The Sankofa Collaborative will hold an all-day workshop at the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton NJ on Friday, July 19, 2024, from 9 am to 4 pm, with continental breakfast served at 8:30 am. The theme of the Collaborative’s 2024 workshops is “Jim Crow in New Jersey – Policies, Regulations, and Practices Supporting Discrimination and Segregation in the Garden State.” Registration is required at https://sankofacollaborative.org/upcoming-programs. The $75 registration fee includes breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, and admission to the Grounds For Sculpture.

The workshop’s keynote speaker is Dr. Spencer Crew, Clarence J. Robinson Professor in the Honors College at George Mason University. Dr. Crew has worked in public history institutions for more than twenty-five years. He served as president of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center for six years and at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution for twenty years, including nine years as NMAH director.

The workshop’s panels will address New Jersey’s history of residential and educational segregation, disparities in the location of environmental hazards, and discrimination in access to recreational amenities. Panelists will discuss the policies, regulations, and practices supporting these realities and describe successful efforts to avert or overcome their consequences.

Presenters for the panel on residential and educational segregation include acclaimed photographer Wendell White sharing images of segregated schools in New Jersey and across America; Robert McGreevey, professor of history at the College of New Jersey, illustrating school segregation in New Jersey by focusing on policies that supported segregation in Trenton and the Hedgepeth-Williams court case that helped dismantle it; and Bernard Banks, president of Concerned Citizens of Whitesboro, discussing the founding of Whitesboro in 1901 by the last Reconstruction Era Black Congressman, George H. White of North Carolina, as a response to residential segregation.

The impact of racial segregation on where environmental hazards exist today will be discussed by J. R. Capasso, Brownfields Coordinator for the City of Trenton, and several Trenton residents who successfully fought against the placement of a recycling plant in their neighborhood. John S. Watson, Co-Executive Director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, will join the panel to discuss efforts to remediate the effects of environment racism and ensure that New Jersey’s urban residents can live in healthy environments.

Unwritten understandings and written covenants ensured discrimination in access to New Jersey’s recreational amenities. Personal family experiences will be recounted by Joi Dickerson Peeples about working in Cape May’s Chalfonte Hotel and by Candace Wildy about separate beaches for Black and White visitors to Atlantic City. Black New Jerseyans countered by establishing their own resorts, lodging, and country clubs, as will be described by Greg Gillette.

Workshop attendees will hear the music of Mari Green whose performances spanning opera, spirituals, and musical theater are outlined at her website https://marigreen.me. Attendees will also preview a trailer for a new documentary by the producer of Emmy-nominated “The Price of Silence” on slavery in New Jersey. “The Search for Freedom in New Jersey” highlights the story of a doctor seeking to establish a hospital for Black patients. Forced to leave the South, he found disparities in health care between the Black and white community in New Jersey that still exist in today’s health care system.

About The Sankofa Collaborative:

The Sankofa Collaborative was formed in January 2017 by 1804 Consultants, Grounds For Sculpture, New Jersey Historical Society, Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum, and William Trent House Museum. These organizations share a commitment to the vision of a well-informed NJ citizenry that acknowledges the role of African Americans in NJ’s history and their continuing contribution to the vitality of the state. The Collaborative publishes a resource e-newsletter weekly and maintains an archive of resources and program materials at https://sankofacollaborative.org. The Collaborative’s in-person and virtual workshops feature keynote speakers who connect the workshop theme with the broader historical context and panels of representatives from public history institutions and historic sites who share their specific role in New Jersey’s history, innovative strategies they use to engage visitors in learning that history, and insights about topics that need deeper research and presentation.

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