Interviewee: Kay Harris
Interviewer: Tiyana Randeniya
Interview Summary:
Kay Harris was born in 1952 in Philidepliha, however was raised in Asbury Park. Each time her mother gave birth she drove back to Philidephia to do so. In her family she has three siblings, one older sister, one brother who is a year younger, and a sister who is four years younger. She grew up on the West side of Asbury Park and that is where she stayed up until college. With this being true, Kay Harris has lived in some various locations like Atlanta, Florida, Woodbridge (North Jersey) and ended up back in Asbury Park in the 90’s. With Kay living in New Jersey a majority of her life she has numerous friends whom she is still friends with since grammar school.
Kay Harris continues to tell me the wonders of her childhood and activities they did as they “played jacoks, played jump rope, bat and ball… endless games”. She talks about being able to go out the back door and being called back in time for dinner. They had complete freedom and the parents were never afraid of where they were because they would be in the backyard or in the house. When she got older she was able to cross the street and be able to spend time with her other friends. Back then they did not have malls, they never shopped and spent money, however there were numerous little shops around for them and they would just go in and out of them.
With there being no division between the east and west side of Asbury Park because they were young and they did not know better. Bangs Avenue was known to be largely African American, but the other two schools had a majority of white children with few African American kids when she was growing up. As soon as High School began that is when all schools merged
and started to see a difference where the surrounding areas combined “Maybe 60, 40%”. With that being said Kay Harris herself has experienced discrimnation in her childhood. She continues to say that there was a pool near the beach and her family was getting out and ready to go. They saw the manager running out and going back in to tell them that they were closed although “you can hear everybody laughing”. This is all because they saw a black family approaching and it took place around the 60’s. This made her feel very “unsettled”. She was very young so she did not have a strong reaction as a seven to eight year old. She says she would have had a stronger reaction now. She never realized this difference because it took her leaving and going to Atlanta, Gerogia to realize. She can pass people on the boardwalk of Asbury Park and it’s like “you don’t even exist”. Going to grad school in Atlanta she saw many “black folks working in airpots and businessess”. When she would see another black person they would ackowledge each other and it would be a different feeling. She would have friends within the school and get along with everyone, but would not go to a different person of color’s house for a “house party”. It was more socialzing within their own neighborhoods. It wasn’t known as discriminatory, however more as societal norms and differences.
Asbury Park is more predominantly back to this day due to Asbury Park having two different schools when it was first built. They had Bangs Avenue North and Bangs Avenue South, where it was connected with a tunnel. However they had two different entrances and two different principals. “In 1946 is when the parents pushed to have it desegregated”, even after this there was a push back by the white folks. Once Bangs Avenue was desgreated and combined as one, that’s when the parents started taking their children out and puting them in private schools. Eventually the Italians, Jewish folks and other people started moving out of the neighborhood and by the time Kay Harris came along it was mainly black folks.
Kay Harris’s work ethics have been amazing. She worked with AT&T and Cablevision. She is mainly an entrerepneur and has a masters in Business administration, so she was always a manager with AT&T and Cablevision. As she reached her retirement years, she opened her business on the boardwalk of Asbury Park in 2005. She would take numerous pictures around Asbury park although it was at its worst times. Then when she had the opportunity to use the space on the boardwalk she woud create “products with images of Asbury Park like mugs, coaster, and magnets” then she had walls of “black and white” pictures from other photographers as well as her own. This was a year round business for a while, however in the winter it is a challenge. They kept moving her shop around and eventually ended up in the convention hall because of the restaurants and other shops opening near her. She ended up coming back onto the boardwalk about 2 or 3 years ago, however it was a smaller store. Due to the store being so small, she was not able to portray this idea of these pictures around, so her main goal was these gifts. She will be opening up closer to Memorial Day Weekend this year! She has “created or established an Asbury Park Meuseum” and has been a member with Asbury Park historical society for many years. The Meusuem is an opportunity to show the images and go beyond that, she evetaully wants interactive exhibits as well. They have a pop up exhibit at the Berkley Oceafront Hotel and it is their second year there.
Kay Harris has traveled to Ghana with some children from the Asbury Park schools so there is a connection between “our youth and their youth”. Ahead of time they spent time on “zoom” and had video communications so they had a bond between the two countries. Kay actually paid for this incredible opportunity and was an investment which was “well worth the money”. While there, they had the opportunity to “go to one of the places where the slaves were held” until ready to be put into ships. It was an emotional moment for Kay and the other as they stepped in the same halls and walked through the experience of the slaves. There was a door named “The door of no return”, when once the slaves left they would never come home again. “With our being there it was almost as if we could be those decendants of those slaves that were sent to the Americans” however “we have returned through that door of no return”. They had the chance to visit schools around the area and you can see they don’t have the same supplies as us and “we realize how foruntuate we are”.
COVID truly took a toll on businesses on the boardwalk as well as Kay’s. However she was lucky enough that her business did not suffer like some of her local business owners on the boardwalk. Another one of the biggest things that changed was her products; she now made “custom masks” to go along with the customs mugs and decor. So she had masks with “The Stone pony, Greetings from Asbury Park” etc. She had hand sanizters for people and her custom masks to make that adjustment for the needed essentials at the time and what people wanted. Eventually they were able to “relax” a little, however they made the adjustments nessesary so people could still come in and do their shopping. So overall she did “okay”. This change had caused an increase of prices and has caused back orders which affected her business. “Items will now cost twice as much this summer compared to last summer”. Her main mindset is to make adjustments. Her main reason she thinks why she was successful was because she was on the boardwalk. Her “fellow business folks may have not done so well, especially in the beginning of the summer” this is because visitors could not go inside the convention hall and could only come to the front. She wanted everyone to succeed.
The biggest issue today besides COVID in Asbury Park is affordable housing. There are numerous condos that are being built and “they are starting at $900,000”. Although there is supposed to be an affordable housing policy within the city, “alot of these agreements were made without an affordable housing component to it”. Therefore Kay’s biggest concern is that the long-time residents at Asbury park are the ones who are going to be suffering. A lot of these people who have lived there for so long can no longer afford to come back. With that being said there has been a strong decrease in population of African Americans in Asbury Park and ownerships. “It’s not only impacting African Americans, I am just talking about average middle income folks being impacted”. It is hard for them to live in Asbury park with these high housing prices. Yes, they wanted Asbury park to turn around, however they really wanted more of a balance to help everyone. “If they push everyone out, who are they going to have to work at these jobs”. Kay Harris is concerned about the fact that she is in fact the only African American business owner on the Asbury Park boardwalk and has been there for 17 years. She would love to see others have the same opportunity.
Lastly to mention, in Asbury Park when affordable housing comes up there are people in the East side saying “oh no, we don’t want affrodable housing here”. They jump to the conclusion that they dont want “low-life folks here”. There is a racial divide and she is concerned about a racal divide regardless if you’re black or white. She says they would give credit to the LGBTQ community as they came to Asbury Park and have allowed growth to happen there and caused lots of changes. Kay Harris says they deserve the recognition towards it. Overall she cannot say discrimination does not exist, however she tends to surround herself around people who are “like minded”.
There are folks in the community that address the concerns, in Asbury Park which will help the community. Her and her groups will continue to do everything in assisting Asbury park grow in a positive way.