New Jersey’s Oldest All-Black School Building to Become a Museum Celebrating Black History

The oldest school building in New Jersey may soon become a museum to celebrate its Black history.

Located in Newark, the 179-year-old State Street Public School is the only remaining location of the city’s former school for Black students, as well as the home of the first Black principal in the city’s school system. Although the school has been vacant for decades, officials still aim to turn the building into a place where people can gather to learn more about its Black history.

“At some point in time you have to preserve what you can,” said Marian Bolden, who has led the efforts to turn the school into a museum since before she retired in 2008. “It’s certainly the oldest school building still standing, but it was also a building that served as a school of the ‘colored’ children. There’s a historic significance to the building.”

Newark-based developer, the Hanini Group, purchased the property in 2019 for $650,000 as a part of an initiative to liquidate vacant buildings while the district was controlled by the New Jersey Department of Education as a part of a state takeover from 1996 to 2018.

Thanks to the district’s first top administrator since the takeover ended, Roger León, there is a goal to reclaim buildings sold under the state plan and turn it into a place where people can gather to learn Black history. A 2020 lawsuit allowed the State School to be reclaimed by the district, ultimately leading to a settlement agreement with the Hanini Group in 2023.

Per the details of the contract, the district is to pay the Hanini Group to redevelop the school as the Newark Public Schools Museum. The project, set to take place in three increments, will kick off with a $2.5 million payment to begin the redevelopment, a $1 million payment once it is halfway finished, and then a final $1 million once the project is complete.

According to a Park Service document, since the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990, the State Street School’s first Black principal, James Miller Baxter Jr., was first hired by Newark as a teacher in 1864 at the age of 19 when the school was housed in a different location. Just two months later, he was appointed to principal and led the all-Black school until its closing and his retirement in 1909

“This was the official end to segregated schools in Newark, 45 years before the Supreme Court’s historic decision ordering an end to all separate but equal provisions nationally,” read the official documents.

While many are excited about the school’s museum revitalization, and the role it will play in teaching the city’s Black history, others have voiced concerns about the heavy lifting and costs of the project.

“At a time when children are not proficient in math, children are not proficient in reading, what is that doing to help them?” said Oscar James, a former Newark City Council Member who has two children in local charter schools and expressed his frustration about his tax dollars going into the school redevelopment project. “We have a Newark Public Library. We have a Newark Museum (of Art). Why would Newark public schools want to be taking on such an endeavor?”

A museum consultant with knowledge of the State Street School revered the upcoming redevelopment program, but warns that they should assess the building’s condition to see if the project is even worth it in the end.

“I’m always in favor of bringing these untold stories to light,” said Claudia Ocello, CEO of Museum Partners Consulting in Maplewood. “Anybody owning an old house or is in charge of an old building knows that there is a lot of maintenance involved.”

At this time, memorabilia and artifacts that would be housed in the museum are current stored in the city’s Malcolm X Shabazz High School and include class photos, school uniforms, wooden desks, ink wells, pins and rings, and 120-year-old report cards, amongst other historical items that could soon be on display for people to experience.

No set start date or completion date has been set for the State Street School museum project yet.

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