Alien Soil - (Ceres: Rutgers Studies in History) by Katie Singer (Paperback)

About the Book

Alien Soil: Oral Histories of Great Migration Newark looks at Newark, New Jersey's once proposed Krueger-Scott African-American Cultural Center and the oral history collection generated to be a part of the Center. The narrators in this oral history collection recount their lives in Newark, painting pictures of everyday urbanity while also providing insight into 20th century Black urban life more generally.

Book Synopsis

Alien Soil: Oral Histories of Great Migration Newark explores Newark's Krueger-Scott African-American Cultural Center collection of over 100 oral histories. Historian Katie Singer separates these stories into thematic categories of social and political events, including church, work, and activism, in order to paint an intimate portrait of everyday urbanity and the larger Black urban experience in Newark. Through the examination of these Krueger-Scott narratives, Singer challenges historical falsehoods with the lived experiences of Newarkers who traveled North during the Great Migration, as well as established city residents. Alien Soil effectively contextualizes Newark history and re-inserts Black voices into historiography traditionally dominated by "outsiders."

The book begins with the Krueger-Scott Mansion's deep history, followed by the sequence of events surrounding the proposed Cultural Center. Last owned by African-American millionaire and beauty-culture entrepreneur Louise Scott, the Victorian Krueger-Scott Mansion was built by beer baron Gottfried Krueger in 1888. Through the history of the Mansion, and the ultimately failed Cultural Center project, one learns about the Newark that African Americans migrated to, what they found when they got there, how living in the city changed them, and how they, individually and collectively, changed Newark.

After the Cultural Center project was officially halted in 2000, the cassette tapes of the oral history interviews were stored away at the Newark Public Library. Ten years later they were unearthed, and ultimately digitized. As of yet, no one has applied these sources directly to their research. Deeply committed to these rich, insightful stories, Singer calls for a more thoughtful consideration of all cities, reminding us that Newark is much more than its 1967 rebellion.

Review Quotes

"Katie Singer deftly excerpts compelling stories from Newark's Krueger-Scott African American Oral History Project to teach readers about the city's powerful Black historical narrative and, more broadly, about the power of oral history to preserve the past when other documentation and interpretation efforts prove too expensive, logistically complicated, and politically fraught."
--Melissa Ziobro "director of Public History, Monmouth University"

About the Author

KATIE SINGER holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from Rutgers University-Newark and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Fairleigh Dickinson University. She teaches writing at Arizona State University's Los Angeles campus and also teaches boxing. She lives in Glendale, CA.