In a continuing effort to increase visibility of the borough’s minority groups, the Preserving Black Haddonfield History Project hosted the unveiling on Oct. 19 of a marker that notes Haddonfield’s place on the New Jersey Black Heritage Trail.
Before the unveiling at Kenneth N. MacDonald Park, the project held a ceremony to introduce the marker and emphasize its importance. It featured several speakers, including C. Adrienne Rhodes, a project co-founder, and several descendants of Black Haddonfield residents who have lived in the borough for generations.
Members of the Preserving Black Haddonfield History Project and the borough’s legacy families gathered around the new marker.
Lisa Lacroce Patterson, another project co-founder, explained that the idea for the marker came during a virtual master class for Haddonfield Memorial High School alumni during COVID. Patterson noted then that Princeton, where she lives, has walking tours, plaques for historical sites and a web page to preserve Black history there.
Mayor Dave Siedell noted the significance of the marker as Haddonfield’s first on the Black Heritage Trail. It is also the first in Camden County.
“History is not only about where we’ve been, it’s about who we choose to remember,” he noted. “Sometimes we commemorate our past for its accomplishments, and sometimes we do so to measure our progress and renew our determination to keep moving forward. And today, we’re doing a little bit of both.”
“The reason why (the marker) was so important for us is because the African American experience – and the African American piece of history – is New Jersey’s history,” observed State Sen. Troy Singleton, “and it is so critical that we continue to acknowledge that, because it is a key cornerstone upon which this great state has been built.”
Rhodes thanked several of the people who made the trail marker possible, specifically the state’s Historic Preservation Commission.
“We are novices at this,” she acknowledged. “I am not a historian or genealogist, and because of that, I am very grateful to the … commission. They really helped us work our way through what is a very difficult process.”
Rhodes also cited Dr. Synatra Smith, who helped the project identify about 20 primary sources who validated the historical significance of the park land where the trail sign is placed.
When the unveiling ceremony wrapped, attendees made their way to the marker, which had a cloth covering bearing the state seal. Project members and legacy families helped remove it to reveal a sign with a white background and black, raised writing that tells the borough’s Black history story.
Attendees took pictures with the sign, whose debut was followed by a project walking tour.
