September 13, 2024 – 2nd Friday – 5-8:30 pm

Great food from the Oyster Cracker Café including fried oysters, delicious, fresh, oysters on the half shell, local beers from Glasstown Brewing Co at AJ’s Pub, free, self-guided tours of the Delaware Bay Museum, an interesting speaker and live music. Check out the Meerwald Mercantile while you are here featuring hand crafted items from several local artists and local authors. All proceeds go to support the Bayshore Center at Bivalve, home of AJ Meerwald and the Delaware Bay Museum.

5-8:30 – Live music on the docks – Rob Roy Duo

The Rob Roy Duo plays quiet, peaceful, contemplative music in the genres of popular music of the Renaissance era, Spanish-influenced South American Folk, Southern Italian Folk, and Celtic (Scottish and Irish) as well as a few contemporary pieces. Instruments include mandolin, mandola, piccolo mandolin, classical and steel-strung guitar and some hand-held percussion, as the pieces dictate.

6:30 – Speaker in the museum – Jim Blumstein

The Great Migration of the twentieth century witnessed the movement of over six million black Americans from the South, reshaping the social, political, and economic landscape of the United States. Recently written historical narratives have challenged the traditional notion of a simple one-way migration, instead emphasizing the deliberate choices and agency of black migrants. Jim’s research explores a unique aspect of the Great Migration, focusing on the movement of black individuals from the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia to the New Jersey Delaware Bayshore. Despite geographical proximity, these regions differed significantly in terms of race relations and socio-economic conditions. The migration of black oystermen from the Eastern Shore to the Jersey Bayshore in the early twentieth century exemplifies a “rural-to-rural/ resource-to-resource” migration, where individuals sought better opportunities without abandoning their skills and traditions. The story challenges conventional and even more recent narratives and suggests that examining similar rural-to-rural migrations could provide valuable insights into the broader dynamics of the Great Migration.