From public art to police oversight, N.J. looks to right its racist past [View all]

New Jersey may not be the first state that springs to mind when considering the history of slavery and systemic racism. But the ugliness emerges after even a cursory probe into the past.

The Garden State was the last of the Northern states to abolish slavery, initially rejecting the Thirteenth Amendment. Perth Amboy was one of the busiest slave ports on the East Coast. And the Great Emancipator? Abe Lincoln lost the popular vote here – twice.

Today, largely due to protests over police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement, lawmakers here, like everywhere else, are navigating a racial reckoning, and proposing remedies to right the state’s racial wrongs.

Some have already passed. Gov. Murphy last fall declared Juneteenth a state holiday. In March, he signed into law a bill that requires New Jersey’s schools, starting this fall, to teach diversity, inclusion, and equality from kindergarten through 12th grade. And lawmakers last year officially designated Cape May’s historic Howell House as the Harriet Tubman Museum.

Read more: https://newjerseymonitor.com/2021/08/04/from-public-art-to-police-oversight-n-j-looks-to-right-its-racist-past/