MONTGOMERY – History will look to the future when the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum (SSAAM), Central Jersey’s only Black history museum, will hold its first Juneteenth celebration on June 18.
SSAAM is welcoming the public for the first time not only after the COVID-19 pandemic, but after extensive restoration and renovation, said Executive Director Donnetta Johnson.
Saturday’s event will take place at Mount Zion AME Church, where SSAAM is housed, and the adjacent True Farmstead, a historic African American-owned property recently purchased by SSAAM and the Sourland Conservancy.
The church at 189 Hollow Road in the forgotten village of Zion near the top of Sourland Mountain was listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places in 2018 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.
Founded in 2014, SSAAM’s mission is to tell the story of the unique culture, experiences and contributions of the African American community of the Sourland Mountain region, the largest undeveloped area between New York City and Philadelphia.
“This is indicative of stories that are happening all across the United States that need to be told, so that we can deal with our very difficult horrendous history and start to heal and fix it,” Johnson said. “Like any other disease, you can’t really fix it until you know, unearth it and examine it and start to apply therapies to it.”
The Juneteenth event is part of the healing process.
“That’s what this is all about. It’s about history, reclamation. It is also about healing and creating spaces where the community can come together and learn and explore and grow and move, move forward,” Johnson said.
‘An American story’
“Freedom Forward,” from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., will feature live music by The Jonathan Ware Quartet, food from Trenton BBQ restaurant The Big Easy, artist talks, theatrical performances, activities for children as well as community speakers and leaders.
At the heart of Freedom Forward is sharing stories, building community and moving forward, Johnson said.
“It’s important to tell the stories of the past. It’s essential,” Johnson said. “But it’s also important to figure out the way forward. Where do we go from here as a diverse, caring community?”
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It’s a story unique to the portrait of America.
“All of us are participating in this because this is an American story. It’s an African American story, that’s true, but in the larger context, it’s an American story,” Johnson said. “So whether your people have been here for 400 years, or just came here 50 years ago or literally just got off of a plane or a boat, we’re now all participating in this mosaic.”
And it’s also a learning experience.
“We need to understand what it is we’re involved in, but also how we’re going to move the needle forward into the future and really create that world that we want our children to inhabit,” Johnson said. “And so we have to participate, all of us.”
Among the day’s highlights will be artistic workshops at the True Farmstead. Princeton artists, activists and educators Judith Brodsky and Rhinold Ponder will present “Black Artists: Elevating the Community,” a talk about five Black artists who lived in the Sourlands 50 years ago.
Emmy-winning artist and educator Ronah Harris will use quilt-making as an artistic and storytelling tradition in the African American community.
Attendees will be invited to make quilt squares representing their culture, the future and social justice to be incorporated into SSAAM’s first community quilt to represent the diversity of people in the Sourlands.
Performers from the Allegra School of Music and Arts in Hillsborough will present “To Be Free,” an original Juneteenth performance by dramatist Ryan Kilpatrick.
Community groups also will host tables and booths. SSAAM’s partner organization, the Sourland Conservancy, will have an interactive exhibit, “Nature in the Sourlands.”
The birth of SSAAM
SSAAM co-founders Beverly Mills and Elaine Buck did not start out to create a museum.
The women began their journey more than a decade ago when, as members of the Stoutsburg Cemetery Association, they were asked to help prevent development at a section of the cemetery.
After they proved it was sacred ground and won the battle, the two decided to conduct more research on the people who were buried there.
The two were able to establish the cemetery as the burial place of Private William Stives, a Revolutionary War veteran and one of the first African American settlers in the Sourland region. They also unearthed more stories were unearthed about early African American settlers.
“They really became intrigued,” Johnson said. “The extent of the community and the extent of their relationship to the people in turn led them to really do research on this entire community that existed for quite a while from time of slavery in New Jersey, which was known as the slave state of the north.”
Mills and Buck believed these stories needed to be told and began working on a book, “If These Stones Could Talk.” In support of the book, published in 2018, the two gave a lecture, “A Proud Heritage,” hosted by The Sourland Conservancy in 2014.
That lecture sparked a series of conversations and led to a partnership between the Stoutsburg Cemetery Association and the Sourland Conservancy. In turn, SSAAM was created.
A story coming ‘full circle’
In March 2022, SSAAM and Sourland Conservancy purchased the 5-acre True family farmstead.
The property was originally owned by a Black Union army veteran who worked as a farmer after the Civil War. In 1891, after his death, his wife Corinda married Spencer True, a descendant of the former slave Friday Truehart. After gaining his freedom in 1819, Friday Trueheart became an early African American landowner in the Sourland Region.
Spencer and Corinda True made their home on the farmstead, which originally included the land on which Mount Zion AME Church stands. The Trues donated the land for the church in 1899 after the original church, built around 1866, burned down.
Mount Zion AME Church welcomed its African American congregants in 2005. Now it houses SSAAM and its exhibits, lectures and activities.
Eventually, SSAAM and the True Farmstead will be part of a larger museum complex, Johnson said. A future project will involve preserving and telling the story of the environment and ecology of the Sourlands region with an environmental center and the heritage of the African American community with SSAAM.
“This complex will protect the rich ecological resources of the Sourlands and also tell this incredible story of African American History and resilience,” Johnson said.
The Juneteenth celebration is helping to kick off the fundraising effort for the larger project, she said.
“So think about a beautiful marriage of history, reclamation and environmental justice and environmental consciousness pulled together in a center that we’re building for the community,” Johnson said. “That is what we are fundraising for; for the community to really seize upon the issues that are plaguing us and to start to create solutions.”
For more information, go to www.ssaamuseum.org/home. “Freedom Forward” is co-sponsored by the Princeton University Art Museum. To help sponsor “Freedom Forward,” register a vendor table or purchase tickets, go to www.ssaamuseum.org/juneteenth2022. Adult general admission is $25 by online pre-sale only and $30 at the door; tickets for children 12 and under are $10.
email: cmakin@gannettnj.com
Cheryl Makin is an award-winning features and education reporter for MyCentralJersey.com, part of the USA Today Network. Contact: Cmakin@gannettnj.com or @CherylMakin. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
