The New Jersey Council for the Humanities has awarded the Lawnside Historical Society a $3,000 grant to conduct an oral history project over the next 10 months called, "Tell Lawnside's Story."

The Society started an oral history project to capture stories of residents who descended from fugitives along the Underground Railroad who settled in and around Lawnside. Many of these moving stories were tape recorded or videotaped on Lawnside Heritage days and at other times.

Quickly, it became clear to the Society that Lawnsiders had significant stories to tell about social, political, religious and school life in this close-knit community. Lawnside was incorporated as a municipality in 1926 by an act of the state legislature making it the only incorporated African-American municipality in New Jersey and the northern United States.

The grant will enable to Society to widen the scope of the project and to recruit and train interviewers, solicit interviewees, record these sessions, and then distribute them on videotape, audio tape, DVD, CD and in written transcripts. Dr. James Rada of Howard University's John H. Johnson School of Mass Communications and E. Muneerah Higgs, social studies teacher at Lawnside Public School, will serve as videographers and instructors for the project which will be led by Linda Waller, Society president. There will be several public sessions and previews.

Potential interviewers must attend orientation, read a technical leaflet on oral history produced by the Association for State and Local History and do research on the people to be interviewed. Elementary and secondary school students will be encouraged to serve as interviewers, with some sessions held in Lawnside Public School classes.

To volunteer as an interviewer, call the Society at 856-546-8850 or send e-mail to lhs@petermotthouse.org.

This project was made possible by a grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations in the resulting published material do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.

The Lawnside Historical Society, a qualified organization of the New Jersey Cultural Trust, is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization dedicated to the preservation of the Peter Mott House and the promotion of Lawnside's heritage as a uniquely African-American town.