UD students preserve a community’s history in a book

5:10 p.m., June 17, 2005--An African-American community in Newark, known as The Village, can now read its rich history, thanks to residents, a dozen UD students and their American material culture seminar professor, who transformed a small writing project into a book.

The book, People Were Close, tells the story of the African-American community in Newark bounded by New London Road from the train tracks north to Clayton Hall, including Rose, Ray, Corbit and Mill streets.

The project is the brainchild of Bernard Herman, Edward F. and Elizabeth Goodman Rosenberg Professor of Art History, who motivated his students to expand a short history project into the book.

“Some call it ‘The Row,’ others call it ‘The Village,’” but this African-American community, established in the mid-1800s, still has a deep sense of itself,” Herman said. “The book is written entirely in the words of the community.”

The photos and memorabilia in the book come from the residents, and Herman credits Raymond Nichols, professor of fine arts and visual communications, and UD’s Raven Press as partners in guiding the project to fruition.

Herman, whose house backs up to Pilgrim Baptist Church on the edge of The Village, started compiling oral histories, photos and artifacts after he was asked to give a talk on the history of the area at the nearby Elks Lodge.

“People said they liked hearing about the history of the area,” Herman said, so, he and Nichols thought they’d give the students a small writing project, a 12-page booklet on the history of The Village. When they started, Herman said he told his students their projects had to “remember, honor and respect” the community.

Herman and the students met with the residents of The Village several times at the Elks Lodge for interviews, which included selecting photographs and other material for the book from the photo albums and mementos that the residents brought to the meetings to illustrate their stories.

The 108-page, full-color book contains dozens of short stories told in the residents’ own word overlapped and interspersed with photographs of the residents and their families, memorial and invitation cards and newspaper clippings, including the front page of the May 17, 1954, edition of the Journal-Early Evening with a front page story about the historic U.S. Supreme Court ruling that desegregated schools.

The book was produced in concert with the Lily Yeh artist-in-residence project run by Virginia Bradley, chairperson of the Department of Fine Arts and Visual Communication at UD. Bradley heads the “Art as Social Activism” project, of which Herman’s book is a part. Lily Yeh, an internationally known artist and executive director of The Village of Arts and Humanities in Philadelphia, was a Distinguished Artist in Residence at UD during 2004-05 academic year.

“It’s terrific!” Clarence “Pepper” Whigham, 44, a resident of Ray Street, said of the book. “The way they mixed the stories from the older and younger residents tells a beautiful story and gives a good picture of life in the neighborhood through the years. They did a very good job.”

Whigham, whose significant contribution of stories and pictures to the book began when he stopped by the Elks Lodge and found Herman interviewing other residents, said the community immediately recognized the value of the book and enjoyed sharing stories.

“I didn’t know about it until I met one of my brothers at the Lodge and he asked me to tell my stories. I wasn’t sure about it at the beginning, but when I started talking to Bernie [Herman] we sat for three hours. There are lots of stories to share,” Whigham said.

Prof. Herman (left) talks with residents Francis S. Matthews (center) and Pepper Wigham (far right) about the new book by UD students chronicling the history of their neighborhood, The Village.

“It was very fulfilling; it brought back a lot of memories,” Winston Green, who lives on Ray Street, said of the book. “It will let the young kids see what it was like when their mothers and fathers were young and let them know what kind of history they had in Newark.”

Green said creating a better understanding of the community through the book will help strengthen the relationship between residents and the UD students who live in the neighborhood.

“When I talked to them, they were just like my kids,” Green, 83, said of the students who worked on the project. “The book is a gift to us because the older folks can now tell their stories for generations.”

Thristina Jackson, who lives on Church Street, said friends and relatives who have heard about the book are asking where they can buy it, but only a limited number of copies were printed for distribution to the residents.

“It’s very heartwarming,” Jackson said. “It’s something that we can pass on to our children, and I think it was a really good idea to do it. We were having problems with the students and their relationship with the community, and this has pulled us together. The students who helped were very enthusiastic, and they were happy to do it. They felt the closeness that we were taking about.”

Jackson, 51, said she is planning to read the book with her 7-year-old grandson, Tre, whom she tells about the neighborhood during frequent walks in The Village.

“It’s really fantastic,” Kenneth Hall, 68, Whigham’s next-door neighbor, said of the book. “Everybody that has seen it likes it. You can say it’s a community photo album. It has made it easier for us to tell our story and make people understand who we are.”

Lenora Costa (left), AS ‘05, interviews resident Violet L. Pettijohn about neighborhood lore.

Lenora Costa, an art conservation major and American material studies minor from New Orleans who graduated May 28, said the project presented several challenges, including convincing the residents of The Village to open up, but the hard work paid huge dividends.

“The experience let me into a part of Newark that I otherwise knew nothing about,” Costa said. “It made me enjoy the city more than before, when I felt Newark lacked the small community feel that I would normally associate with such a location and that I missed from my own home town.”

Costa and other students who worked on the book accompanied Herman to a cookout celebration hosted by the residents on Saturday, May 21, at Elks Lodge. During the celebration, copies of the book were distributed to the residents, many of whom participated in the project.

“It was wonderful to be a part of such a loving community, filled with memories,” Rebecca Lebsock, a liberal studies major with minors in American material culture and landscape horticulture, from Raleigh, N.C., said. “The community has been very receptive of our work. Because of the book, we have been received into homes, offered food and told many stories.”

Lebsock, who lived for three years in the residence halls on the Laird Campus, which is near The Village, said working on the book helped her learn about and appreciate the community through which she had previously walked without giving much thought about its history.

“As a result of this project, I finally feel connected to where I have lived. There is a story to the churches on the corner, to the blackberry patch where the Towers now are and to the large tree beside Ray Street,” Lebsock said. “It has been fulfilling to see how [this class] has positively affected this community.”

Megan Dwyre, an art history and anthropology major from Laurel, Md., who graduated last January, said the book was the most fulfilling project of her academic career. “It's nice to feel like you're doing something that really matters,” she said.

“It's great to know that we've made an impact,” Rachel Grove, an art history major from Airville, Pa., who graduated May 28, said.

Herman and his students raised money to publish about 400 books, most of which have been distributed to the residents of The Village.

For more information about the project, e-mail [bherman@udel.edu] or call (302) 831-8793.

Article by Martin Mbugua
Photos by Duane Perry

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