Community History Program

CCA’s Community History Program is dedicated to discovering, preserving and presenting the African American history of Cape May County.

The Program creates annual exhibits and panel discussions in partnership with the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts, presents African American Heritage Walking Tours during Cape May’s tourist season and by appointment, and administers the growing John T. and Janet D. Nash Archives of African American History.

In collaboration with CCA’s Youth Arts Program, the Community History Program presents an annual community-building event, “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday Party,” which combines a potluck supper with a youth-led black history presentation.

The Program, now in its 10th year, has the following accomplishments to its credit:

• Won NJ African American Historic Site designation for Cape May’s Franklin Street School
• Established the John and Janet Nash African American History Archives now preserving over 5,000 artifacts, oral histories and photographs of African American life in Cape May County.
• Researched, scripted and now promote and offers the African American Walking Tour of Cape May.