CELEBRATING WITHERSPOON-JACKSON: Dr. Cecelia Hodges opened Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church’s annual Community Block Party, held Saturday to celebrate the history and legacy of Princeton’s Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood. The free, community-wide event featured food, music, games, and community connection. (Photo by Matthew Hersh)
By Matthew Hersh
The last summer Saturday of the season brought neighbors to Quarry Street this past weekend as the Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church hosted its annual Community Block Party, offering an opportunity to reflect on the history of Princeton’s Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood and consider what it will take to carry that legacy forward.
Hosted by the church’s Young Adult Ministry, the September 19 gathering brought together longtime residents, families, community organizations, faith leaders, and public officials to celebrate community and continue discussions about the neighborhood’s history and its future, following a series of related community conversations and events held over the past six months.
“This is our historic church,” said Evan Peal, president of the church’s Young Adult Ministry. “From the very beginning, Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church has had something to stand for. It is good for freedom, and it is good for the dignity of every human being, regardless of where they were or where they come from.”
The church, established in 1836, has long been closely connected to Princeton’s Black experience and the Witherspoon-Jackson community. Saturday’s program drew on that history while bringing contemporary issues — including preservation, affordable housing and higher education — into the fold.
Opening the program, Dr. Cecelia B. Hodges, a former Princeton University English professor and assistant dean and an elder at Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church, used poetry to connect the gathering to both the history of the neighborhood and the work still ahead. She recited lines from Langston Hughes’ “Let America Be America Again” and Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise.”
Mayor Mark Freda welcomed the gathering and emphasized the community’s role in welcoming residents from throughout Princeton.
“Today is about not only this neighborhood, but how this neighborhood celebrates, but the fact how this neighborhood welcomes the entire town to come over and be part of what’s happening here today,” Freda said.
Shirley Satterfield, founder of the Witherspoon-Jackson Historical and Cultural Society and a longtime advocate for preserving the neighborhood’s history, welcomed visitors to “our block.’”
“We welcome all organizations and Princeton community services whose missions support and promote equality and treatment for all people, and provide the public with knowledge and research and share the rich history of the African American community,” she said.
The Rev. Dr. Glen Misick, interim pastor of Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church, connected the church’s history to its present-day mission.
Quoting the biblical call to “let justice roll down like a mighty stream,” Misick said the church takes a holistic approach to its mission, emphasizing both its faith and its responsibility to the wider community.
The Paul Robeson House restoration served prominently as one of the main backdrops for the entire event, and the discussion quickly turned to the effort to preserve Robeson’s Witherspoon Street home.
Joy Barnes Johnson, a local public schools educator and member of the board of the Paul Robeson House of Princeton, said the organization is committed to preserving the legacy of the Robeson family and preparing the childhood home of Paul Robeson for a new chapter as a community institution.
“As we prepare to open the Robeson House, right there on the corner, at 110 Witherspoon Street, we hope you will join us as we lift up the Robeson name and make his name a household name,” she said.
Barnes Johnson read from words Robeson wrote more than a century ago, when he was a student at Rutgers University, and connected his ideas about liberty and community to
Princeton today.
She concluded with a reference to current local events: “How can we defend historic Princeton? We defend historic Princeton by standing for that which is right. By standing for that which is community, by believing in things that bring us all together.”
The remarks came just days after state officials presented a $400,000 grant toward completion of the Robeson House restoration. The project, which has been underway for nearly two decades, is intended not only to preserve Robeson’s childhood home but to create a community resource with exhibition, meeting, and educational space. A portion of the building will also provide temporary housing for service workers, immigrants, students, and others in need of transitional accommodations.
That intersection of historic preservation and present-day community needs became the focus of the Rev. Eric Dobson’s remarks on affordable housing.
Dobson, executive director of the United Black Agenda, argued that housing should not be viewed simply as a government program or construction issue, but as a fundamental part of determining who can remain part of a community.
“Honoring this legacy requires more than just preserving a building,” Dobson said. “And me asking whether the next Paul Robeson, or the next teacher, or the next artist, minister, nurse, small business owner, or public servant, can afford to grow up in this community today.”
He asked whether young adults raised in Princeton can continue to live here and whether families of different incomes, races, and generations can remain part of the same community.
“Affordable housing is not about bringing some distant group of people into community,” Dobson said. “The people who need affordable housing are already a part of the community.”
The comments echoed themes raised during the Joint Effort Princeton Witherspoon-Jackson Community Safe Streets program earlier this summer, when housing affordability was discussed alongside transportation, public safety, education, and economic opportunity as part of the future of New Jersey communities.
State Sen. Andrew Zwicker, who also spoke at the Joint Effort Safe Streets program in August, discussed the role of government in partnering with local communities. He cited the recent state funding for the Robeson House as an example of that partnership before turning to higher education affordability.
Zwicker emphasized New Jersey’s community colleges as an important pathway for students seeking affordable higher education and discussed his effort to automatically enroll high school graduates who want to attend community college.
“If you can’t afford to live in the community where you work, if you can’t afford to live in the community where you want to raise your family, then there’s something wrong with what we’re doing as a government, as a society, and as a community,” Zwicker said.
He connected that issue to education and economic mobility, saying that government and communities need to work together to create opportunities for residents.
Peal closed the formal remarks by returning to the theme that ran through the afternoon: community as something that must be actively created and sustained.
“Today, we are honoring our past and pushing towards a better future,” he said, encouraging attendees to meet neighbors, visit the tables set up by local organizations, and learn more about their work.