Jersey City Black History Month
“The history of the Afro-American and Black community in Jersey City is enormously rich and varied, full of figures and incidents, stories and movements that positively compel attention and respect. The community-at-large should know this history much better and gratefully remember its many heroes and heroines."
Jersey City Black History Month
Robert Wilkinson Castle Jr.
A key fixture of the civil rights movement was Robert Wilkinson Castle Jr, a Rector at St. Johns Episcopal Church in Bergen Hill– a church that once been known as the largest and richest Episcopal church in the state and had since fallen into disarray.
During his time at St. Johns Episcopal Church Father Castle started a chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality, Marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Mississippi, and walked the streets to calm tensions after riots threatened. He picketed for civil rights and against the Vietnam War, and was arrested when he dumped garbage on the steps of Jersey City’s City Hall to draw attention to living conditions in the city’s poor neighborhoods. He opened his church, and his home, to meetings of Students for a Democratic Society and the Black Panthers. He picketed banks and restaurants for failing to hire minorities. He picketed his own bishop for belonging to segregated clubs. Father Castle was arrested so often that, his children were entirely accustomed to asking, “How much is the bail, Mom?” and remembered for championing the black communities in Jersey City, not only by voice but also by action.
Jersey City Black History Month
Jersey City’s Underground Railroad
It is said of the 100,000 former slaves and enslaved African Americans that traveled the Underground Railroad, between 50-70,000 came through Jersey City; the location where all routes converged providing access to freedom via New York City, New England, and Canada.
They were driven, hidden in wagons, to the Jersey City waterfront at the Morris Canal basin where abolitionists hired ferry boats and coal boats to take the fleeing slaves across the Hudson River, called the "River Jordan,".
Although so many came through Jersey City, the truth is that most of them continued elsewhere. The majority of Jersey City residents at the time were against the abolitionist movement, influenced by wealthy business owners and politicians - one very such man, an owner of a profitable slave-trading business. In fact, New Jersey was the last state in the North to abolish slavery and was commonly referred to as a piece of the south up north.
Jersey City Black history Month
Jersey City’s Underground Railroad Safe Houses
It was the “stations” or safe houses scattered throughout Jersey City that helped usher former slaves to safety by way of the Hudson River. They traveled by foot and by covered wagon, moving under the cover of night. They sought refuge in cellars, and they relied on strangers for support.
For fear of arrest, safe houses were kept completely secret and prevented many from coming forward. While we’ll never know how many safe houses there actually were throughout Jersey City, we’re honoring the ones we know-
Dr. Henry D. Holt, a physician, former clerk of the Common Council of Jersey City, and an Editor of the Jersey City Advertiser and Bergen Republican who's home at 134 Washington St. on the Morris Canal Basin was a depot on the Underground Railroad. Holt wrote articles decrying the inhumanity of slavery.
Thomas Vreeland Jackson and John Vreeland Jackson were slaves on the estate of the Vreeland family in Greenville. They were freed between 1828 and 1830 and became oystermen on the Hudson River. In 1831, they bought land in the Greenville area on Newark Bay, the same year the Morris Canal Company purchased a portion of their land to construct the canal. From their home that served as a station, they helped numerous slaves escape. The Hudson Bergen Light Railroad, on Martin Luther King Drive, was renamed in their honor -Jackson Square.
Located in Bergen-Lafayette, the Hilton-Holden House at 59 or 79 Clifton Place, is the only safe house that still standing today. Professor Edward Holden was a colonel in the US Army and trained Union soldiers in the area for the Civil War. A director of the Lick Observatory and the Washington Observatory, Edward Holden installed an observatory on the top of his home for his work and lager used it as a way to signal when it was safe to pass. The cellar of his mansion was a refuge for fugitive slaves. Holden served as president of the Board of Education and as an alderman under John Hilton the first mayor of the City of Bergen, now Jersey City.
Jersey City Black History Month
Jackie Robinson at Roosevelt Stadium
Built-in, the 1990s, originally intended to be an Airport, Jersey City's Roosevelt Stadium was regarded as "the paradigm of elegance" and considered to be Mayor Frank Hague's most astounding accomplishment. Considered to be an architectural marvel well before its time, the sports stadium seated 24,000.
Although Roosevelt Stadium had been the home to countless events, the most notable and historic was April 18, 1946, the day a 27-year-old African-American baseball player from the Brooklyn Dodgers stepped to the batter's box, crossing the "color" line and introducing the world to a new era of baseball. A landmark event that drew a crowd of 52,000 spectators, more than double the stadium's capacity. as the Brooklyn Dodgers took on the Jersey City Giants.
After more than 35 years of use, the stadium and its grandeur began to see signs of wear and tear and fell into disuse in the 1970s. The facility which was originally the savior to many during the Depression was now a liability to the city, demolition began in 1984. Roosevelt Stadium and Jackie Robinsons historic event that occurred there will forever be emblazoned into the fabric of Jersey City .
Now the location on which Society Hill stands, a plaque on the former site of Roosevelt Stadium commemorating the 50th anniversary of the opening game and Robinson’s extraordinary entry into baseball reads:
"His leadership and grit changed baseball and deeply influenced public opinion. He bore freedom's torch to serve family, sport, business, and government."
The plaque along with a twelve-foot bronze statue of the athlete is a reminder of the history made.
