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Faith, family and food.

Between 1880 and 1924, more than four million Italians immigrated to the United States. Tens of thousands flocked to Newark and reshaped a city. Many settled in the Old First Ward, which once claimed the title of largest Little Italy in New Jersey. Clubs like the Spilingese Social Club sprang up to provide support and camaraderie and dishes like giambotta made their way into everyone’s kitchens. 

Author Andrea Lyn Cammarato-Van Benschoten traces the roots of Newark’s Italian communities.

Stories of a People

Throughout history, African Americans passed along folk tales to ease burdens and make sense of experiences. Tracing back to West Africa, this storytelling tradition provided laughter, instruction and resilience. Animal stories often were proverbs for adults and teaching points for children. Two pioneering Black schoolteachers told of their careers in education. An eyewitness described the Charleston Race Riot in 1919. Others gave testimonies of Denmark Vesey’s attempted slave rebellion. Author Damon L. Fordham presents this collection of Black South Carolina stories and narratives based on interviews and research, including his travels in Africa.

Nannie Berger Hairston was a crusader for justice in twentieth-century Virginia.

Nannie Berger Hairston was born in West Virginia in 1921, half a century after the end of the Civil War. She attended segregated schools, graduated, married and started a family. When Nannie’s husband, John, lost his job in the coal mine, the Hairstons moved to Southwest Virginia. It was the height of Jim Crow, and yet, against great odds, she and John became leaders in the community, advocating for civil rights and social justice. Nannie Hairston’s advice was sought by the powerless as well as the powerful. At the time of her death in 2017, she had taken her place as an icon for truth, justice and love.

Local author Sheree Scarborough uses Nannie Hairston’s own words to tell her story.