‘Black History maker’ speaks of county roots
African American role in county’s growth largely ignored, he says
A native son of Monmouth County, Walter David Greason chose to focus his studies on the story of a community that often does not receive credit for its important role in shaping the local area.
A doctoral candidate at Temple University, Philadelphia, and a visiting instructor of history and politics at Drexel University, Philadelphia, Greason was raised in Freehold and Manalapan. He returned to Brookdale Community College’s Performing Arts Center in Lincroft to give a lecture entitled "African American Roots in Monmouth County" last week.
Based on his forthcoming book Suburban Erasure, the lecture focused on the largely unacknowledged contribution of African Americans in fostering the economy and politics in the area from 1890-1990.
"My work’s real goal is to emphasize the contributions of people that have not really been seen before," said Greason.
"There needed to be something that accounted for the world that I grew up in," Greason told the crowd, including many friends and family who came to hear him speak.
Greason spoke of the central role that many African Americans played in making the economy of the local area run.
With western Monmouth County functioning as "the bread basket" of the state, Greason highlighted the contributions of black farm workers in the agricultural economy who made farms growing potatoes, cranberries and apples, among other things, productive.
Many of those who worked on the farms up through the middle of the century were migrant laborers, living in camps that consisted of one- or two-room houses with no electricity or running water.
Pergolaville, one of the camps which stood in present-day Manalapan, housed more than 1,000 workers at its peak from 1930-1960, said Greason. However, no evidence of that world exists today.
"Oversights do not negate the contributions of African Americans to our history," said Greason.
"How do we deal with a base of unacknowledged workers who helped make this community a desirable place to live? How do we give African Americans, some of those from families who have lived here their whole lives, a greater voice?" asked Greason.
In the eastern half of the county, Greason emphasized how the black community was a major part of the backbone that allowed the large resorts, hotels and summer homes located in Asbury Park, Long Branch and Red Bank to operate.
Greason detailed how many in the African American community, particularly leaders in the area’s black churches, protested against a pervasive Ku Klux Klan presence in the county, particularly in Long Branch and Red Bank, in the 1920s, and later struggles to end segregation during the Civil Rights movement.
According to Greason, the African American workers were only permitted to live by the water in the shore towns if they were live-in, domestic servants. Most lived on the west side of those towns, forming the basis for historically African American neighborhoods in those communities.
Greason cited the story of William "Count" Basie, the legendary band leader raised on Red Bank’s west side, as an example of the racial divide and segregation in Monmouth County.
"The greatest irony is that he could not gain admission to the Strand Theater that now has his name attached to it," said Greason.
Suburban Erasure is the culmination of Greason’s work toward his doctorate at Temple. Honored by the N.J. Historical Commission as a Samuel Smith Fellow, Greason was also named a "Black History Maker" by the Philadelphia Daily News in 1997.