Manual Training and Industrial School subject of new documentary
By: Cara Latham
BORDENTOWN CITY Betty Hunter could remember that ever since she was a little girl living in Neptune, she wanted to be a beautician.
But the only way she could get her license was by going to schools either in Philadelphia or Newark, and she did not want to do that.
Instead, she heard about the Manual Training and Industrial School for Colored Youth in Bordentown, where during her junior and senior years, she could spend half of the school day learning a trade. And a career in beauty culture became an option for her.
Ms. Hunter, a 1952 graduate of the school who now lives in Lakewood, has since kept in touch with most of her classmates and formed the Bordentown Social Club, where those graduates meet up every year this year being the 14th meeting.
This sense of community and friendship is among many values the school encompassed that will be captured in a documentary film by Hudson West Productions, called "A Place Out of Time," in which Ms. Hunter’s story is included.
Even though the school closed more than 50 years ago, its former prominence as one of the major vocational schools for African-Americans in the nation is what peaked the interest of Dave Davidson, director and co-producer of the film. The film is to be aired on stations like PBS in February for Black History Month, Mr. Davidson said.
In its heyday, MTIS provided a well-rounded education to thousands of African-Americans from varying economic backgrounds from its founding in 1886 to its closing in 1955.
At the school, formerly located on East Burlington Street, students learned trades such as auto mechanics, plumbing, heating, beauty culture, makeup and hairdressing, Mr. Davidson said.
"They would apply those trades to the actual upkeep of the school, so they were instrumental in its survival," he said.
Established by the Rev. W. A. Rice, an ex-slave and an African Methodist Episcopal minister, the school started out in several private residences within Bordentown City before converting to a boarding school in 1902 on the estate of Capt. Charles Stewart, who was the commander of the USS Constitution during the War of 1812.
The school, which was taken over by the state in 1894, was modeled after the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, which combined academic teaching with vocational training that allowed students to enter the work force after leaving school.
The Juvenile Justice Commission currently owns and operates the former MTIS campus.
The idea for the documentary came from discussions between Mr. Davidson and one of his scholarly friends, Clement Alexander Price, who teaches at Rutgers University and who has written extensively about historical African-American topics, Mr. Davidson said.
"After a while, it seemed like the right thing to do," he said, adding that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark desegregation case, Brown v. The Board of Education. "It’s a good time to evaluate the successes and failures of school integrations."
The school essentially offered about 50 percent vocational instruction and 50 percent intellectual education, Mr. Davidson said, and a sense of black history was emphasized.
"It was an interesting learning community where the faculty, staff and students were live-in 24/7," he added.
Because of these factors and because the students applied their trades to maintaining the school, they were able to focus and accelerate without distraction, Mr. Davidson said.
"There was a community involvement in the place that really empowered the kids in Bordentown to feel like they were a part of something," he said.
Ms. Hunter said they employed teachers from schools like Harvard and Princeton universities. After graduating, she worked as a hairdresser in shops for about 17 years, and then went on to teach for 25 years. Other jobs on her list include working in the television industry, with Estee Lauder, in department stores through North Jersey, and eventually for ITT, where she worked in the secretarial schools.
"I had a ball," she said. " I had a very interesting life."
Mr. Davidson and his company interviewed many graduates over the past two years, most of whom he said are "high achieving" and went on to have productive lives.
"What you do notice, even in the last graduating class, these are people with an incredible amount of pride, and they still have a great deal of loyalty to their school, which is a tribute to its power to change lives," Mr. Davidson said. "Their stories and their pride of place, I think, is really inspiring."
Another female graduate, now a college professor, interviewed by Mr. Davidson had studied beauty culture, makeup and hairdressing. When she graduated, she made more money following her trade than when she started out as an assistant professor, Mr. Davidson said.
"There’s a testimony to the values of being able to have a craft and a trade," Mr. Davidson said.
Aside from getting the documentary broadcast on PBS, which in New Jersey would run on NJN, other educational and foreign markets will be considered, Mr. Davidson said.
The company received a $10,000 initial grant from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, which supports educational, cultural, social and environmental causes, because the film is a New Jersey-based project and it is educational. It later received another $25,000 from the foundation. Other grants came from the New Jersey Historical Commission, which gave the company $20,000 and the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, which gave $15,000.
"A film like this will have a long timeline," he said.
Even though Hudson West Productions is based out of Croton-On-Hudson, N.Y., it began in New Jersey in 1986, but moved to New York because of busy schedules, Mr. Davidson said. It still has an office in Weehawken, and one in Newtown, Conn. The company has done other films with African-American cultural themes including "Cissy Houston Sweet Inspiration" and "The Dancing Man Peg Leg Bates," a film about a famous African-American one-legged tap dancer. The other co-producer of the film is Amber Edwards.
Mr. Davidson said historical material, interviews with graduates and commentary from scholars, including Dr. Price, will be included.
"You have to be passionate about the story idea because it takes a long time, and you have to stick with it," he said.
Ms. Hunter is also excited to see the film because she said the students learned how to have their own little village, where they stood by the rules and regulations, and where she learned self-value.
But, she also thinks it will change the perspective some people have of African-American youth.
"I would like to see other people see this school, see what it’s all about," Ms. Hunter said. "We’d like to show a more positive side of youngsters that started in the 1800s and went all the way up to 1955."