In recent New Jersey elections, voting statistics have been rough. In the 2017 election that ushered in Gov. Phil Murphy to the state's top job, only about 35 percent of people voted -- a record low turnout.
But, we haven't always overlooked the importance of our civic duty, and one New Jersey town is now saluting a history-making vote that happened there more than 100 years ago.
The city of Perth Amboy unveiled last week the Thomas Mundy Peterson Plaque in St. Peter's Episcopal Church. It honors Peterson, who historians say was the first black man in the country to vote in an election after the enactment of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Ratified Feb 3, 1870, the amendment prohibited the denial of the right to vote based on a citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
Peterson voted in a local election at Perth Amboy City Hall on March 31, 1870.
"It just so happened that the first election to be held anywhere in the entire United States after the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment took place here in Perth Amboy. It was fortuitous that it took place in a community that would not only encourage Peterson to go vote, but would later celebrate," said historian Gordon Bond.
The election was a vote on whether to revise the existing charter of the town or to abandon it in favor of creating a new township. Peterson voted to revise the charter, which won 230 votes to 63.
Historians have found quotes from Peterson in news reports of the time.
"I was working for Mr. T. L. Kearny on the morning of the day of election, and did not think of voting until he came out to the stable where I was attending the horses and advised me to go to the polls and exercise a citizen's privilege," Peterson said in an 1800s interview.
New Jersey annually celebrates Thomas Mundy Peterson Day, commemorating his historic vote on March 31.
Born in Metuchen, his mother, Lucy, had been a slave of Hugh Newell in Freehold Township. Lucy was freed by Newell's will in 1822, meaning Peterson was born free.
Peterson went on to be a school custodian and handyman at an elementary school in Perth Amboy before becoming the city's first African American to hold elected office on the Middlesex County Commission as well as the first black person to serve on a jury in the city. The school has since been named the Thomas Peterson Elementary School.
He was appointed to work on the team making amendments to the town's charter, which was eventually approved by the state legislature on April 5, 1871.
"The opportunity to become the first African American to vote under the Fifteenth Amendment came to Peterson as a matter of luck. However, what he made of that opportunity, how he embraced his life, how he continued to participate in a democratic process and still believe in the promise of the American experiment despite how it had treated him and those that looked like him, that was a matter of character," said Bond.
This is not the first time the citizens of Perth Amboy have sought to honor Peterson.
In 1884, residents raised $70 -- which is over $1,700 in today's dollars -- to award him a gold medallion featuring Abraham Lincoln on Memorial Day, then known as Decoration Day, on May 30. Historians say Peterson thereafter never considered himself fully dressed without the medallion affixed to his left breast.
Later in life, he pawned it due to financial instability, historians say. It is now on display at the African American Xavier University of Louisiana.
Perth Amboy officials say the city also hopes to complete an archaeological dig at the site of Peterson's home, and to create a larger memorial to be displayed at City Hall Circle.
The plaque was paid for by a $5,800 donation from Buckeye Partners, and $2,662.50 in funding from the city's Historic Preservation Commission, officials said. At the unveiling, town leaders spoke of the historic impact Peterson had, but also of the history that led up to that vote.
"When we go out to the grave of Thomas Mundy Peterson, just take a look around and keep in mind the names and the graves you will not see," historian John Dyke said.
"Buried around us are many, many graves that are unmarked. Many of these graves are of enslaved people. Perth Amboy was a major slave port in the 18th century. Keep them in mind, because they came before Thomas Mundy Peterson."