Newark Activists Will Remember Nat Turner Uprising At 2024 Event

NEWARK, NJ — Nearly 200 years ago, Nat Turner led a bloody uprising against slavery in Virginia that became one of the most pivotal moments in the 19th century. And in New Jersey, this sobering moment in U.S. history will be commemorated for the 15th straight year at a gathering in Nat Turner Park in Newark.

The People’s Organization for Progress (POP) and Friends of Nat Turner Park will co-host the 2024 commemoration of the Nat Turner Uprising on Wednesday, Aug. 21. The event will take place at 5 p.m. at the park, which is located at 190 Muhammad Ali Avenue (intersection of Muhammad Ali Avenue and Jeliff Avenue).

Among the guests expected to participate are South Jersey-based activist Blair Silver, who is a descendant of Nat Turner, and activist-artist-priest Queen Mother Imakhu of the Newark chapter of the National Action Network, whose family ancestor, Billy Artis, also participated in the uprising.

The legacy that Turner inspired is complex. A charismatic and fiery preacher, he led an insurrection against the family who enslaved him in 1831, eventually rallying dozens of others in an uprising that resulted in the murder of an estimated 55 white people. After hiding for weeks, Turner was later found, convicted and hanged.

In the aftermath, white mobs and militias murdered anywhere from 100 to 200 Black people, many of whom had nothing to do with the uprising. The state also executed 56 enslaved people accused of being part of the insurrection.

According to History.com:

“The incident put fear in the heart of Southerners, ended the organized emancipation movement in that region, resulted in even harsher laws against enslaved people, and deepened the schism between slave-holders and free-soilers (an anti-slavery political party whose slogan was ‘free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men’) that would culminate in the Civil War.”

“Nat Turner’s rebellion put an end to the white Southern myth that slaves were either contented with their lot or too servile to mount an armed revolt,” Britannica.com states.

Even today – nearly two centuries later – the events of the uprising still echo as far north as Newark. Read More: Nat Turner Uprising Still Puts Fire In Hearts Of NJ Activists

“We hold this observance of Nat Turner’s Rebellion every year because it is important to appreciate that our ancestors never accepted slavery and resisted at every turn they could,” said Lawrence Hamm, founding chair of the POP.

• See Related: Newark Remembers 1967 Uprising: ‘Not A Riot, A Rebellion’

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