CAMDEN, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — “Soon I will be done with the troubles of this world.”
Yocontalie “Connie” Jackson belted through the urban blight.
“With the troubles of this world, with the troubles of this world.”
There was a defiance in her voice.
“Soon I will be done with the troubles of this world.”
But as Jackson’s rendition of the traditional gospel song “Trouble of the World” rang out through the Bergen Square neighborhood of Camden, it also carried with it tones of triumph and pride.
“I’m going home, to live with God!”
The performance was the culmination of a modest ceremony held on the steps of a rundown rowhome.
Jackson wasn’t bothered by the cold, gray, drizzly late-February afternoon. The house meant a lot to her, so she did her best to summon the right notes.
“My grandmother lived down the street,” said Jackson, who’s been featured on Grammy Award-nominated recordings. “When you think about the fact that Dr. Martin Luther King actually stayed in his house, here in Camden — it was an emotional moment.”
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The connection between 753 Walnut Street and King has been a subject of contention for almost a decade.
But on this day, the home received something that Jackson, neighbors of the house, community members, and researchers all believed was long overdue: a physical marker noting that 753 Walnut was indeed a place of significance in King’s life.
The circular blue plaque, measuring 20 inches in diameter, was presented by the Nubian Jak Community Trust.
London-born model, board game inventor and entrepreneur Jak Beula established the organization in 2006. Since then, it has placed 77 circular blue plaques around Britain.
A 78th Nubian Jak Community Trust plaque — and first ever in the United States — was presented to the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia over President’s Day weekend.
A few days later, Beula was in Camden, hanging his group’s 79th plaque, this one affixed to the black front door of 753 Walnut Street.
“With respect, it’s a slum,” said Beula, not only referring to the condition of the home, but its block as well.
“I couldn’t understand why something so important as this, this important piece of real estate, should be allowed to degenerate into a place of something that is … very forgotten.”
Even though Beula, who is Black, hails from overseas, he grew up well-versed in Martin Luther King Jr.
“He’s a god,” Beula said. “He’s known all around the world.”
It was only a few years ago, through the work of local researcher and civil rights activist Patrick Duff, that Beula found out the earliest stages of King’s activism could have very well originated at 753 Walnut Street.
Through a combination of interviews, oral histories, newspaper articles, primary documents, and other sources, Duff pieced together King frequently visited the house in Camden while he was studying at Crozer Theological Seminary in Delaware County.
The house at 753 Walnut Street was owned by the uncle of one of King’s closest friends and, according to Duff, is where King hatched a plan for what became his earliest-documented protest — a sit-in at a restaurant in Maple Shade that refused to serve Black customers.
Duff and Temple University journalism professor Linn Washington Jr., who dug up details about the Maple Shade incident in 1986 when he was a reporter for the Philadelphia Daily News, have been fighting to get the house listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places since 2015.
The state, however, rejected the initial application.
That’s why, when the Nubian Jak Community Trust offered to recognize 753 Walnut Street, Duff jumped at the opportunity.
“I’d characterize it as a [first] step,” Duff said of the plaque.
“It's important to have that tangible [plaque] so people can see, feel and touch the history,” said Washington.
But Washington also expressed sadness that a private organization — not an official government entity — was the first to formally acknowledge the link between 753 Walnut Street and King.
“Other local municipalities around the country would literally kill for [this history], but here in Jersey, we have this incredible legacy … and the state has not deemed it important enough to recognize.”
What happens next with the house is up to its owner, Amir Khan, who runs the Camden-based non-profit New Beginnings.
He purchased the house for $10,000 in 2021, and last year received a near-$100,000 grant from the state to conduct a survey of historic civil rights sites in Camden.
Khan said that while the money can’t be used directly on repairs for the dilapidated house, it can be earmarked for additional research to prove there was a strong connection between 753 Walnut Street and King.
As long as that effort is successful, Khan is confident the New Jersey Historic Preservation Office will change its mind.
Asked whether he thinks HPO will ultimately put 753 Walnut Street on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places, Khan said, "I know without a shadow of a doubt.
"There’s too much history here, too much proof of what Dr. King did. What Patrick did and what Linn did years before, they have all the information. It is enough information to get this on their listing.”
Khan expects research on the house to be completed by the end of 2023. From there, he hopes to secure funding from the Historic Preservation Office for renovations that will fulfill his long-term plan for the home.
“The vision is that children, adults, everyone come here and literally walk through this building, this house and see where Dr. King … prepared the first civil rights protest. And it happened right here at 753 Walnut,” Khan said.
Yocontalie Jackson, the singer who’s a member of the Camden Hall of Fame, said, “It’s history. And it’s our history, so I think that’s awesome.”