Paradoxical Paradise:
An African American Oral History and Mapping Project on Asbury Park
Welcome to our site. Please explore the images, videos, oral histories and podcast shows available here about the African American history of Asbury Park.
Latest from the Blog
- Student Oral Historians at Monmouth UniversityAngelica Juliani In the Fall 2021 semester, my oral history classmates and I independently conducted oral history interviews as the capstone project of our semester-long Monmouth University oral history course with Professor Melissa Ziobro. Most of us would be interviewing people for the first time. This was an exciting end of semester project toContinue reading “Student Oral Historians at Monmouth University”
- Pop Up Exhibit UpdatesMelissa Ziobro This Spring 2022, the pop up exhibit “Asbury Park: 150 Years of Change and Transformation — A Segregated Seashore” was installed at the Monmouth University Guggenheim Memorial Library, and a new pop up exhibit, “One Voice Is Not Enough: Asbury Park’s Musical Diversity Since 1871” was installed at the historic Berkeley-Carteret HotelContinue reading “Pop Up Exhibit Updates”
- The Attempted Lynching of Tom Williams in Asbury Park, 1910Killian Mann In November of 1910, Thomas Williams, who acquired the nickname “Black Diamond” during his boxing years, was accused and subsequently arrested on suspicion for the murder of a 10-year-old white child named Marie Smith. This story was heavily covered in local and national papers as a “negro crime” including in the NewContinue reading “The Attempted Lynching of Tom Williams in Asbury Park, 1910”