St. Thomas African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
Part IV: Integrating Somerville Public Schools
In the 250 years between Somerville’s settlement and its school integration, generations of African American children experienced educational neglect.(See previous post.) Denied access to Somerville’s educational institutions, the establishment of the Somerville Colored School (1868) is celebrated as one outcome of generations of activism. Frederick H Moore, Sr.’s academic strengths were fostered in the Somerville Colored School, making his 1911 graduation from Somerville High School an extension of that activism. The effort and activism of Somerville’s African American community in the establishment of the Somerville Colored School is worthy of exploration.
Somerville’s religious and private schools were not fully open to the population of (free) black and enslaved children. The more than four hundred children born into slavery in Somerset County between 1804 and 1840 were dependent upon the goodwill of religious groups and white citizens. This goodwill was inconsistent and religious instruction often functioned as a social control. In the 1830s, newly established African American churches worked to educate their children in defiance to legal educational restrictions. As centers of trust and power, churches became the anchoring force in establishing and operating schools.
The traditions of the African Methodist Espiscopal (AME) Church are grounded in resistance. Founded in 1794 by Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church is the oldest black religious denomination. Bishop Allen rejected the racial discrimination within the Methodist Espicopal Church and organized existing African American churches under the AME umbrella. His preachings laid the foundation for New Jersey’s black church movement and the establishment of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the second oldest and second largest black denomination. Organized in 1821, AME Zion churches served Somerset County’s (free) black and enslaved population.
The congregants of St.Thomas African Methodist Espiscopal Zion Church likely organized the first school which would eventually become The Somerville Colored School. This early school, referred to as The AME Church School, and established around 1847 was located in an old barn. An account of the school noted that, “[f]reed slaves had tried to run a school, but it was of no success”. In 1858, St. Thomas erected a 22 ft by 44 ft church building, located at the corner of Davenport Street and Cliff Street (Havens). While there are few accounts of the school, it likely relocated along with the congregation to this building (p 37).
By the time the AME Church School was established, segregated county schools were supported by public funds. The school funding guidelines for African American schools differed from that of white schools. Local governing bodies disbursed public educational funds unchecked. Schools were not equitably funded and segregated facilities were valued below white facilities (p145). Community organized schools, like the ST. Thomas AME Church School, hired qualified, but unlicensed African American teachers. These unlicensed teachers were ineligible to receive state funds. An educational report from Bridgewater notes, “for colored children, …a schoolhouse is kept one quarter of the year. …The teacher… was not licensed, consequently I could pay him no public money and he left,” (p125). In Raritan Township (Hunterdon County), African American residents were required to pay taxes yet their children, numbering 50 or more, were prohibited from attending the white public schools. To educate their children, the African American community assumed the financial responsibility.
The partnership between St. Thomas AME Zion Church and the African American community provided consistent educational opportunities for Somerville’s African American children. The congregation provided the needed financial support between 1858 and 1881 when public funding was not provided. Its old church building housed the school until 1868.
In 1868, St. Thomas AME congregation leveraged its community position to challenge Somerville’s leadership. The conflict emerged when leaders proposed to relocate the residents of Somerville’s African American neighborhood to the south side of town (p 664). The church membership refused to relocate and through negociation secured land for Somerville’s first African American school building. The congregation and the African American community then raised $2800 for the school’s construction. The 1868 building remained a one room structure until a 22 by 40 feet addition was built in 1894. Renamed The Somerville Colored School and newly supported by local taxes, it featured, “well- lighted rooms, with desks for 50 children in one room and 42 in the ·other. The building [was] heated by a hot·air furnace.” (281). The building housed the school for the next 23 years, until Somerville grammar schools were desegregated in 1917.
The relationship between the Somerville Colored School and St. Thomas AME Church actualized the African American community’s desire to educate their children. The legacy of this relationship began with Frederick H. Moore, Sr. ‘s high school graduation and continues with each generation of Somerville High School graduates of color.
Resources:
How Somerville schools were integrated. Havens, J. (1989, December 7) Somerset Messenger-Gazette, p. 13.
African Methodist Episcopal Church NJ Department of Education Reports 1847–1988
Schools for the Colored: A photography study
