By Cathy Miller

Living in the Anderson area of Port Murray for 77 years, Ina Walls grew up right down the street from her current home. The fourth of 14 children, she attended both Hackettstown Elementary and High School before a full career working for the State in Hagedon Psychiatric Hospital’s medical records department. She’s also considered an expert in the area’s Black history.

Sitting in front of one of her favorite paintings, “Zumde 2” by Mercy Mayo, of Zimbabwe, a lively, vibrant mixed-media painting of women picking cotton in the fields, she shared some of that knowledge and her own experiences growing up in this small community.

“Growing up here in the 1960s, I didn’t see much racism, a little prejudice, but not a lot of racism. Everybody I knew had a job. No one seemed downtrodden or poor. Surely we were poor, but we always had food and a place to call home. This particular area was totally black and most people who lived here owned their own homes. 

“My mother was from Washington, my dad from Newark. They met at a dance. After he relocated to Warren County, my dad worked in the Asbury Graphite Mill and hated it. He preferred being his own boss. Eventually he became a house painter, builder, and carpenter. He bought this house on the corner [Ina gestured in that direction], which was originally a carriage house. We converted it and that’s where we grew up.”

Ina noted that New Jersey, at one time, had the highest slave population in the country. With the pendulum constantly swinging between progress and retrogression in terms of racial prejudice and discrimination, how can it be resolved?

“For me,” Ina said thoughtfully, “each time it comes back, it’s worse. There’s more anger. The hate feels more severe. How do you overcome that? Talk and discussion don’t seem to work. How can you reach everybody?”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever see it resolved. I think one of the things that might be holding us back is that for the most part the country is still segregated. Not so much black and white segregated but people stay in one area and never leave. We have so many different ethnic groups moving in and they don’t quite understand American racism. My neighbor is Portuguese. She tells me all the time, ‘I don’t understand this. I like everybody.’ How can that be explained?”

“America has been white America for 300 to 400 years. European, African, Asian countries, they’ve always had an influx of people moving in and out or staying. We haven’t had that. And now we do, I think people feel threatened. There’s nothing to be afraid of. I’m tired of trying to convince people that there’s nothing wrong with African Americans.”

What does that fear mean for her and her family? “I have eight grandchildren and two are bi-racial; they’re young men, 18 and 22. One grandson is married to a Caucasian woman. She was so hurt one day because somebody said something negative about her child. She just cried. I told her this is what happens. You’re going to have to teach your child what’s right and wrong and make sure you carry yourself in such a way that you know you can stand up against what is wrong.”

One way to do that is to be vocal. “The Constitution’s laws are not carried out equally. It’s true, we get mad, we demonstrate, we do whatever to show our dissatisfaction.”

Ina attended the first Black Lives Matter rally in Washington Borough on June 14 with two of her grandchildren, which was organized by Warren Hills Regional High School student Mariah Weatherspoon.

Alluding to protests of the 1960s, she added. “I can’t believe I’m still doing this 65 years later!” Impressed by the number of attendees and glad that it was orderly and peaceful, she hoped it did some good for somebody. “I firmly believe If we are going to achieve anything, it’s going to be through education.”

Black History at the local level

Ina only knows of one historical marker in Warren County related to Black history, but that doesn’t mean nothing of significance has happened here.

“I’ve heard the Underground Railroad went through here but haven’t found anyone with a definitive answer. I do know there’s a house on Belvidere Avenue in Washington that had fake walls. My girlfriend and her husband moved in and one day while organizing the basement, her husband pushed on a wall. It tilted forward. He discovered a passageway, an area where you could hide.”

Another possible connection to the Underground Railroad is the old African Methodist Episcopal Church that used to be located on Water Street in Belvidere. African Methodist Episcopal churches were known to be strongly opposed to slavery with at least one, in Springtown, New Jersey, with confirmed ties to the Underground Railroad.

“Historians understand that just because it isn’t on formal maps doesn’t mean it didn’t exist – folklore and oral traditions could be true.”

Local history is Ina’s specialty and when Star-Ledger reported 10 years ago on the historical influx of slaves moving from eastern New Jersey into Warren County and eastern Pennsylvania, she recognized many of the names. In fact, she has compiled a written narrative of the people of Anderson.

“Every once in a while, someone will pop into my head and I have to add them – when did they arrive, how long did they live here. I search through the census at the library, however black people were hesitant about being on the census. They may not have submitted the paperwork or opened their door to be interviewed, which means the census may be incomplete.”

Established in 1930, Anderson is approximately one square mile, with about 44 homes. A friend of Ina’s moved away years ago to attend college. Recently she returned for a visit and said, “You know everybody Ina.” Ina replied, “This is my neighborhood and I want you to know that I was here first and I welcome you.”

Do you feel there’s enough being done to preserve and present Black culture in Warren County?

“No,” Ina said quickly. “When I first got really interested in African-American history, I was working at Hagedorn and I was on a committee mandated to provide cultural competence orientations for new employees. In addition, every year, we’d host some kind of cultural presentation – a video followed by discussion where people could share personal experiences. We held annual cultural festivals to educate people about cultural differences. Things like that should also happen in schools.”

She added, “If we want this to turn around, we should start by teaching the younger kids. You’ll continue to learn that there’s no threat to you from black people. I never went up to a white person and said I hate you because you’re white. It makes no sense.”

Everybody had a vocation

While not everyone may realize it, there has been a “steady” Black population in the area for 200 years, Ina said.

“In Anderson, you’re talking about a very small community that produced high-caliber people. We can count many local achievements between the late ’50s and the late ’80s.”

From education to art to psychology, “Everybody had a vocation.”

Among Anderson residents was Ina’s brother, Matthew Pinkman, the first black teacher in Hackettstown, who would go on to become the principal of Hackettstown Middle School. Her sister, Marion Gaskins, taught in Washington starting in the ’60s. Mary Hayes also taught in the ’60s in Glen Gardner.

There was also psychiatrist Gloria Thomas and her sister Gwen Rocquemore, a psychologist. Ina’s sister Sue Emanuel became an registered nurse. Richard Chapman owned an oil delivery service in Newark, and Wilbur Scott and Stanley Gaskins ran their own cross-country delivery service.

“Black-owned businesses included Lela Robinson and her husband Theodore’s Hillcrest Luncheonette in Anderson. Kingdom Rogers owned a self-named gas station on Route 57. It used to be Shield’s Gas Station. … We had a lawyer come out of Anderson. Mr. Beckett was an electrician and his son became a doctor. His daughter was a teacher. At one time, Mansfield Township had five black teachers.”

Ina’s sister, Nancy Steele, is an accomplished watercolorist. Her brother, Louis, creates all kinds of paintings and sketches, with a particular penchant for portraying people.

Like many of the small communities in Warren County, Anderson was tight-knit.

“We had two black churches. The First Baptist Church of Anderson was started by Reverend Charles Broadnex in 1945. He was the father of Lela Robinson. He was the pastor of the church, which held services in a newly constructed chicken coop. The Seventh Day Adventist Church started around 1948. Services were held in a solarium in a person’s home.”

There was a country store on Komar Road, too, where anyone who gardened would bring their surplus to sell in summer. “It was run by a little old lady, Mrs. Turner. She was always afraid she was going to get robbed, so she kept her money in the back room. If you gave her a dollar bill to buy some candy, she’d go get your change, but in the meantime the kids were taking the candy out front.”

Identity and Pride

While talking about Black History, Black Pride, Black Neighborhoods, you mentioned African Americans. Is there a difference between Black and African American? 

“I like to say Black Americans, only because I don’t know my history connected to Africa. My granddaughter is doing some research on Ancestry.com and found a connection with Nigeria, but I also have an Asian connection. Very few people come from just one culture or one country – but – we all are human.”

She recalled, recently, a little girl asked her, “How come you’re black?” And she replied, “Because I was born that way. I can’t change it because I’m black.”

“Her mother was mortified,” Ina recalled, but “I explained, kids ask questions. Don’t be philosophical about it, just give them a straight answer. They’ll accept it and go about their business.”

How do you feel about using the word “black” as an identifier?

“I don’t really like it. Everything is labeled nowadays. Even with statistics – this many blacks as opposed to this many whites, this many Hispanics as opposed to this many blacks. You’re creating a division. No wonder we can’t get past this. I’m just me. My skin is black, and in the summer it’s blacker, but I’m no different than you. I think. I eat. I sleep. I read and write.”

Describe Black Pride

“For me, it means taking stock of what has gone on in past years and how you’ve managed to overcome it without the hatred. For the most part, I don’t think black people hate white people. I think they feel white people don’t understand them. In reality, they’re just just the same. So you take pride in not only what you’ve achieved, but what your ancestors have achieved and what you’re going to continue to achieve.”

Ina’s Recommended Reading on Black History:

“America Behind The Color Lines” by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
“The Underground Railroad: From Slavery to Freedom” by Wilbur Siebert
“The Negro Civil War” by Benjamin Quarles
“The Souls of Black Folk” by W.E. DuBois
“Black Firsts” by Jessie Carney Smith (it covers up to the year 2000 and Ina thinks it would make an excellent textbook!

Article References:

1. New Jersey Historical Commission’s Guide to the Underground Railroad in New Jersey
2. Cumberland County Cultural and Heritage Commission’s History of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church and the U.S. National Park Service’s page on Bethel AME and the Underground Railroad