Councilman Michael Ballard during a council meeting in May, 2020. (Photo from Zoom. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank Councilman Michael Ballard spoke with anguish Wednesday night about the police killing of a Minnesota man earlier this week.
Marchers took to the streets of Red Bank in June, 2018 to protest the Trump Administration’s border policies. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A virtual parade of speakers, some near tears, pressed the Red Bank council Wednesday night to support a host of protections for undocumented immigrants.
“It is never symbolic to acknowledge the humanity of any one person,” said a young woman who identified herself as Carla, Red Bank Regional senior and officer of the school’s Dreamers organization. “Doing so is, in fact, the most radical of acts,” she said.
Reverend Henry P. Davis speaks at a ceremony honoring William ‘Count’ Basie at the Red Bank train station in 2009. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Reverend Henry P. Davis, past president president of the Greater Red Bank Area NAACP, died early Monday, according to a Facebook post by Mayor Pasquale Menna.
About 30 protesters assembled at the post office on Shrewsbury Avenue in Red Bank at noon Friday to voice alarm over recent changes at the postal service.
Protesters march down Broad Street, above, and observe a moment of silence on Newman Springs Road, below. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Angry but peaceful, hundreds of protesters marched through Red Bank Tuesday afternoon.
With temperatures nearing 90 degrees, a “Justice for George Floyd” march and rally at Count Basie Fields coincided with the Houston funeral of the man killed by Minneapolis police May 25.
Check out redbankgreen’s photos from the event below.
Hundreds marched through town to protest a racist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
A “Justice for George” march and rally to protest the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis is slated to be held in Red Bank Tuesday afternoon.
According to police Chief Darren McConnell, the event is being organized by Calvary Baptist Church of Red Bank and an organization called Count the Children.
One year after adding the colors of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) rainbow flag to a crosswalk at Broad and Monmouth streets, Red Bank’s DPU gave the intersection a freshening Wednesday to mark National Pride Month. (Photo by Allan Bass. Click to enlarge.)
Gilda Rogers, right, led saxophonist Branford Marsalis on a tour of the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center in Red Bank Wednesday afternoon.
Images of William ‘Count’ Basie on display at the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center last week. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center, built to honor a pioneering African-American journalist with Red Bank ties, plans to spotlight the borough-born musical giant William ‘Count’ Basie through 2020.
The occasion is the 85th anniversary of the formation of the Count Basie Orchestra, which is still touring 36 years after its founder’s death.
Memone Crystian with Red Bank Little Leaguers in 2010. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A lawsuit claiming racism and gender discrimination against a former director of Red Bank’s parks and rec department will be settled for $175,000.
Two members of the Red Bank council have been named to Insider NJ’s second annual “Out 100 Power List‘ of LBGT leaders in New Jersey.
Red Bank is showing its pride this week, with a repainting of the crosswalk at Broad and Monmouth streets in the colors of the LGBTQ rainbow flag.
On Saturday, the Parks & Rec department hosts a Pride event in Riverside Gardens Park, featuring live music, family activities and more in celebration of LGBTQ pride. Check out details here. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Dozens of supporters gathered on the front lawn for the opening of the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center. Below, a view of the ceremony from inside the restored house. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
More than a century after the departure of its most famous resident, the T. Thomas Fortune House in Red Bank reopened Thursday as a cultural center dedicated to his mission of advancing civil and human rights.
The restored T. Thomas Fortune House on Drs. James Parker Boulevard plans to formally open as a cultural center in May. Below, restoration supervisor Spencer Foxworth and foundation member Robin Blair examine a chandelier to be installed. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
An against-the-odds, decade-long effort to save a Red Bank house that was once the home of a pioneering civil rights journalist has reached its improbable conclusion, people involved in the effort say.
This weekend, local history lovers will get their first-ever chance to tour the T. Thomas Fortune House, a National Historic Register structure that not long ago was about to be razed.
About 150 protesters gathered at Riverside Gardens Park in Red Bank at noon Monday, President’s Day, to oppose President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency on America’s border with Mexico.
Rabbi Dov Goldberg addressing the at Congregation B’Nai Israel Monday night. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Pain and insecurity were in the air as hundreds of Jews and non-Jewish supporters packed temples in Rumson and Tinton Falls Monday night to mourn the killing of 11 worshippers in a Pittsburgh synagogue two days earlier.
Opponents of Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the United States Supreme Court plan to rally in Red Bank’s Riverside Gardens Park as part of a “walk-out” movement Thursday afternoon, redbankgreen has learned.
Marchers heading along Shrewsbury Avenue to an anti-hatred rally in Red Bank in August, 2017. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The recent discovery of Ku Klux Klan recruiting fliers in two Red Bank locations has inspired a drive to eliminate hate and tone down divisive rhetoric in town.
A march to protest the Trump Administration’s treatment of southern-border immigrants and asylum seekers drew some 2,000 participants to downtown Red Bank Saturday, borough police estimated.
A young participant in a march for immigrant rights held in Red Bank last December. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Supporters of immigrant protections plan to rally for the second time in six months in Red Bank Saturday morning.
Five thousand strong, music lovers found a few hours of respite from everyday noise when the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra played an open-air concert in Red Bank’s Marine Park last summer.
This Sunday, the NJSO returns to the park with another free show, where those in attendance will also get a chance to connect to the borough’s history via the written word.
Joining a movement that arose from the slaughter of 17 students and adults at a Florida high school last month, hundreds of protesters marched through downtown Red Bank Saturday as part of a nationwide ‘March for Our Lives‘ effort to demand bans on assault weapons and other legislation to reduce gun violence in schools.
Fair Haven Superintendent Sean McNeil, seen below at a January event, expressed pride in Knollwood students who walked out, but told them there had to be consequences. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Seventy-two Fair Haven middle school students were ordered to report for detention after participating in a walkout Wednesday to mark the one-month anniversary of a mass school shooting in Florida.
Meanwhile, just half a mile away, hundreds of Red Bank Regional High students observed the nationwide walkout without penalty. But the fact that they were sequestered within the confines of the school stadium, and surrounded by police, irked at least one student.
Memone Crystian with Red Bank Little Leaguers in 2010. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A former director of Red Bank’s parks and rec department is suing the borough and former officials, alleging she was forced out of the job by racism and gender discrimination.
Memone Crystian quit the position in May, 2015, “after years of being subjected to a hostile work environment” that included discrimination by then-borough Administrator Stanley Sickels and then-councilman Art Murphy, the suit alleges.
Students at the Red Bank Middle School were out on Harding Road taking turns sharing messages of peace and other reminders of Martin Luther King Jr. outside the Red Bank Primary School Tuesday.
According to vice principal J.T. Pierson, a new group of 20 students will be out every 15 minutes during the school day. (Photo by J.T. Pierson. Click to enlarge.)