| The Lawrence E. Walker Foundation Collection
contains over three thousand documents; over ten thousand,
four hundred, and forty pictures, fourteen originally
composed songs, and eighty historical film interviews
with well-known historians such as Charles Blockson of
Temple University, Dr. William Katz of New York, Dr. Clement
Price of Rutgers University, the late Dr. Gary Hunter
of Rowan University, and many more historians throughout
the Tri-State area. Within this collection, there is footage
of African-Americans in the Revolutionary War and Civil
War from the 1700’s through the 1800’s. The collection
paints an invaluable portrait of four hundred years of
African-American history, from slavery to freedom, which
traces the trail of the Underground Railroad and Slavery
throughout New Jersey. The main focus and goal is to spotlight
New Jersey. Philadelphia and New York’s rich history involving
the Underground Railroad and Slavery are also featured
because both states are so closely tried within New Jersey.
The collection also includes the Oral Living Military
History Collection: more than one hundred and sixty
interviews, more than four hundred photographs and research
information about Veterans of the Revolutionary War,
the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean
War (1950-1953), the Vietnam War, Operation Desert Storm,
and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The only record of the 1961 Rutgers University debate
between Dr. William Neal Brown, a Tuskegee Airmen (Captain)
during World War II, as well as the first black professor
at Rutgers University, and Malcolm X is also part of
the collection.
BIOGRAPHIES
Filmmaker LAWRENCE E. WALKER has spent
seven years collecting historic photographs, visiting
African-American historic sites in New Jersey and neighboring
states, and researching Journey to Freedom: The
African-American Experience in New Jersey, 1638-1931,
a project which includes a book, an educational CD-Rom
and an inspirational music CD. Walker is President of
Bull’s Eye Production, Inc.
in Somerset. He has worked as a free-lance cameraman
and editor for NBC, CBS, News 12 and TKR Cable Company,
and worked on the PBS documentaries Paul Robeson:
a Commentary, To Serve My Country, To Serve My Race,
and The Life of Paul Robeson. A graduate of
Kean University, he lives in Hillsborough.
GARY HUNTER chaired the history department
at Rowan University, where he taught for 29 years. The
late Dr. Hunter researched and wrote the first draft
of Journey to Freedom: The African-American Experience
in
New Jersey, 1638-1931 before his tragic death in
an automobile accident in 2003. The American Federation
of Teachers chapter at Rowan established the
Gary
Hunter Excellence in Mentoring Award to
honor the memory of this dedicated teacher. Dr. Hunter
earned his Ph.D. in history from the University of Michigan,
where he wrote a dissertation entitled “Don’t Buy
Where You Can’t Work”: Black Economic Boycotts During
The Depression. He also taught at the University
of Michigan, Fisk University, and the University of
Calabar in Nigeria, and served on the New Jersey State
Historical Records Advisory Board.
RANDALL O. WESTBROOK, co-author of
Journey to Freedom: The African-American Experience
in New Jersey, 1638-1931 is an Instructor at Fairleigh
Dickinson University, Madison, and serves as Coordinator
of the Community College Partnership at Raritan Valley
Community College. An intellectual historian, Professor
Westbrook recently completed a doctoral dissertation
on W.E.B. DuBois. He serves on the advisory board of
the Robeson Institute for Ethics, Leadership and Social
Justice and was a featured historian on the award-winning
PBS documentary American Masters Series: “Paul Robeson
Here I Stand.” A graduate of Livingstone College
in North Carolina, he earned his Master’s degree and
Ph.D. in history at Rutgers University.
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