James A Bradley in Asbury Park. Accused of racism. Paul Goldfinger photograph. © From 2017. Reposted in 2018.
Are there any historical clouds over 19th century Ocean Grove? Paul Goldfinger photo. ©
Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
We wrote about James Bradley as part of our Ocean Grove history trail. Bradley was a wealthy New Yorker who was a huge fan of Ocean Grove. He not only founded Asbury Park and Bradley Beach, but he was the first person to buy a lot in Ocean Grove (1870) when Rev. Stokes, placed the lots “for sale.”
Now, a group in Asbury wants to take down the statue of James Bradley that has a prominent location in the park to the rear of Convention Hall/Paramount Theater. It was placed there in 1920 for the city’s 50th anniversary.
Quote from the Asbury Park Press (APP) 9/29/17: “Randy Thompson, founder of “Help not Handcuffs,” an organization that says it promotes drug policy reform and social justice, claims Bradley promoted bigoted policies on the boardwalk and the beach.”
“He helped segregate the town,” said Thompson, 43, of Asbury Park. “That was his business model.”
That group says that Bradley was a racist, but others in Asbury disagree with the notion that his statue should be taken down. Werner Baumgartner, AP historian is quoted in the APP: “I don’t think you can call the man a racist, when society kind of dictated certain separations,” Baumgartner said. “It might have been business pressures more than anything else, rather than a personal desire to segregate races.”
Baumgartner said the city erected the statue in honor of Bradley’s philanthropy and said that the founder donated money to local black churches.
Other leaders in A. Park also oppose taking down the statue, including the Asbury Park Historical Society which said, “People should never forget the city’s late founder James Bradley’s ‘advocacy of segregation,’ but it draws the line on removing the statue erected in his honor near Convention Hall. ” (quoted in the APP)
Don Stine is President of the AP Historical Society, and he is quoted in the APP:
“If you’re going to take down the statues of people who were segregationists in the United States, you would have to take down just about the statue of everybody,” said Stine said. “It was a segregated society. It just was.”
Stine said he favored keeping statues and monuments in place so that people can “learn lessons from the past.”
“He said the Historical Society is conducting a review of all statues and monuments in the city to see if it can help with their preservation. ‘We believe all monuments in this city are worthy,’ Stine said.”
An academic paper about segregation in AP 1880-1890 by David Goldberg (see link below) points out that there was “Jim Crow enforcement*” in both the North and the South, and James Bradley was pressured by white tourists into segregating the famous resort. Here are a few quotes from that paper:
“By 1887, however, Bradley responded by officially restricting all African Americans, both those who worked as well as those who sought to vacation in Asbury Park, from the beaches and other shore facilities. By posting signs throughout the community and stationing officers at pertinent shore locations, Bradley prohibited all black citizens from the beaches, bathing houses, pavilions, and promenades.”
“Viewing the shifting racial landscape throughout the nation, Asbury Park’s black leaders saw the resort’s emerging Jim Crow character as part of a disturbing nationwide trend toward racially-defined public and commercial boundaries.”
“Since Asbury Park served as a Diaspora for the North’s geographically-diverse white citizens, their protests against integration highlights the racist and unreconstructed sentiment of the North after emancipation.”
“As Jim Crow became permanently enforced * throughout the North and the South after 1896, these tensions would prove central to African American’s struggle for “integrated leisure,” which became an important part of the fight for racial equality and social acceptance.”
History of segregation in Asbury Park 1880-1890
Blogfinger agrees with Mr. Stine, but, given the current political trends, will it come as a shock if somebody wants the Stokes statue removed?
We know that black workers were hired in 19th century Ocean Grove (and later) to work in the hotels and restaurants. They often stayed in segregated quarters, and there are old photos which show blacks posing with guests and other workers. We also know that black gospel singers and preachers performed in the Great Auditorium.
But we don’t know if African Americans came to the Grove for recreation such as the amusements at the North End, the boardwalk and the beaches.
We also don”t know if Ocean Grove’s leaders took any inspiration from the segregationists in Asbury Park or if they resisted segregation on moral grounds. Goldberg’s paper doesn’t mention the Grove. We do know that Stokes worried abut secularism, but we found no references to racial issues in his autobiography.
Ocean Grove in the 19th century was a white Methodist town, but that was due to their trying to establish an enclave for Methodists, so the Town tried to limit its home-owning citizens by excluding all sorts of groups including Roman Catholics, Jews, and blacks.
And can we call that racism since the basis of exclusion was not color but religion—-unless they did exclude black Methodists. It’s probably more like isolationism rather than exclusionism. It was more about keeping to themselves rather than keeping others out. And it is certainly not segregation such as Bradley is accused of.
Stokes is probably safe from the 21st century witch hunters who are prowling around the Jersey Shore.
If we can find any other information, we will post it. Meanwhile this seems like an issue which we should follow.
ALISON KRAUSS From the movie O Brother Where Art Thou: “Down to the River to Pray.”
“O brothers, let’s go down
Let’s go down, come on down
Come on, brothers, let’s go down
Down in the river to pray.”
For similar reasons I also support the removal of Confederate flags. But doing so doesn’t mean that we’re tossing history or burning books. We’re pushing against what they represent: bigotry and treason. As Confederate flags represent a part of our history not worthy of our honor, statues, which are erected in honor of those they depict, can also represent a part of our history not worthy of our honor.
Bradley and Stokes created towns. They didn’t aid humanity or save lives. Creating towns is trivial in the big picture. And merely creating towns pales when contrasted with the dark sides of those men. Washington, Jefferson and the rest of the founders did so much more, and that stands out when contrasted with their dark sides.
Thank you, Paul, for the explanation.
Andy: WordPress is behind that “like” business. To tell the truth, I don’t value “like” very much. That is one reason why I dumped Facebook.
I didn’t dump “like” completely on Blogfinger because I don’t want to offend other Bloggers who show their support that way.
A nice complement from readers in the comment section of Blogfinger is satisfying for me. So thank you for taking the comments route.
The best compliment for me is when readers like you participate in our discussions.
Paul @Blogfinger.net
Hey Blogfinger,
Why is it so easy to make a comment and so hard to “like” something? Sign into wordpress? I want to “like” your comment on the Bradley Statue.
Ray. So many historic statues have multiple meanings, so for some, a statue of a person may not be about the particular person depicted. Most people who walk by Bradley’s statue have no idea who he was or what he stood for. For those who have a clue, many know that he founded the City of Asbury Park. That is precisely why he is standing there–representing the history of the City.
The back story of Bradley and segregation has many names attached to it besides his. Should society unearth all those 19th century names and then toss mud on them now?
There is no reason to take Bradley down since as a matter of public opinion, he can be honored for his main contribution. If you apply such scrutiny to every statue in America, as could happen in our society today, no one can be a hero.
If you go to Arlington Cemetery and stand next to the Marine Memorial (raising the flag in Iwo Jima) You probably will be moved because it honors our war dead since 1775.
And if you are sensitive to segregation in our society you might want to tear it down because the military was segregated for all those years. Or you might hate the military because the National Guard hosed down civil rights demonstrators during the 1960’s.
But there is an overriding meaning that supersedes other interpretations, so even though our society condemns segregation now, we leave it standing as a war memorial. The same thing could be said for Civil War dead on the Confederate side.
And it is like burning books because as books remember history, so do statues.
Remember those Taliban radicals in Afghanistan who tore down historic Buddhist sculptures because they viewed them as evil? “They tried to erase all traces of a rich pre-Islamic past and ordered the destruction of ancient statues, including the world’s tallest standing Buddhas.” (WIKI)
But you can’t erase history by tearing down statues, so why not let them stand so that those who care can appreciate them. The Taliban are routinely condemned for that act. The same applies to Bradley’s statue.
Statues aren’t really about history. They are monuments to the people they represent; they are praise for those people. Removing them is not like denying history. It’s not like burning books. It’s removing the praise of people who don’t deserve it.
I repeat my post from September 29, 2017: It’s all about preserving the history of the times then, regardless of what we think now.
Bradley was the founder of our “city by the sea,” Asbury Park, named after Bishop Francis Asbury. He faces the boardwalk that he installed to attract other businessmen.
Reblogged this on Blogfinger and commented:
We discussed the subject of taking down statues in 2017. Apropos of our debate about changing street names in the Grove, here is that statue piece again, but note that the street discussion was not about being offended (as Phil Smith mentioned in his comment.) Instead our OG street talk was about how our town is changing and about the role of the CMA in the future.—-PG
So many great leaders were flawed individuals but rose to the occasion when they were needed. I think we need to keep this in mind and remember the context and time they were in.
Yes we should learn from history, but to destroy history is to endlessly repeat it.
So recognize our forefathers and teach all about them and learn from them but don’t erase them.
The OGCMA allowed the KKK to give speeches in the Great Auditorium . So does this mean the iconic historic Great Auditorium should be removed ? The KKK used to meet at Camp Evans in Wall . Does this mean that historic Camp Evans should be demolished ?
Taking down statues? What’s next – book burnings?
As a member of the Asbury Park Historical Society, I appreciate your taking the time to explain the “sign of the times” then and now.
That’s the reason why our mission is the “preservation of anything with historical value to the City of Asbury Park, New Jersey”.
Defenders and opponents of Bradley can find evidence to support their positions. I recommend the book, 4th of July, Asbury Park, by Daniel Wolff, 2005.
Wolff traces the history of AP (and occasionally OG) from 1870 to 2001 in a very lively way. Just to give one example:
John Baker had been a slave in Virginia at the beginning of the Civil War. He escaped to NYC where he started working for the Bradleys. Mrs.Bradley set about teaching him to read.
In summer 1870, Bradley and Baker left NYC for Long Branch and then OG and Bradley bought 500 acres of scrub oaks, sand dunes, and jungle north of Wesley Lake for $90,000 ($1.5 million today).
Years later, “Baker would leave Bradley’s employ, marry, and move to Washington, where he became a carman, hauling freight with a horse and cart. One day, loading some boxes, he had a stroke and was paralyzed. He lived long enough for Bradley to visit him on his death bed.”
What Mr. Goldberg wrote is his opinion. Just because he has published his opinion doesn’t make it fact. We don’t know what his agenda may be.
When Bradley established Asbury Park, one of the ways he used to attract home builders was to give a free lot to any religious group to encourage members to move to the community and build. That included African Americans along with Jewish Americans. So in fact he encouraged African Americans to move to Asbury Park.
It was through the pressure of Asbury Park businessmen that forced Bradley to put into place the segregation policies written in Goldberg’s paper.
So in fact all of Asbury Park should take the blame and not just Bradley. So maybe we should take down all the city to be fair; that way we can correct Asbury Park’s history.
Taking down the statue won’t change the past. Why not put a plaque by the statue to educate the public about segregation instead of just removing it?
Look, Ocean Grove did not want anybody but white Protestants here for a very long time (some of the current CMA trustees probably still don’t). Yet Methodists were leaders of the abolitionist movement.
So do we take down the Stokes statue? We have a complicated history of race relations, so let’s just acknowledge it instead of using it to make a partisan political statement.