For Immediate Release; with photos on flickr

 

Contact:         Maryjane Briant
                        News and Media Relations Director
                        Galloway, N.J. 08205
                        Maryjane.Briant@stockton.edu
                        (609) 652-4593
                        www.stockton.edu/media

Galloway, N.J. – Stockton University’s acclaimed exhibition on the role South Jersey has played in the civil rights struggle, "A Time for Change," is moving to the Galloway campus.

South Jersey played an important part in the struggle for African-American equality. Its citizens fought for racial justice and against segregation in the south, marched on Washington with Martin Luther King, Jr., protested on the Atlantic City boardwalk with the Mississippi Freedom Democrats, and showcased the first Miss Black America contest.

"A Time for Change," will be open to the public beginning Oct. 4 through Dec. 15 on the first floor of the Bjork Library. The library is open Monday-Thursday from 8 a.m. to midnight; Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.; and Sunday, noon to midnight.

"This project is the culmination of over two years of collaboration between the university and the African American Heritage Museum of Southern New Jersey, and demonstrates the commitment Stockton has to our community,” said Assistant Provost Michelle McDonald. “It also addresses the  complicated issue of race relations, not only during what was a critical time in our region's past but also as an essential topic for ongoing conversation given recent events.  I hope it will prompt viewers to consider where we have come from, and how far we have yet to travel."

The show includes the first Miss Black America pageant in 1968, the origins of Martin Luther King Day that same year, and racial conflicts in both Camden and Newark as well as how they fit into the larger context of a national movement.        

The exhibition, which was previously at the African American Heritage Museum of Southern New Jersey in the Arts Garage in Atlantic City, is sponsored by Stockton University and the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.

John O'Hara, associate professor of Critical Thinking and First Year Studies at Stockton, headed the project, working with graduate students. 

“The title of this exhibition, 'A Time for Change,' evokes the situations and conditions of change in the 1960s, but in looking at the 1964 Democratic National Convention protests, de facto segregation, race and police violence, and urban unrest, it also evokes the present,” he said.  “Many of the moments on which we focus are not so distant after all, and we invite visitors to reflect on the nature and meaning of civil rights change."