RICH IN HISTORY: Lewisville Road in Lawrence Township once was the home of the earliest African American community in the Lawrence area. This photo of former residents is marked Bosley family, 1912. (Photo courtesy of Lawrence Historical Society).

By Wendy Greenberg

Described as “small in size but rich in history,” the Lewisville Road community is a Lawrence Township historic site “that must not be forgotten,” writes township historian Brooke Hunter in an article on the Lawrence Historical Society website.

A coalition of community groups is making sure that not only is the Lewisville Road African American community not forgotten, but that future generations may learn how it is a significant part of Lawrence’s history.

The Lewisville Road Symposium, a forum dedicated to the history of Lawrence Township’s first African American community, will be held on Saturday, September 27 from 2 to 4 p.m. at The Lawrenceville School, 2500 Main Street, in the Kirby Arts Center.

The symposium is sponsored by Lawrence Neighbors Together, The Lawrenceville School, Lawrence Township Public Schools, the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville, and the Lawrence Historical Society.

This event is free, although pre-registration is requested at eventbrite.com/e/lewisville-road-symposium-tickets-1543149855759 or at the Township of Lawrence Facebook page. Additionally, registration is linked from the calendar at lawrencetwp.com or The Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville’s website at pclawrenceville.org.

The program developed, said the Rev. M. William Howard Jr., a founding member of Lawrence Neighbors Together (LNT), after he and Township Mayor Patricia Hendricks Farmer brought the idea of erecting a marker on Lewisville Road to leaders of the township’s historical society, recognizing the site as the location of the first community of African descent in Lawrence. “A meeting was then convened, involving the historical society, LNT, the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville, The Lawrenceville School, and the Lawrence Township Public Schools that was chaired by Mayor Farmer,” said Howard.

The marker unveiling ceremony took place last March 25, and now sits on the site of the former Mt. Pisgah A.M.E. Church. The plaque notes that the church “formed the center of Black community life for over a century.”

The symposium’s keynote address will be given by the Rev. Dr. Charles F. Boyer, pastor of the Greater Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church in Trenton, who will speak about the historic nature of the A.M.E. church as related to the pre-Civil War settlements of Black people, of which Lewisville Road is an example.

New Jersey Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson will deliver closing remarks. Farmer, and Joseph Ciccone, president of the historical society, are on the roster as well.

Current students will play a large part in the symposium, including as an important audience. A panel discussion with Lewisville descendants will be moderated by students from The Lawrenceville School and Lawrence Township High School. Lawrence High School’s gospel choir will perform. Bernadette Teeley, acting dean of faculty, The Lawrenceville School, will speak about how Lewisville’s history can be incorporated into educational programming, and how that can be accomplished.

Teeley said,“The Symposium will provide an important opportunity for attendees to engage with the rich history of Lewisville Road. While curriculum development is an ongoing process, we look forward to seeing how our faculty and students will expand upon what they learn. We are excited to see how this work develops and enriches our community in the years ahead.”

The symposium will provide opportunities for individuals to offer oral histories and photographs, with the goal of expanding available information.

Today, one Black family resides on Lewisville Road, noted Howard, who is a retired pastor of Newark Bethany Baptist Church, civil rights activist, former president of the New York Theological Seminary, former chair of the Rutgers Board of Governors, and was chair of the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission.

“When I came to the area there was still a group of these families,” said Howard, who holds a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary.

Lewisville Road, one of the oldest roads in the township, connects Princeton Pike and Franklin Corner Road, and is named for Lewis W.R. Phillips, a member of a Lawrence founding family, who lived on a farm on the eastern side of today’s Route 206, just north of Cold Soil Road, and was a slaveholder who later joined the antislavery movement and sold land to free Black people on Lewisville Road in the 1840s and ’50s. When Mt. Pisgah A.M.E. Church was built in the 1880s, it served as a spiritual, civic, and social center that united the dozen or so Black families on Lewisville Road with other Black families in the township.

The symposium coordinators want to make sure the history is not forgotten. “As our national government seems eager to erase the history of the Black people,” Howard said at the marker dedication ceremony, “Lawrence Township is moving in the opposite direction; we do this intentionally at a time when some of the nation’s political leaders aim to wipe from memory the vital human journey that is symbolized by this historical marker — a journey that is crucial to the development of the township and a source for its richness. With this action, Lawrence is saying we know better than to forget.”