Hobbstown: A Forgotten Legacy of a Unique African-American Community

The momentum to sell an area of land in Bridgewater Township, New Jersey, is building. Enter Reverend Amos Hobbs in 1921, along with his brothers, General George Washington Hobbs, and Robert Hobbs. They sought economic betterment for their families during the great migration from South to North. Anxious realtors and individual owners of the land sold the property in small lots to the "hungry-to-own-their-own-home" black southern newcomers. Thus began the settling of African-Americans on the peripheral of affluent Bridgewater Township. By its mere existence as the lone black community in Bridgewater and, not by its own volition, Hobbstown becomes the precursor to Bridgewater's racial conscience. The reader will hear the hearts and minds of Hobbstown natives who experience adversity in their quest for education within a height ranking school system from the 1920's through 1970's. It is as well the author's coming-of-age story, growing up in Hobbstown. A creative non-fiction work that reads like a novel.