Swedesboro, NJ

Richardson Avenue School
Swedesboro, New Jersey, 1999

The Mount Lebanon Lodge Masonic Hall on Richardson Avenue served as a "separate but equal" school from 1931 until 1942. The Richardson Avenue School is listed in the New Jersey Register of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places.
Elaine Edwards and Sarah Lucile Stewart-Mitchell
Swedesboro, New Jersey, 2001

Elaine Edwards and Lucile Stewart-Mitchell are standing in the Mount Lebanon Lodge that once served as the one-room segregated school for this community. Mrs. Edwards and Mrs. Stewart-Mitchell worked to have this building listed on the state and national historic registries.
Fredric Minus
Mount Zion A.M.E. Church
Small Gloucester, New Jersey, 2001

After the ceremony re-dedicating the Mount Zion cemetery, Fredric Minus discusses the role of black soldiers during the Civil War.
Mount Zion A.M.E. Cemetery
Small Gloucester, New Jersey, 1998

Before the cleanup, Mount Zion cemetery was inaccessible due to overgrowth and construction debris. Here the headstone of Viola P. Finnaman is hidden beneath discarded lumber.
Viola P. Finnaman Grave
Mount Zion A.M.E. Cemetery
Small Gloucester, New Jersey, 2002

This headstone marking the grave of Viola P. Finnaman was covered with debris and obscured by overgrowth before the efforts to restore and preserve the cemetery. Mount Zion Church was part of the New Jersey Underground Railroad.
Swedesboro, NJ
Oct 24, 1933
Mr James Payne:Dear Sir-

We the white people of the town are concerned over the way that you and a few others have let the parson of your church treat the colored people of this town. We have them at heart and are willing to help them in any move they make against him. He is no fit character to come to the town. We see his movements every day in this town. How can law and order be kept in this town without the best colored people's help? Schools and churches are the only institutions that makes people and how can you folks allow a man from another town to come here and discharge your best people because they refuse to let him put them in bodage about their money? They are right by not doing so and will get our support. Your parson has mocked God with money and the stain of sin is upon and his aids. Away with him
K.K.K