwork for the Black Heritage Trail has already been laid. Last year, the state’s Division of Travel and Tourism created a website with a preliminary list of sites; See them at https://visitnj.org/Black-Heritage.
And for information about conserving New Jersey’s land and natural resources, visit the New Jersey Conservation Foundation website at www.njconservation.org or contact me at [email protected]
Jay Watson is co-executive director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation.