Historical marker recognizing New Jersey’s only incorporated Black municipality to be unveiled Friday

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The borough of Lawnside in Camden County will be honored with a historical marker from the New Jersey Historical Commission as part of the state’s Black Heritage Trail.

A ceremony unveiling the marker will take place at 10 a.m. Friday at Lawnside Borough Hall on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Road.

Marsharee Wright, aide to Lawnside Mayor Mary Ann Wardlow and long-time resident, said everyone is thrilled about the marker unveiling.

“We’ve invited the entire community and neighboring towns to come share the celebration with us,” Wright said.

Linda Shockley, president of the Lawnside Historical Society, said it’s “an extreme honor” for the borough to be included in the state’s program, especially as Lawnside is amid a year-long celebration of its centennial.

“It really lifts our profile and hopefully more people will understand and know what Lawnside is about and what it means in the nation,” Shockley said.

Lawnside was one of six sites selected in Camden County in 2024, including “The Point,” a historic Black neighborhood in Haddonfield. Its marker was unveiled last June.

During the ceremony, the borough’s history will be showcased, along with the original documents signed by Gov. A. Harry Moore in 1926, which made way for the borough’s creation.

Though there are many Black enclaves in South Jersey, the borough is the state’s only incorporated antebellum Black community. First known as Free Haven, and later Snow Hill, it was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Peter Mott built a three-floor dwelling in 1844 that was once part of sprawling farmland where he helped slaves escape.

Mott’s house, now owned by the Lawnside Historical Society, serves as an Underground Railroad museum.

Wright, who is Black and has worked for the borough for a decade, is a proud product of Lawnside.

“I always say I was born in Philadelphia, but Lawnside is the town that raised me,” she said. “It is a sense of pride, always a Lawnside Leopard.”

Shockley, another Lawnside native, saw the borough’s evolution from a rural “more homey” community in the 1950s, where people from southern states would come to settle, to a bustling Philadelphia suburb.

She also said the community was regularly featured in African American literature and newspapers, though many nearby were unaware of Lawnside’s existence.

“It’s always been on the radar of Black America in many cases, but even so for people that live nearby, it wasn’t known,” Shockley said.

The New Jersey Black Heritage Trail was established in 2022 to commemorate sites where African Americans made contributions.

A marker was unveiled in Cape May on Thursday to recognize the Macedonia Baptist Church, which has not only served as a haven for the city’s Black community but has also worked to preserve Black history there.