CNBNews

Black History Month

Gilda Rogers on the Exceptional

Life of T. Thomas Fortune

The brilliant crusader T. Thomas Fortune, born enslaved, advocated for justice, against hatred and grinding poverty in his newspaper, The New York Age. His Red Bank mansion is one of only two African American sites named a National Historic Landmark in New Jersey.

Gilda Rogers, executive director, T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center in Red Bank, Monmouth County, will speak at the Society's free Black History Month program on Thursday, Feb. 9 at 7 p.m. via Zoom. Registration is required.

Ms. Rogers is a journalist, author, historian, educator and entrepreneur. She has worked since 2008 with a dedicated group to turn the endangered Italianate home into an exhibit space and gathering place re-defining the neighborhood in the spirit of Fortune.  

Shamele Jordon, historian and genealogist, will share a HistoryMoment on Lawnside government at the start of the meeting.

Black History Month Events and Broadcasts

Photographer Wendel White who included Lawnside in his book Small Towns, Black Lives will present his view and images during Black Life in South Jersey at the Newark Public Library, on Feb. 23, 6 p.m. LHS President Linda Shockley will join him in conversation.

Click the image and links for details.

Deep River: A Musical Tribute to the Negro Spiritual

Feb. 18, 1 p.m. Burlington Friends Quaker Meeting House

Preserving Black Haddonfield History featuring Adrienne Rhodes

Feb. 22, 7 p.m. Historical Society of Haddonfield, Online

Check listings for broadcasts featuring Lawnside

Black History Month Special, CBS 3, Feb. 23, 7 p.m.

You Oughta Know, WHYY TV 12, Fridays, 7:30 p.m.

Remember Them with Steve Adubato and Jacqui Tricarico, NJPBS and News 12

Dr. Carter G. Woodson: Dedicated to the Black History Movement

Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson, called the Father of Black History, launched "Negro History Week" in February 1926. Lawnside was incorporated and held an election that same year, making it New Jersey's first Black borough.

Woodson built the Black History movement on truth, accuracy, fairness and education, according to Burnis Morris, Carter G. Woodson Professor of Journalism at Marshall University and author of Carter G. Woodson: History, The Black Press, and Public Relations.

The scholar was nearly 40 when he co-founded the Association for the Study of African American (Negro) Life and History, to promote research, education and publication. Woodson's dedication was shaped by his formerly enslaved parents' values and their emphasis on education and integrity.

He pursued his education while farming, mining coal and teaching at all levels. His impressive bibliography begins in 1915 and includes The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861, The Negro in our History, Negro Heroes and Heroines, The Mis-Education of the Negro, A Century of Negro Migration, Free Negro Owners of Slaves in the United States in 1831, Negro Orators and Their Orations, The Negro Wage Earner, The Negro Professional, The African Background Outlined, The Rural Negro and much more.

Mott House to Reopen in March

Visitors to the Mott House are encouraged to request tour dates starting in March. To submit tour requests for small or large groups, use the button below.

Speakers from the Society are available to present at schools, community groups and organizations. Send email for details.

Board of Trustees

Jacqueline Miller Bentley

Stephanie Fisher

Dr. Keith Green

Linda Shockley

Officers

Linda Shockley, President

C. Joyce Fowler, Vice President

Chrissandra Butler, Secretary

Christine Lewis-Coker, Treasurer

Gloria G. Goodman, Financial Secretary

The Lawnside Historical Society is a qualified organization of the New Jersey Cultural Trust. It is supported by the UPS Foundation, Braithwaite Communications, New Jersey American Water, The Hyde and Watson Foundation, Edmund Optics, Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church, the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, the New Jersey Historic Trust, Vineland Construction Company, PSE&G Foundation, Camden County Open Space, Recreation, Farmland and Historic Preservation Trust Fund, Camden County Community Recovery Grant Program, members, individuals and the Camden County Cultural and Heritage Commission at Camden County College, the officially designated county history agency of the New Jersey Historical Commission.