MANASQUAN — The history of slavery in Monmouth and Ocean counties was presented in a black history event at Shiloh Baptist Church last Friday.
The Feb. 24 event, organized by the church’s scholarship committee, included a performance by actress Lorraine Stone and a presentation by Rick Geffken in observation of Black History Month.
Jean Thomas, an event organizer for the church, said that this first program since the start of the COVID-19 was purposefully more extensive than earlier events, including book clubs, that dated back about five years before they were put on hiatus during the pandemic.
For this resumption of the church’s events program, organizers agreed they wanted to do something bigger and aimed at educating not only the students of the community, but also the adults and other guests.
Following a dinner at which congregants could mingle and enjoy fellowship with one another, Ms. Stone opened the program by portraying Harriett Tubman, discussing her years as a slave and her eventual role in the underground railroad’s path to freedom.
Mr. Geffken, a historian from Farmingdale, spoke on the history of slavery in Monmouth and Ocean counties and also provided instruction on how members of the audience could trace their ancestry.
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