The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has awarded the Lawnside Historical Society a $50,000 unrestricted grant.
The award stems from a collaboration with Q&A Thought Partners and others during a May convening of experts in Lawnside as part of RWJF’s ongoing exploration into how homeownership preservation, community continuity, and equitable investment strategies intersect with health and long-term wellbeing. Q&A Thought Partners is led by H. Qawi and Angela Austin of Lawnside.
Society members Shamele Jordon, Christine Lewis-Coker, Linda Shockley and Veronica Tingle provided historical perspective and guided a tour of the historic community during the convening.
The grant has tremendous value as the Society promotes and preserves the unique heritage of New Jersey’s only incorporated African American borough, the only one above the Mason-Dixon Line.
Primary activities are operating and maintaining the Peter Mott House Underground Railroad Museum, educating students, tourists, and the public about the origins of the community and its existence as a microcosm of the Black experience in America.
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RWJF is a leading national philanthropy dedicated to taking bold leaps to transform health in our lifetime. Through funding, convening, advocacy, and evidence-building, it works side-by-side with communities, practitioners, and institutions to get to health equity faster and pave the way, together, to a future where health is no longer a privilege, but a right.
The Lawnside Historical Society was founded in 1990 to promote, preserve and protect the heritage of Lawnside, inhabited in the 18th century, and incorporated in 1926 by an act of the state legislature. The borough is New Jersey’s only African American incorporated municipality.