Hettie V. Williams, PhD
New Jersey’s coastal cities such as Atlantic City and Asbury Park were an attractive place of settlement to African Americans in the early twentieth century. This surge in the black population was greatest in counties such as Atlantic, Essex, Monmouth, Union and Camden. African American migrants relocated primarily to cities in New Jersey such as Newark, Atlantic City, Asbury Park, and Trenton then to smaller suburbs such as Westfield, Summit, and Montclair. In counties such as Essex and Atlantic, where the black population increased most dramatically, a burgeoning black elite and professional class expanded and fermented a strident activism through such organizations as the NAACP and the YWCA among many other local institutions.
By 1910, more than half of the black population, an estimated 55,900 blacks, lived in the northern section of the state residing in counties such as Essex and Monmouth. In Essex County, the black population was at 18,104 in 1910 (the highest in the state) while Atlantic County located in the southern section of the state experienced a significant increase in the growth of its black population from 1900 to 1910. The rise of the hotel and leisure industry in Atlantic City made the city a major destination for African Americans fleeing Jim Crow in search of better economic opportunities in the North. In places such as Newark, New Jersey, located in Essex County, Asbury Park, located in Monmouth, and Atlantic City in Atlantic County black elite and professional associations became particularly pronounced and well positioned in both the social and political arena.
African Americans began to enter the city of Asbury Park in large numbers after 1910. Many came in search of employment in the leisure industry as the city became a burgeoning resort spot for well-to-do vacationers. Most settled on the West side of the city. Asbury Park’s West Side became a center for African American life and culture particularly clustered around Springwood Avenue as the city also became noticeably more segregated. Springwood Avenue was central to East Coast Jazz Age culture through the 1950s. This was the location of the historic Turf Club on the corner of Springwood and Atkins Avenue. Billie Holiday, Lionel Hampton, Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald were among the artists that played at the various clubs on the West Side. The ten- block area of the Westside was home to venues that shaped the development of Jazz, gospel and rhythm and blues on the East Coast and the nation from 1910 to 1970.
During the World War II era, the Black Population of Asbury Park increased from 3,513 to 4,300. The local housing authority also oversaw three public housing projects that were developed on the Westside between 1941 and 1952. Asbury Park became a military training center during the war as the government took over the YMCA and Convention Hall. African Americans continued to enter the city in large numbers in search of work securing jobs as skilled laborers and as service personnel. The Signal Corps located at Fort Monmouth in Eatontown, New Jersey was also a place where some Black Americans were able to obtain work during the war. Asbury Park increasingly became a city divided by railroad tracks. In this arrangement, the vast majority of African Americans lived on the West Side.
Suburbanization and the rise of highway culture in the 1950s helped to precipitate a white flight from urban centers in New Jersey such as Asbury Park. With the rise of the Civil Rights Movement by 1955, African Americans began to increasingly demand access to quality education, jobs and public facilities across the American South while being more critical of de facto segregation in the North. By 1970, there was little or no improvement to public housing that became noticeably more dilapidated. Though the immediate cause of the Asbury rebellion of 1970 remains somewhat unclear, substandard housing, decline in employment opportunities (especially for the younger adult population), and de facto segregation were major concerns of the Black community on the eve of the rebellion. There were an estimated 17,000 African Americans living in Asbury Park (30 percent of the total population) by July of 1970.
The Asbury Park rebellion erupted on July 4, 1970. Some causes include unemployment, substandard housing, corruption and the lack of recreational activities in the city for Black young adults. A key issue for African American leaders in the community at the time was the lack of employment for African American youths in the city. Jobs once made available to this group were disappearing as white teenagers came to occupy most summer employment opportunities. Black leaders made demands related to youth employment prior to the rebellion. According to eyewitness accounts of the event, the conflict began after a group of African American teenagers broke some shop windows following a dance at the West Side Community Center. Broken windows eventually led to nearly seven days of looting and property destruction in the city. This insurrection lasted until July 10. An estimated 180 people were injured and this included 15 New Jersey State troopers with 46 people admitted to the hospital. There was also more than 5 million dollars of property damage left in the wake of the rebellion. Many African Americans who resided on the West Side were displaced from their dwellings as the white flight from the city dramatically accelerated after July, 1970.
Hettie V. Williams is an Associate Professor of African American history in the Department of History and Anthropology at Monmouth University.