NEW NAME SAME GAME
New Jersey abolishes ‘county freeholder’ title amid national reckoning with racism »
TRENTON » Free at last.
Gov. Phil Murphy signed new legislation Friday requiring the elected title of “freeholder” to be changed to “county commissioner.”
Regarded as racist and misogynistic, the term “freeholder” is an Old English moniker from America’s colonial period that was bestowed upon certain men who owned an estate of land whilst being free of debt.
“It was a term of privilege,” Mercer County legislator Sam Frisby said Friday. “This name has a genealogy that is not in favor of Black people and women. To get rid of that term, abolishing that term is more freeing than people would know.”
Frisby, a Black man, is technically still considered a freeholder serving on the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders, because the measure Murphy signed into law Friday does not take effect until next January.
In any event, a number of Garden State politicians championed the bipartisan legislation on Friday.
“We have an obligation to ensure that governance in New Jersey is inclusive and representative of the tremendous diversity of our great state,” the Democratic governor said in a press statement. “Amid a national reckoning to reexamine vestiges rooted in structural racism, this action will eliminate the use of the term ‘Freeholder’ in county government — a title that is an outgrowth of a time when people of color and women were excluded from public office.”
Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver, a Black woman, said repealing New Jersey’s freeholder title “is long overdue.”
“People know the term is offensive and refers to a time when only white male landowners could hold public office,” Oliver said in a press statement. “As a former freeholder, I was fully aware that this title was not inclusive of African-American women such as myself. History is constantly evolving, and our terminology needs to keep up with it to be more reflective of where we are as a society.”
In 2020, a year defined by anti-racism protests, New Jersey stood alone as the only state in America that retained the title of “freeholder” to denote the elected members of the county governing body.
Black Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, a Trenton Democrat, is one of the movers and shakers who pushed the name-changing legislation through the New Jersey Legislature, a measure requiring counties to eventually update their letterheads, stationary, and other writings, as well as their websites, to bear the title of county commissioners in place of freeholders or chosen freeholders before the year 2022.
“Removing vestiges of racism and sexism found in names or titles that have no place in our society today is an important step among many needed to bring an end to systemic bias,” Reynolds-Jackson said in a statement. “‘Freeholder’ was never an effective title for the county public office holder. For persons of color, it was more of a reminder of the sordid and oppressive ideals of its colonial-era origins. It’s time to end the confusing and hurtful conversation surrounding the term ‘freeholder’ and rename the position.”
Frisby applauded the state Legislature and governor for repealing the controversial freeholder title and replacing it with county commissioner, but more progress needs to be made, he said.
“Make no bones about it,” Frisby told The Trentonian, “New Jersey has a long way to go.”
Frisby cited the massive “wealth disparity” between Black families and white families residing in New Jersey.
“We are segregated, and we are segregated because of the economic disparities here,” he said, adding he will accept the “victory” of the freeholder name change while focusing his energy on what he calls the “next fight” for social justice.