From Newark Star Ledger, February 3, 2006 ..... Hidden treasures: Traces of the past brought to light in a little-known museumFriday, February 03, 2006BY LISA IRIZARRY Star-Ledger Staff PASSERS-BY might dismiss it as a construction site -- 10 trailers configured into a large makeshift complex on a nondescript stretch of Jackson Road in Atlantic County. "They're the trailers the construction guys used when they were working on Harrah's casino," said Ralph E. Hunter Sr., founder and president of the African American Heritage Museum of Southern New Jersey. He acknowledges that, unless you are from South Jersey, you probably have never heard of the museum -- or the town in which it's located, the Newtonville section of Buena Vista Township. Hunter says 97 percent of the people he meets have never heard of Newtonville, a historically black community settled in the 19th century by runaway slaves and worked as a charcoal-making camp. Hundreds of years of black history fill the 10,000-square-foot facility. Before getting a permanent space, Hunter operated a traveling museum, visiting churches, schools and organizations in South Jersey. "The township said we could set up shop here for two months. But the attendance was so great, we asked if we could stay on." That was three years ago. The 68-year-old retired import-export retailer started collecting 35 years ago when he walked into a North Carolina antique shop and stumbled upon an original edition of "Little Black Sambo" from 1899. The book, by Scottish author Helen Bannerman, is considered by some as offensive to blacks and was taken off bookshelves in some stores. "When you go into some antique stores they have this kind of stuff in the back so they don't offend anyone. You have to ask for it," Hunter said. "All my life I had heard it was a terrible, terrible book, but a lot of people who say that have never read it. I bought it to get it off the market, but I took it home and read it. "Once I read it and understood what it was about, it was one of the greatest reads I've ever had. It's actually a wonderful story." Whatever a person's interpretation of the book might be, Hunter said, it remains part of the African-American experience, and it made him wonder what other part of black history he hadn't experienced attending the integrated schools of Philadelphia. So he started leaving his card or phone number at shops he visited in case they found an African-American treasure he could buy. Eventually, Hunter's house was "packed and jammed with wonderful things, and friends would say, 'This place looks like a museum' -- that's what spawned the idea." Hunter's first purchase led to a lifelong passion that eventually resulted in accumulating more than 7,000 artifacts -- from a 15th century English toy bank depicting a caricature of a black male figure, to a rare cloth doll of Jersey City-born comedian Flip Wilson to period furnishings from black homes. And he discovered other books, including first editions by W.E.B. DuBois and Langston Hughes, as well as pamphlets and studies involving African-Americans, like an 1899 survey titled "The Philadelphia Negro." Hunter calls the collection a "decade-by-decade illustration of how various generations of African-Americans saw themselves and how they were seen by others over time." About half the items were donated, he said, after people learned of his effort to document black history. Some artifacts, like a turn-of-the-century cast iron sausage maker and a 1930s record player, were given to the museum by Newtonville residents. On one occasion, a real estate agent called Hunter to tell him that he found a bunch of old photographs in a vacant Atlantic City home. "He said I had 20 minutes to get down there or he was going to throw them out," Hunter recalled. The photos, all portraits dating from the late 1800s to 1913, became some of his most prized possessions. Some items Hunter literally had to dig for. After he found out some artwork had been stored in a crawl space of an Atlantic City house that a family was vacating, he decided to check things out. He went to the Michigan Avenue home wearing overalls, a mask and goggles. Armed with a flashlight and one of his grandchildren's sand buckets, he got to work. "There were termites, mouse droppings, cobwebs, spiders, roaches. . . everything imaginable in there," Hunter said. Using his hands to dig into the moist soil, he uncovered nine framed charcoal sketches on linen of a middle-class African-American family made in the late 19th or early 20th century. Hunter let the portraits dry outside at his house for two weeks and then had them restored. A Galloway genealogist interested in Hunter's find later used census data to identify the subjects as hotel bellhop Jeremiah Pettijohn and his family. Hunter also put his own money on the line, taking out three mortgages and dipping into his 401K savings and any other available funds. "The total amount of grants we've received thus far is $5,000 from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation," the grandfather of five said, adding he would like to have a permanent home for the collection built one day. Contributions to the nonprofit museum are used for acquisitions, photo cataloging the collection, and research projects. And Hunter still takes his show on the road. He plans to visit 50 schools this year. "What Ralph is doing is certainly worthwhile," says Giles Wright, director of the Afro-American History Program for the New Jersey Historical Commission in Trenton. Hunter is one of several historians who do not have professional training in the field "but have very interesting collections with really fine artifacts -- some very unique and very precious artifacts," he said. Buena Vista Mayor Chuck Chiarello said when he heard of Hunter and the artifacts he spent a lifetime gathering, he thought the unused construction trailers "seemed like a good fit." "Mr. Hunter has had countless shows (art exhibitions featuring the works of young black artists) since he came here, and that gives the center an extra dimension that it may not have had. We're proud to have him in our community." Hunter grew up one of 10 children, and everything he learned about black history as a young man "was learned in our home." His parents, now deceased, were born in Mississippi. His father, Roosevelt T. Hunter, was a preacher, and his mother, Edna, did domestic work. "I was told about lynchings, cousins being shot -- it was just terrible," Hunter said. That influenced him to try to change things by becoming active in civil rights during the 1960s. Working in that movement helped shape what he called his positive approach to African-American history and race relations. "I lived in Cherry Hill back in the '60s, when it was a 99 percent Caucasian community. And when we went to the March on Washington, we walked side-by-side. I got on a bus with mostly Jewish people from Cherry Hill." Although collection items, including slave auction posters, bookmark some of the darker chapters in the history of black Americans, Hunter said that, for the most part, "I want to tell a positive story." He wants young African-Americans to realize their heritage is one filled with countless wonderful people and accomplishments they can be proud of. "It's just so amazing that in the African-American schools we visit, the students basically know of four (African-American historic figures) -- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X," he said. Hunter believes black history is far deeper and wider. Even with the new museum site, he still doesn't have space to hold all of his treasures. Overflow items are kept in his home and in storage, and the museum exhibits change to give the public a chance to see different items. "I'm setting up archives at The Richard Stockton College (in Pomona)," Hunter said. "The beautiful part about what we've done (with the museum) is we're not just putting a legacy together, but we're putting it together so it can go on for another 100 years. "I'm looking to turn the entire collection over to Richard Stockton College so it can go on into infinity. No one man can stay on top of all of this and finance it for a very long time. History is being made each and every day." The African American Heritage Museum of Southern New Jersey is at 661 Jackson Road, Newtonville. It is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Anyone wishing further information on the museum is asked to contact Hunter at (609) 704-7262 or visit the Web site (www.aahmsnj.org).
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