New Jersey Historical Commission - NJHC

06/12/2026

Join the Preserving Black Haddonfield History Pre-Juneteenth Walking!

JOIN THE PRESERVING BLACK HADDONFIELD HISTORY PROJECT'S COMMEMORATIONS OF JUNETEENTH
JUNE 13TH & JUNE 20TH
TAKE THE PRE-JUNETEENTH WALKING TOUR
Saturday, June 13th
12 Noon till 1 PM
Meet at Centennial Field Spectator Stand
Lincoln Avenue and Park Place, Haddonfield, NJ
Tour 12 Sites
(including the New Jersey Black Heritage Trail Historical Marker at The Point)

Register here: https://haddonfield.librarycalendar.com/event/preserving-black-haddonfield-history-pre-juneteenth-walking-tour-14821

DISCLAIMER: EVERYONE TAKING PART IN THIS TOUR DOES SO AT HIS/HER OWN RISK.

06/11/2026

Check out this Juneteenth Program! Say Our Names: African Americans in Allentown and Upper Freehold, free and Enslaved, named and unnamed, from 1770-1830?

The keynote will cover life during the Revolution as well as key trends and some of the names of over 1,200 names of excavated African Americans from diverse primary and secondary documents.

https://www.allentownvinj.org/say-our-names-program.html

06/10/2026

Lawnside: A Haven to Freedom Morris County Tourism Bureau
This year New Jersey’s first African American Incorporated Town celebrates 100 years!
Join the New Jersey Historical Commission and E. Muneerah Higgs, a life-long resident of Lawnside, New Jersey, tell the story of the historically African American town founded in the late 1700s, a well-known stop of the Underground Railroad and now a site on the statewide New Jersey Black Heritage Trail.
Register at this link:
www.bit.ly/tourlawnside
Tour 1:
Juneteenth
June 19, 2026 - 11:30 AM
Participants are welcome to join us for the New Jersey Black Heritage Trail unveiling at 10am. The tour follows.
Tour 2:
Lawnside Day
June 27, 2026 -11:30AM-12:00PM
Please note the tour will start at the completion of the parade.
Free
Participants should plan to use their own vehicles for transportation. However a bus will be available on 6/19.

Limited space available, registration required.
This Civic Season program is a part of Freedom Seeker: America at 250 Years produced by the African American History Program and is funded by RevolutionN

06/10/2026

Join the Ulysses S. Grant Intermediate School and the New Jersey Historical Commission on June 11, 2026 in Trenton, New Jersey at 5:00pm for the dedication and unveiling of a New Jersey Black Heritage Trail marker honoring Ntozake Shange (1948-2018), a renowned Black revolutionary poet, feminist, playwright, essayist, and novelist whose work transformed literature and theater in the United States.

Registration is required: www.bit.ly/shangeunveiling

06/08/2026

Celebrate Juneteenth with the New Jersey Black Heritage Trail!

Join the New Jersey Historical Commission for three upcoming unveilings on June 18th in Cape May, June 19th in Lawnside (registration required), and June 25th in Atlantic City. See the fliers above for details.

Email [email protected] if you have any questions.

06/04/2026

Join the Borough of Lawnside and the New Jersey Historical Commission on Friday, June 19, 2026 for the dedication and unveiling of a New Jersey Black Heritage Trail marker honoring the 100th anniversary of the first incorporated, self-governing Black town in the northeast. This unveiling will be followed by a tour of the Borough led by the Lawnside Historical Society.

Lawnside, New Jersey was officially established as the first northern independent, self-governing Black municipality on March 24, 1926. In the twentieth century, Lawnside became well known for its jazz scene and several nationally recognized celebrities and performers visited the various jazz clubs in the town. Following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, Lawnside passed a resolution to honor his birthday as a holiday and thus became the first municipality to honor him in this way.

Check out our “Lawnside: New Jersey’s First Black Incorporated Town” presentation at www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMsGApq0ut4

For information about Lawnside Heritage Day, visit www.lawnsideday.com

06/02/2026

Upcoming workshop!

The New Jersey Association of Museums with the Conservation Center of Art & Historic Artifacts presents The Collections workshop: Housing Solutions.

Practical knowledge of preservation materials and housing design is necessary to protect collection items. In this workshop, we will address concerns in creating safe and effective housings for the storage and display of paper art and artifacts. The instructor, a preservation specialist from the Conservation Center of Art & Historical Artifacts (CCAHA) will additionally discuss materials, use, and benefits of various types of housing, from simple folders and polyester sleeves to oversized rolled storage and framing. Attendees will have the opportunity to create several simple enclosures. This program is made possible through funding from the New Jersey Historical Commission.

Registration is $5 for members, $10 for non-members. Use the link to register: https://njmuseums.wildapricot.org/event-6713021

Date: Monday June 22, 2026
Time: 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Location: Macculloch Hall Historical Museum
45 Macculloch Avenue
Morristown, NJ 07960

The New Jersey Association of Museums received a project grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of the Department of State.

06/01/2026

Join the Ulysses S. Grant Intermediate School and the New Jersey Historical Commission on June 11, 2026 in Trenton, New Jersey at 5:00pm for the dedication and unveiling of a New Jersey Black Heritage Trail marker honoring Ntozake Shange (1948-2018), a renowned Black revolutionary poet, feminist, playwright, essayist, and novelist whose work transformed literature and theater in the United States.

Registration is required: www.bit.ly/shangeunveiling

05/29/2026

This month, NJHC celebrates Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month! We are highlighting our 2026 grantee, AAPI New Jersey, a community-rooted organization dedicated to uplifting New Jersey’s 1 million+ Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. Through varied programming and advocacy, AAPI New Jersey builds belonging, visibility, and collective power for AAPI communities.

This AAPI Heritage Month is both a celebration and a call to action: to recognize the richness and diversity of AAPI histories, cultures and contributions across the state and to ensure our communities are resourced, protected, and fully represented in New Jersey’s future.

Learn more about AAPI New Jersey and their NJHC grant funded film “Roots & Routes: A Brief History of Asian Americans in the Garden State” at aapinewjersey.org

05/29/2026

Join E. Muneerah Higgs, a life-long resident of Lawnside, New Jersey, as she tells the story of the historically African American town founded in the late 1700s. Lawnside was a well-known stop of the Underground Railroad and is now a site on the statewide New Jersey Black Heritage Trail.

E. Muneerah Higgs is a retired veteran and educator of the Lawnside Public Schools, where she works as a Social Studies teacher. She won the 2004 Mildred Barry Garvin Teacher of the Year Award.

This program is sponsored by the New Jersey Historical Commission’s RevolutionNJ and African American History Program. It is a part of “Freedom Seeker: America at 250 Years” which illuminates the ways African Americans in New Jersey fought for and helped build democracy in the United States and celebrates the beginning of Civic Season, an annual tradition to learn history, build civic skills, and connect with your community from Juneteenth to July 4th (June 19-July 4).

The Peter Mott House is a participating site in RevolutionNJ’s History Pinned. Travel through history by visiting five historic sites and collecting a custom pin designed by a local artist at each stop.

Register at this link:
www.bit.ly/tourlawnside