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NJ Room Programs Online
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It is easy to think of European colonizers and Native Americans of the 1600s as only two groups, while in fact both were made up of many communities. The Dutch colony of New Netherland, which included today's Jersey City, confronted not only established colonial projects of France and England, but also various Native American peoples including the Haudenousaunee (Iroquois) Confederation in the north, the Umani and Munsee language bands of the Lenni-Lenape on the mid-Atlantic Coast, and the Susequehannocks to the west. Complex alliances and conflicts in trade and land settlement played out across this formative time, leaving only minimal traces in the traditional historic record.
Historian Mattew Kruer has used modern methods of historical analysis to present a history of the Susquehannocks, enriching and complicating the traditional historical narrative. He joins us to share his research processes and discuss how the study of early colonial-era history has changed over the past half century. He describes how the Susquehannocks played a role in the confrontation between Native American peoples who called the lower Hudson River home, and the Dutch and English settlements that would ultimately displace them.
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The late 20th century saw the Jersey City waterfront transformed from a stretch of abandoned railyards into a "gold coast" of modern urban architecture. This shift is symbolized by the redevelopment of Harborside from a port warehouse facility into an office complex luring tenants in the finance and insurance industry. Historian Aaron Shkuda joins us to discuss Jersey City's bid to become "Wall Street West" as technology allowed Wall Street to be increasingly decentralized beyond those few blocks of NYC.
- When Cities Get Married: Gendered Language in the Merger of Jersey City and Harsimus, 1851
When Richardson Dilworth was doing his doctoral research on municipal consolidations of the 19th century, he noticed that a marriage metaphor was often used in newspaper content of the issue as it came to voters. This was particularly the case in coverage of Van Vorst Township's proposed merger with Jersey City in 1851, which would enlarge Jersey City's boundaries to encompass all of today's Downtown. Professor Dilworth joins us to discuss his research process, the history of shifting municipal boundaries, and Jersey City's union with "Miss Harsimus."
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Historian and author Joseph Bilby discusses the history of the Ku Klux Klan in New Jersey in the 1920s-1930s. New Jersey is celebrated for its strong communities built across religious and ethnic lines as one of the nation’s most diverse states. The state, though, was not immune to the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan in the first half of the twentieth century. Former vaudevillians Arthur H. Bell and his wife used the tactics of public theater to advertise and recruit for the organization. At a massive riot in Perth Amboy, thousands of immigrants besieged a few hundred Klansmen, tossed them out of building windows, burned their cars and ran them out of town. The allying of pro-Nazi German Bund groups and the Klan in the lead-up to World War II marked the end of the Klan’s foothold
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Jean Howson, the lead researcher for the archaeological survey of the Covert-Larch and NYS&W Railroad sites adjacent to the Tonnele Circle, discusses the process of uncovering the history of the 19th-century immigrants who lived there. The tools of urban archaeology uncover the workings of a small railroad repair yard and the material culture of "new Americans" at the turn of the last century. This program and the accompanying exhibit on the staircase landing space at the Gardner Main Library are supported by the NJ Dept. of Transportation, which sponsored the historical survey of the site as part of the Route 1&9T Improvement Project. Any questions put into the comments section will be referred to Dr. Howson or New Jersey Room staff.
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Dr. Walter Greason joins us to discuss the social and economic forces that transformed Jersey City and other urban centers from the 1930s through the 1950s. Federal government and banking institutions' policies, vividly illustrated in the notorious "redlining" maps of the Homeowner's Loan Corporation in the 1930s, were just one factor privileging suburban growth and concentrating poverty in urban areas. Dr. Greason will help unravel some of the many factors reshaping Jersey City between the New Deal 1930s and the "urban crisis" of the 1960s.
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Historian, author, and lecturer Gordon Bond talks about his latest book, "To Cast a Freedman's Vote: Thomas Mundy Peterson at the Intersection of Suffrage, Citizenship, and Civil Rights." On May 30, 1884, citizens of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, gathered at city hall to pin a gold medal to Thomas Mundy Peterson’s coat in honor of his having done something that, in another part of the nation, a noose might have been put around his neck for daring. It had been proven that on March 31, 1870, Peterson was the first African American to vote under the Fifteenth Amendment. “To Cast a Freedman’s Vote” rediscovers Thomas Peterson by placing him in a broader historic context that makes his story relevant to modern dialogues on race, suffrage, and citizenship.
- Olympians in the Community
We celebrate the Olympic spirit with this program featuring three Olympic athletes who live and work in Hudson County, and remember earlier Jersey City Olympians, in conversation with local sports writer Jim Hague. Featuring Otis Davis (1960), Gail Marquis (1976), Elena Pirozhkova (2012, 2016), Charles Mays, Jr. (on Charlie Mays, 1968) and Alan Delozier (on Andy Stanfield, 1952, 1956).
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Honoring National Black Catholic History Month. Sankofa, Aggiornamento, Jubilee - The Historical Legacy of Faith: New Jersey's Mother Church of Black Catholic Witness, Church of Christ the King. A Jersey City Jewel Celebrates its 90th Jubilee. In 1930 the Church of Christ the King was established, becoming the first African American Catholic Church in New Jersey. In honor of the 90 year history of the congregation, Dr. Valerie D. Lewis Mosley joins us to share the history of the founding. Valerie D. Lewis-Mosley is a pastoral theologian, social justice advocate and adjunct professor of theology at Caldwell University in Caldwell, New Jersey.
