The Commemorative Efforts of the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum

This is the second in a series of blogs, created in partnership with Princeton University, entitled Commemoration, Crisis and Revolution in the City. To learn more about the research behind this project, visit https://commons.princeton.edu/commemorating/

***

In September of 2016, Elaine Buck and Beverly Mills created the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum (SSAAM), located at the Mt. Zion AME Church and True Farmstead in Skillman, New Jersey.[1] The Mt. Zion AME Church was first established in 1866 by the descendants of free and enslaved African Americans in the Sourland Mountain Region and was one of the first African Methodist Episcopal (AME) churches in New Jersey.[2]

Zion Church

In 1899, the church relocated to Skillman, New Jersey — its present location — because its location in Zion, New Jersey had become inconvenient for the congregation.[3] The church had an active congregation from its inception in 1866 up until to 2005, when worship services ceased due to dwindling membership.[4]

SSAAM is a powerful museum that paints the use of commemoration in a different light. Commemoration is a powerful tool that throughout the United States’ history has often been utilized to advance the interests of wealthy elites.[5] However, SSAAM turns this idea on its head. SSAAM uses the history of African Americans in the Sourland Mountain Region to empower the local African American community. Whether it be through fundraising events the museum holds, or the important, overlooked history the museum disseminates, SSAAM uses history and community to rewrite a narrative in which African Americans are commonly left out.[6] Doing so creates a more accurate history of New Jersey’s Black population in the mid- to late-nineteenth century.

The commemorative efforts of SSAAM are also unique because the museum adds a personal element to its teachings of the history in the Sourland Mountain Region. SSAAM utilizes recorded oral histories along with maps of important African American cultural and historical sites in the Sourland Mountain region to narrate the stories of African Americans.[7] These two aspects of the museum's commemorative efforts introduce visitors to the interesting and compelling history that members of their own communities' ancestors lived through. This personalized touch to the museum helps educate its visitors, while also keeping visitors grounded in the spaces and places this history happened. SSAAM thus educates while reminding visitors that the African Americans continue to have a direct connection to this landscape, as evidenced by their descendants living in the local community.

Author Gaines and fellow Princeton Students visit SSAAM

SSAAM and its commemoration are exciting examples of public history and the ways history is remembered and can be re-remembered. In much the same way that the museum takes the scholar Seth Bruggeman’s insights about the weaponization of commemoration and turns it on its head, SSAAM also uniquely utilizes ideas put forth by Pierre Nora in his famous article Between Memory and History.[8] Nora famously argued that history is a biased tool that runs counter to public memory. In contrast, public memory can sometimes function as a more accurate recollection of the past.[9] SSAAM uses public history and memory practices passed down through generations to educate the local community in hopes of creating a more accurate history of African American history in the Sourland Mountain Region.            

Elaine Buck and Beverly Mills’ work of revealing the stories of the African American families that shaped the Sourland Mountain Region for generations — and their efforts to support their community in taking control of their past, present, and future through SSAAM and their books — serve as shining examples of the way commemoration can be used to empower communities and offer a more accurate history.[10]

***

Alexander Gaines is a first-year student at Princeton University hailing from Newport, Rhode Island. At Princeton he is studying Electrical and Computer Engineering with a certificate in African American Studies.

[1] “About Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum,” SSAAM, accessed April 1, 2024, https://www.ssaamuseum.org/about.

[2] SSAAM, “Our Sites: The Church,” SSAAM, accessed April 1, 2024, https://www.ssaamuseum.org/oursites.

[3] SSAAM, “Our Sites: The Church”

[4] Elaine Buck and Mills, Beverly If These Stones Could Talk (Lambertville, NJ: Wild River Books, 2018), 118

[5] Seth C. Bruggeman, ed., Commemoration: The American Association for State and Local History Guide (New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), 1-12.

[6] Donneta Johnson, “Giving Voice: SSAAM’s Annual Report,” (Skillman, NJ: SSAAM, May 2022), 4.

[7] “Oral Histories” SSAAM, accessed April 1, 2024, https://www.ssaamuseum.org/items; “Black History Map of the Sourlands” SSAAM, accessed April 1, 2024,https://www.ssaamuseum.org/resources

[8] Pierre Nora, “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire.” Representations, no. 26 (1989): 7–24.

[9] Nora, “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire.”

[10] Elaine Buck and Beverly Mills, African Americans of Central New Jersey: A History of Harmony and Hostility (Cheltenham, Gloucestershire: The History Press, 2023); Wendy Greenberg, “‘If These Stones Could Talk,’” Princeton Magazine, accessed April 1, 2024, https://www.princetonmagazine.com/if-these-stones-could-talk/.