Student Oral Historians at Monmouth University

Angelica 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 to lookContinue reading “Student Oral Historians at Monmouth University”

The Attempted Lynching of Tom Williams in Asbury Park, 1910

Killian 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 New YorkContinue reading “The Attempted Lynching of Tom Williams in Asbury Park, 1910”

Review of Gentrification Down the Shore. By Molly Vollman Makris, and Mary Gatta. Rutgers University Press, 2020. 228 p. $29.00 ISBN: 9781978813618.

Hettie V. Williams, PhD Gentrification Down the Shore by Molly Vollman Makris and Mary Gatta is one of the first sustained academic studies on seasonal gentrification. Makris is an Associate Professor, and Coordinator of the Urban Studies Program, at CUNY-Guttman Community College, and the author of Public Housing and School Choice in a Gentrified City:Continue reading “Review of Gentrification Down the Shore. By Molly Vollman Makris, and Mary Gatta. Rutgers University Press, 2020. 228 p. $29.00 ISBN: 9781978813618.”

“Asbury Park: 150 Years of Change and Transformation — A Segregated Seashore”

Melissa Ziobro On May 14, Professor Melissa Ziobro of the Paradoxical Paradise project won a Diversity Innovation Grant from Monmouth University to help fund a traveling exhibit on the history of the east side of Asbury Park, to include a discussion of segregation there. Ziobro volunteered her time to serve as an advisor on thisContinue reading ““Asbury Park: 150 Years of Change and Transformation — A Segregated Seashore””

Rebellion on the 4th of July: A Brief History of the Asbury Park Riots, July 1970

Justin Montana In the 1960s, social rebellion was a constant. All across the country, African Americans, women, members of the LGBTQ community and marginalized groups, more generally, were fighting for basic human rights. While these battles for justice in the North are mostly connected to places such as Newark and Detroit, urban rebellion occurred inContinue reading “Rebellion on the 4th of July: A Brief History of the Asbury Park Riots, July 1970”

Paradoxical Paradise Oral Histories Spring 2021: Student Perspective

Gillian Demetriou My name is Gillian Demetriou and I am currently a senior history major at Monmouth University with minors in English and public history. Professor Ziobro recruited me to conduct oral history interviews for Paradoxical Paradise while I was taking her Oral History class as an independent study during the Fall 2020 semester. MyContinue reading “Paradoxical Paradise Oral Histories Spring 2021: Student Perspective”

Paradoxical Paradise Spring 2021 Oral Histories Part II: Faculty Perspective

Melissa Ziobro I would like to share a bit about the Paradoxical Paradise oral history work funded by Monmouth University’s Urban Coast Institute this past Spring 2021 semester. Some of the funding from a grant awarded by Monmouth University’s Urban Coast Institute (UCI) awarded to our project Paradoxical Paradise went towards conducting and transcribing oralContinue reading “Paradoxical Paradise Spring 2021 Oral Histories Part II: Faculty Perspective”

African Americans in Asbury Park History

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 inContinue reading “African Americans in Asbury Park History”