Somerset County received a grant to preserve and digit ize the stories of former enslaved people in the county's "inventory of as sets" books.
\nThe old pages of these inventory books list everythin g people owned in Somerset County from the past century and a half.
\n< p>But go through each fragile sheet line by line\, you'll find nuggets of hidden history.\n"What I didn't know and I think a lot of other peo ple were naive about it is that the inventories kept in our office had a l ist of all the slaves\," said Bernice Jalloh\, Somerset County Surrogate.< /p>\n
Mrs. Jalloh wants their stories to be preserved and told\, and soo n they will be thanks to a new grant from the New Jersey Council of Humani ties. \;She has been following a paper trail of hundreds of slaves\, h oping to make their stories available online.
\nShe says so often\, African Americans have been unable to trace their histories since records of Blacks weren't systematically kept.
\nAs the first African Americ an woman to be Surrogate in Somerset County\, bringing these records to li ght is personal for Jalloh.
\n"Our stories are not always told the w ay they should be told and told by us\," she said.
\nPRESENTER:
\ nBernice Jalloh\, Esq. was sworn in as the Somerset County Surrogate on January 1\, 2021. She is admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of New Jersey and the New Jersey Bar. She received a Juris Doctor from Rutgers Un iversity\, a Masters degree in Public Administration from Rutgers Universi ty\, and a Bachelor of Science from Syracuse University.
\nMrs. Jall oh serves on the Board of Directors of Egen of Early Childhood Learning Ce nter and the Civic Knights. She is also a member of the National Council o f Negro Women\, the Association of Black Woman Lawyers\, the New Jersey Mu slim Lawyers Association\, the New Jersey Muslim Voters Project\,\,she is a \;member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated and served on th e Somerset County Complete Count Committee. Mrs. Jalloh has received the f ollowing awards: The 2019 Legal Services of New Jersey Equal Justice Award \, the 2019 Outstanding Woman in Somerset County\, the 2019 Family Unifica tion Day Hero - Legal Services of New Jersey\, 2018\, New Jersey Judiciary Recognition Award\, the 2018 National Council of Negro Woman New Jersey R ecognition Award for Outstanding Woman in Industry\, the 2018 Plainfield N J NAACP Award\, 2017 Eleanor Roosevelt Award\, 2017 Lawyers of Distinction Award\, the 2018 Certificate of Recognition for Pro Bono Service from the New Jersey Judiciary\, and the Union County Woman of Excellence Award.
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