A 2024 highlight was the approval of 32 New Jersey sites for the inaugural Black Heritage Trail.
In 2022, Governor Phil Murphy signed Bill A2677, establishing a collection of historical places on a “trail-like path” highlighting “Black life and resiliency in the state.” The New Jersey Historical Commission’s Black Heritage Trail team received over 60 nominations during its first call in March 2024. Ultimately, officials deemed 32 sites historically accurate and eligible for approval. The trail’s webpage states, “The committee unanimously approved all recommended sites.”
One of the sites is Hinchliffe Stadium, one of the last remaining Negro League baseball stadiums in the country. Historic Timbuctoo, another approved site, is an unincorporated community historically known as a settlement of freed Black and formerly enslaved people established in the late 1820s.
The committee approved other significant sites for local Black communities, including Chicken Bone Beach in Atlantic City, Kaighn Avenue Baptist Church in Camden, and the East Orange Freedom Schools site, among others.
What Else Is There To Know About New Jersey’s Black Heritage Trail?
Public leaders backing the trail are excited about how it will amplify Black history in the state.
“This is just the beginning for the New Jersey Black Heritage Trail,” said the Director of the NJHC African American History Program, Noelle Lorraine Williams, in April. “We plan to hold nomination rounds on a regular basis for the foreseeable future…”
“The Black Heritage Trail will serve an important role in connecting our state’s residents and visitors with the complex histories of African Americans in New Jersey,” noted Lieutenant Governor Tahesha Way earlier this year. “We have a responsibility to make all of our histories visible, and I am proud to oversee the New Jersey Historical Commission and its work uplifting these aspects of the American story.”
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