The Historical Society of Hammonton (HSH) presents another fun FREE-to-the-public Speaker Series event on Thursday, June 6, 2024, at 7:00 PM at the Canoe Club Senior Center, Hammonton Lake Park.
This event will focus on Juneteenth, a significant day in American history. Juneteenth, combining ‘June’ and ‘Nineteenth,’ marks the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas in 1865, at the end of the Civil War. Also known as Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day (Texas), Freedom Day, and Black Independence Day, it was first celebrated in 1866.
Our speaker, Ralph E. Hunter Sr., is the founder of the African American Heritage Museum of Southern New Jersey, established in 2002. The museum, located in Newtonville, NJ, and a second location in Atlantic City, features Hunter’s personal collection amassed over 45 years, along with donated memorabilia, paintings, carvings, statues, Shona stones, African masks, and periodic artist displays.
The Historical Society of Hammonton is dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich, multi-cultural social, economic, and political heritage of our town and its people. Our mission is to increase awareness of Hammonton’s rich history and to establish public access by collecting, conserving, interpreting, and promoting it to the widest possible audience.
Our Museum, built in 1887, is a treasure in itself. Formerly the Hammonton Town Hall, it also served as a Town Library and Kindergarten. Located in Hammonton Veterans Memorial Park, it is open to the public on Tuesdays from 10 AM to Noon and Saturdays from 11 AM to 2 PM.
If you can’t attend the presentation, you can find them on our YouTube channel, or you can come in and play back recordings of this and dozens of other past presentations. Monthly meetings and presentations will continue the first Thursday of each month.
Funding has been made possible in part by the New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of Cultural Affairs within the Department of State, through funds administered by the Atlantic County Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.