Join us for a Black History Month Lecture

Moving from Slavery to Freedom: The Underground Railroad in Northern New Jersey

Presenter: Jimmy Richardson

Jimmy Richardson is a Paterson native-son historian and community activist. He has spent more than 40 years studying the history of African American communities in Northern Jersey.

His research while he was an archivist in the New York Times micro-film department resulted in his production of a documentary film, Freedom Fighter, that looked at the decision to make Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday a national holiday. The film led to an exhibit at the New Jersey Historic Society in Newark, followed by the historic designation of the Community Baptist Church of Love in Paterson, the last place MLK spoke in New Jersey  before his Mountain Top speech and his assassination in Memphis.

Richardson has successfully achieved landmark status for several African American Churches with cultural and architectural significance to African American communities. His research on the Underground Railroad led to the 2019 acceptance and certification of an underground site in Paterson as a National Historic Site by the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.