Local Beat: Millburn parents angry, dismayed at blackface incident in elementary school

June 23, 2017 Joe Amditis

Local Beat is the NJ News Commons’ weekly roundup of the best reporting by community news sources.

MILLBURN PARENTS ANGRY, DISMAYED AY BLACKFACE INCIDENT IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 
Parents and community members are outraged over what they perceive as a tepid response by administration officials to a blackface incident at an annual historical festival at a Millburn elementary school. Jaleh Teymourian of Village Green says a fifth-grade girl appeared at the school’s annual Wax Museum event dressed as Martin Luther King, Jr., complete with black makeup on her face.

AT RUTGERS, A HISTORY OF CONSERVATISM INTERTWINED CONTROVERSY
Jack Murtha of TAP into New Brunswick has published the fourth installment of a five-part series on the Rutgers Conservative Union. The series seeks to provide a comprehensive look at an energetic year of on-campus activism at New Jersey’s flagship university.

WHEN BLACK BALLPLAYERS BARNSTORMED ‘UP SOUTH’: MORRISTOWN HISTORIAN GIVES HALL OF FAME TALK
Kevin Coughlin of Morristown Green sat down with Morris County historian Jan Williams to talk about the history of America’s national pastime. Williams says if she only had one word to sum up her first baseball memory from her youth, that word would be “terror.”

THE LENAPE, ORIGINAL SOUTH JERSEYANS, HAVE A POWWOW
Roughly 8,000 spectators and 8,500 participants gathered at the Salem County Fairgrounds this week to join in the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation’s 38th annual powwow. Scott Yunker of Route 40 says the Nanticoke hosts the gathering each year to strengthen ties between tribes, reunite tribe members with families, and share their culture with non-native Americans.

‘HOPE WILL NEVER BE SILENT’: LGBTQ PRIDE FLAG RAISED IN MIDDLESEX COUNTY
Nearly three dozen residents of Middlesex County attended an LGBTQ flag-raising ceremony at the Middlesex County Courthouse to demonstrate a sense of unity and support in central New Jersey and around the nation. Maureen Berzok of TAP into East Brunswick says Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman spoke to the group and described her visit to the Pulse night club in the wake of last year’s mass shooting.

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Joe Amditis

Joe Amditis is the associate director of the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University. He can be reached via email at [email protected] and on Twitter at @jsamditis.