In conjunction with the Museum of Jersey City History’s inaugural exhibit, The New Jersey Room of the Jersey City Free Public Library will feature programming throughout 2024 to enrich this look at Frank Hague and his times. A podcast-style series, Haguecast, will present in-depth discussions with contemporary scholars as well as extended excerpts of oral history recordings from the Jersey City Historical Project. Four excerpts from the interviews can be found below.
Retired Judge and Lawyer Nelson Johnson has written two books on machine politics in New Jersey. His first book, Boardwalk Empire, became the basis of a popular HBO drama series. His 2014 book, Battleground New Jersey, traces the development of the 1947 New Jersey Constitution through the opposing efforts of Newark’s Arthur Vanderbilt and Jersey City’s Frank Hague. In this clip we hear his assessment of Hague and machine politics.
Harvard Law Professor Laura Weinribs’ 2016 book, The Taming of Free Speech: America’s Civil Liberties Compromise traces the emergence during the first half of the twentieth century of a constitutional and court-centered concept of civil liberties as a defining feature of American democracy. The 1938 Supreme Court case, Hague vs. CIO is a key decision in that story, and is of ongoing interest to legal scholars. In this clip she discusses researching Hague’s career through the lens of a highly partisan press, and his ultimate adapting to the new political realities embodied in the Hague v. CIO decision.
Dr. James T. Fisher has published works on Catholic history and labor history, including On the Irish Waterfront, an invaluable study of Jersey City as part of the port economy during the Hague and Kenny administrations. In this clip he talks about Frank Hague’s political regime as embodying a Catholic Moral Order in a way unlike earlier Irish political machines, as the political role of the church in Irish-American communities changed after World War I.
Independent historian and documentarian Joseph M. Murray has produced several videos and scholarly articles on Jersey City’s political and social history during and after the Hague years. In this clip he discusses Hague’s relationship to the statewide Republic party.
Bob Leach led the Jersey City Historical Project under the Department of Cultural Affairs and in association with the Jersey City Free Public Library. He entertained and informed countless number of people with his “better than true – almost true” folklore stories of Jersey City’s colorful past, until his passing in 2016.
Bob Leach recounts the history behind the conflict between Frank Hague and the CIO, which ultimately led to the Supreme Court decision which remains a defining milestone in the interpretation of the First Amendment.
In late 1937, Jersey City’s powerful Mayor and political power broker, Frank Hague, faced some of the fiercest challenges of his long career. Deteriorating relations with organized labor, especially with the CIO, would culminate in violent clashes over the right to rally and organize on city streets – leading eventually to a Supreme Court case that began a redefinition of First Amendment rights. Having seen the Democratic candidate for governor, William L. Dill, go down to defeat – for a second time – in 1934, Hague surely felt pressure to deliver an electoral majority from Hudson County. Especially as the candidate was his friend and political ally, A. Harry Moore. Deliver he did, to such an extent that accusations of voter fraud and ballot manipulation – not unusual in his career – seemed to gain some traction. Historian Joseph M. Murray joins us to discuss an article in process for publication on “The Real Stolen Election,” including some of the language that calls to mind more recent political discourse.
Historian James Fisher joins historian and filmmaker Joseph Murray for a discussion of Jersey City's complex politics after the end of the end of the Hague era. Followed by the premiere showing of "Nostalgia For The Future: Jersey City’s 1957 Victory Movement - The Kenny Years - Part 2." The video is the final episode of a series on Bossism & Machine Politics in Jersey City. This chapter explores the rise of the 1957 Victory Movement, the campaign that captured City Hall from the political machine of John V. Kenny. The split in Hudson County’s Democratic party created a chasm between city and county government. Leading political figures, such as Boss Kenny, Thomas Gangemi and James F. Murray, Jr. are profiled, while explaining the ethnic tensions that animated the politics of the day. Often overlooked by historians, the Victory administration punctuated Kenny's reign with an important reform interlude. As the last city commission, it also served as the catalyst to change the city’s form of government. Despite the turmoil sparked by the upset election and the game of thrones that followed, the Victory commissioners made significant strides to rehabilitate a city wracked by machine politics. Ambitious programs were instigated to combat urban & industrial decay. Reclaiming land from the financially-strapped railroads instigated a transformation of the waterfront. The “Operation Rebirth” strategy launched by Commissioner James F. Murray, Jr. began to reverse decades of decline, and spurred the city's transition to a nostalgic future.
Produced by David Cohen, "The Life and Times of Frank Hague" is a look at 30 years of local and political history in Jersey City, New Jersey, from 1917 to 1947, seen through the career of its mayor. Viewed by some as a hero and by others as a scoundrel and "a dictator American style," Frank Hague was a rough and tumble politicians, of a time before media-packaged candidates. The documentary features historian Tom Fleming, whose father was a ward leader under Hague, as well as Bob Leach of the Jersey City Historical Project and Barbara Petrick, Jersey City educator and author of Church and School in the Immigrant City.
Produced by Joe Murray, this mini-documentary reviews the fall of the infamous political machine of Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague. For 35 years, Boss Hague ruled New Jersey. His influence reached the highest levels of the Democratic party up to and including the FDR White House. Also examined are Hague's most notable public works projects, his monuments to Bossism that changed the face of the city.
The New Jersey Room holds a great deal of material directly related to Frank Hague, and even more about his time as Mayor of Jersey City. The articles and book chapters in the below folder can be read online (but not downloaded), offering a starting point for study of Jersey City's own power broker.
For full access to these and other material, please visit or contact the New Jersey Room.