Black New Jersey
380 pages, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
20 B-W images
Hardcover
Release Date:01 Oct 2018
ISBN:9780813595184
Winner of the 2019 Richard P. McCormick Prize from the New Jersey Historical Commission
Black New Jersey tells the rich and complex story of the African American community’s remarkable accomplishments and the colossal obstacles they faced along the way. Drawing from rare archives, historian Graham Russell Gao Hodges brings to life the courageous black men and women who fought for their freedom and eventually built a sturdy and substantial middle class. He explores how the state’s unique mix of religious, artistic, and cultural traditions have helped to produce such world-renowned figures as Paul Robeson, Cory Booker, and Queen Latifah, as well as a host of lesser-known but equally influential New Jersey natives.
Black New Jersey tells the rich and complex story of the African American community’s remarkable accomplishments and the colossal obstacles they faced along the way. Drawing from rare archives, historian Graham Russell Gao Hodges brings to life the courageous black men and women who fought for their freedom and eventually built a sturdy and substantial middle class. He explores how the state’s unique mix of religious, artistic, and cultural traditions have helped to produce such world-renowned figures as Paul Robeson, Cory Booker, and Queen Latifah, as well as a host of lesser-known but equally influential New Jersey natives.
The leading historian of the Mid-Atlantic has written a sweeping, bold, and insightful history of Black New Jersey. It is a singular accomplishment.'
The history of black-white race relations in New Jersey is one of the best windows into the strange career of the Jim Crow North. Few historians are qualified to write that epic tale, punctuated by not only tragedy but also triumph and irony. But, Graham Hodges has mastered that awesome intellectual responsibility and scholarly challenge with both force and clarity. Indeed, Professor Hodges sets the gold standard in this historical narrative of the long struggle for racial equality in New Jersey. Bravo!
Black New Jersey is most interesting and full of important information long buried in primary sources. Graham Hodges brings New Jersey and its people to the fore as people in particular places and times yet within a national context. I appreciate the comprehensiveness of a book very well done.
Summer Reading 2018: Understanding Black Life in NJ, from 1664 to Today
Flawlessly researched.
The breadth of topic and detail in this work are impressive. Recommended.'
The Academic Minute' interview with Graham Hodges and feature by David Hopper
The Black Ssholar who Gave Up Her Family to Earn Her Ph.D.,' by Graham Russell Gao Hodges
A highly nuanced and sophisticated history of the black population in the state....This study is a tale of progress and accomplishments of New Jersey African Americans, but also of racial disparities which negatively affect the quality of life in New Jersey.
An engaging read, especially for persons with interest in the history of the Garden State, and it is a fine exemplar of the state historical genre.
Interview with Graham Russell Gao Hodges on 'New Books in Intellectual History'
https://newbooksnetwork.com/graham-r-g-hodges-black-new-jersey-1664-to-the-present-day-rutgers-up-2018/
Hodges seamlessly transitions between events transpiring in communities across the state and how those events affected the lives of the Black residents locally. Moreover, the book strikes a balance between the strife and destitute conditions of many and the achievements of various prominent members of the community and the emergence of the Black middle class.
GRAHAM RUSSELL GAO HODGES is the George Dorland Langdon, Jr. Professor of History and Africana and Latin American studies at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. He is the author or editor of sixteen books, including Slavery and Freedom in the Rural North: African Americans in Monmouth County, New Jersey, 1660-1870 and Root & Branch: African Americans in New York and East Jersey, 1613-1863.
C O N T E N T S
List of Illustrations ix
Introduction 1
1 From Initial Euro-African Settlement to the Pre-Revolution, 1625–1763 12
2 From Revolution to Gradual Emancipation, 1764–1804 34
3 Slavery, Freedom, and Struggle, 1804–1860 59
4 The Civil War and Reconstruction to World War I 98
5 Black New Jersey Battles Jim Crow, 1918–1940 159
6 World War II and Its Aftermath, 1940–1960 211
7 The 1960s–2014 249
8 Present and Future 291
Acknowledgments 301
Notes 303
Index
List of Illustrations ix
Introduction 1
1 From Initial Euro-African Settlement to the Pre-Revolution, 1625–1763 12
2 From Revolution to Gradual Emancipation, 1764–1804 34
3 Slavery, Freedom, and Struggle, 1804–1860 59
4 The Civil War and Reconstruction to World War I 98
5 Black New Jersey Battles Jim Crow, 1918–1940 159
6 World War II and Its Aftermath, 1940–1960 211
7 The 1960s–2014 249
8 Present and Future 291
Acknowledgments 301
Notes 303
Index
Related Titles
Ballad of an American
A Graphic Biography of Paul Robeson
By Sharon Rudahl; Edited by Paul Buhle and Lawrence Ware
The Marion Thompson Wright Reader
Edited and with a Biographical Introduction by Graham Russell Gao Hodges
Edited by Graham Russell Gao Hodges
