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Carroll Gallery Exhibit
The Negro Motorist Green Book, later renamed the Negro Travelers’ Green Book, was an annual guidebook that gave African American travelers essential information about safe places to stay, dine, and obtain services while traveling in the segregated United States during the Jim Crow era. Jim Crow laws forced racial segregation and lasted close to 100 years until 1968, and were enforced harshly, often with violence. The Green Book and similar publications helped keep Black travelers safe and provided them with some measure of freedom of movement. Learn how Esso stations created safe havens for Black motorists to fill their gas tanks and how hotels such as the Banneker House, the Hotel Dale, and Richardson’s Hotel, among others in Cape May, along with guest houses in Wildwood, gave Black visitors safe spaces to relax at the seaside on holiday or for business. Visit the Carroll Gallery Exhibit, "Routes of Black Travel: The Green Book in Cape May and Wildwood," at the Emlen Physick Estate, 1048 Washington St., Cape May, N.J. Saturday, Jan. 18-Sunday, March 23, 2025.
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Underground Railroad Trolley Tour
Cape May was part of the Underground Railroad and this trolley tour, which is part of the National Park Service's Network to Freedom, and also one of just 13 sites nationwide on the Park Service's Travels with Tubman app, tells of those dangerous days. Enslaved persons fled their captors in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia and braved strong currents and stormy seas, guided by the beacon at the Cape May Lighthouse. Hear how legendary anti-slavery fighter, Harriet Tubman, walked these streets, as did prominent railroad businessman and former enslaved person, Stephen Smith, whose railroad cars carried hundreds to freedom. Begins and ends at Ocean Street Trolley Stop and travels through parts of Cape May, Lower Township and West Cape May, with stops along the way, including the Mt. Zion Cemetery. Trolley tour co-sponsored by Center for Community Arts (CCA) and Cape May MAC. Portions of this tour are not accessible. Mondays, Jan. 20 and Feb. 17 at 1pm with additional dates in 2025.
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