‘The Point’ was once Haddonfield’s vibrant Black community. Now residents’ stories will be preserved.

Having grown up in Haddonfield, Malcolm Talton has become accustomed to telling the little-known story of “the Point,” the segregated neighborhood where a small but vibrant Black community thrived for more than a century.

Now, Talton, 69, a retired Cape May County teacher, hopes to share the stories of Black residents through the Preserving Black Haddonfield History Project, which aims to bridge racial gaps by educating the predominantly white South Jersey community about its past. Volunteers with the project are gathering first-person accounts, organizing walking tours, and holding workshops.

“It’s surprising that many people outside of town didn’t know there was a significant African American community in town,” said C. Adrienne Rhodes, who grew up in Haddonfield and is the co-founder of the project.

On a muggy afternoon last week , several Haddonfield Memorial High School students interviewed Talton and the Rev. Gregory McMillan, who shared their stories about growing up there. The students were stunned by the racism and discrimination that both experienced.

“I knew that happened in the South. I didn’t know that was happening here in Haddonfield,” said Phoebe Rynkar, 14, an incoming freshman. “I would definitely say it was eye-opening. I learned a lot from [Talton].”

Senior Alexandra Gwaku, 17, co-president of the Black Student Union who conducted the interview with McMillan, said he shared information she will “remember forever.” Gwaku said she has not experienced racism, and “I’m grateful for that.”

As a young man, McMillan said, he was frequently stopped by police. Even today, he said, the sound of a police cruiser “just sends chills through my body.” He had another encounter with racism during the 1983-84 school year when he sought the lead character in the musical Pippin, the story of a young prince struggling with his future. McMillan said he wasn’t selected for the role because the director wasn’t “comfortable with a Black male kissing a white girl.”

“I was taken aback,” recalled McMillan, now 56.

Both men said they enjoyed happy childhoods growing up in the Point at the end of Potter and Ellis Streets along Lincoln and Douglass Avenues (believed to have been named for the abolitionist Frederick Douglass).

The close-knit neighborhood was mostly self-contained with two churches, a general store, a produce market, barbershop, Little League fields, and a segregated school for Black students. Everyone knew one another, looked out for one another, and gathered for block parties and social gatherings.

“It was wonderful growing up here,” said Talton, who lived in Haddonfield until the late 1990s. Mount Olivet Baptist Church, where his grandfather pastored, remains a mainstay in the neighborhood.

According to the history project, Black residents in 1950 comprised 2.2% of Haddonfield’s population of 10,495, about 200 people. They all lived in the area around the Point, and there were no white residents recorded living there.

Today, only a few of the properties in the tree-lined neighborhood are owned by Black residents. Historians say the Black population declined as a result of high property taxes and a social climate that forced them to relocate. Haddonfield’s population of 12,426 is about 1.2% Black these days, making it one of the whitest communities in the area.

Settled in the late 1600s by Quakers, Haddonfield later became home to former enslaved people, many freed by Quaker abolitionists. They were joined by residents who migrated from the South and formed a community in Haddonfield and nearby towns.

Rhodes, who graduated from Haddonfield High in 1978, decided to launch the four-part history project to capture narratives and improve diversity, equity and inclusion in the schools. She is a fourth-generation descendant of enslaved people who were among the early settlers of nearby Lawnside, a stop on the Underground Railroad..

She launched the project last year with help from alumni, educators, the Historical Society and the Haddonfield Anti-Racist Coalition. She especially wanted to include students to make the project intergenerational. Several teachers joined and encouraged students to get involved. Students created a Black History Club, too.

“I was unaware of the history. I think it should be part of the education,” said sophomore Tommy Grookett, 15.

Black students began attending Haddonfield High in 1910, while the lower grades remained segregated until 1948. Today, the high school enrolls about 900 students, 88% white, 3.5% Asian, 2.8% Hispanic or Latino, and 1.4% Black.

Rhodes believes the history project will help bridge racial and generational divides at a time when Haddonfield has experienced a series of racial incidents in its schools and around the borough.

“When people are better informed, they commit less harmful acts,” said Rhodes.

In the first phase of the project, an AP English class interviewed such people as Doris Brown Butler, residents between 70 and 100, who shared their experiences and some painful memories. A lifelong resident born in 1930, Butler recalled shopping and attending school with white students for the first time.

“A lot of the stores on Kings Highway, you could go in them but you couldn’t try on anything. At first you go in there and you find that you can’t try it on, it makes you angry. But then after a while you realize, well, you just don’t go in there.”

The narratives have been well-received by some residents, such as Michael Donnelly, 76, who wrote to Rhodes:

“... I had no contact with Black people until I was a young adult. I always appreciated the Douglas Avenue neighborhood. I wish my son had more contact with Black people in school. In some ways, I failed him. I am very glad to see this project in the high school.”

Rhodes said her group plans to use the interviews to produce more anthologies and a docu-series. A walking tour that debuted earlier this year to commemorate Juneteenth will officially be launched Sept. 23. Plans also call for later installing historical markers at 12 sites on the tour.

McMillan, pastor of the Bridge Church NJ in Hamilton Square in Mercer County, said his childhood experiences motivated him to go to college because his guidance counselor tried to discourage him, saying he wouldn’t get accepted. He selected a career to serve people and moved back to Haddonfield in 2014 with his wife and four children.

Talton wants to see his hometown embrace its past.

“When I tell people I’m from Haddonfield, they don’t believe it because they don’t believe there are any Blacks in Haddonfield,” he said. “The good thing about this project is that it will educate people.”

For more information about the Preserving Black Haddonfield History Project, call 917-497-8874.