Councilman Steve Lipski may have said it best about naming the new branch of the library after late Jersey City Mayor Glenn Cunningham. “One of his favorite sayings was…the greatest gift that you can give to somebody is that of a story or a book,” Lipski said Tuesday.
Lipski expressed those sentiments at the grand opening ceremony for the Glenn D. Cunningham Branch Library and Community Center. The new branch was the first one opened in 42 years.
Other guest speakers included the late mayor’s widow, Sandra Bolden Cunningham, his sister Dyanne Cunningham, Acting Mayor of Jersey City L. Harvey Smith, and U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie.
The new library had been originally been named in honor of late civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. But after Cunningham’s untimely death on May 25 from a massive heart attack, the director of the Jersey City public library, Priscilla Gardner, decided to rename the library in Cunningham’s honor.Located on Martin Luther King Drive, between Myrtle and Bostwick avenues, the Glenn D. Cunningham Community Center is over 20,000 square feet wide and was built at a cost of $2.7 million in federal Community Development Block Grants and money allotted by the City Council. Among some of its features is an outdoor shaded reading area and paved stone area for storytelling and public gatherings geared towards children.
Inside, there are bookcases that will hold up to 7,900 books, as well as eight computer stations, and reading spaces for library patrons including a children’s reading room.
Construction started in July of last year after a groundbreaking ceremony that was attended by Mayor Cunningham, who spoke of how this library was a structure long overdue in this section of Jersey City.
“This was more than symbolic…when I ran for mayor, I promised that we would fight to make every neighborhood a golden neighborhood,” Cunningham had said.
But immediately noticeable to those guests for the opening ceremony were the many photos of Glenn D. Cunningham, depicting various stages of his life. Also, there is a painting of Cunningham and his wife Sandra mounted in the lobby.
Those reminders will be a permanent part of the library’s existence, reminders that Cunningham was a public servant and native son of Jersey City as well as an aficionado of the city’s library system.
Cunningham’s sister Dyanne Cunningham would remark during the ceremony that along with the many monikers by which she would remember her late brother, such as “Mayor-Man” and “Husband-Man”, she wanted to add a new one – “Library-Man.”
For the kids Before the ceremony, 8-year old Sharrieff Ali toured the library named for his late grand-uncle with his father, Tony. Sharrieff was taking in the simple pleasure of reading a Dr. Seuss book while his father commented on what it meant being there.
“He was an uncle who said, ‘Why don’t you go to the library? ‘ ” said Ali. “It really meant a lot to me to be here today, and I hope young people come here to learn.”
Later, during the ceremony, Sandra Bolden Cunningham spoke of her late husband’s love of history and genealogy and how he pursued that love with constant visits to Jersey City’s public libraries.
Cunningham, in one of her few appearances in public since the death of her late husband, also spoke of how her husband was one of “God’s chosen few” to carry out the mission of the Almighty on Earth.
“As Christians, we believe that everyone is born to complete a mission, though few select people have completed their mission,” said Cunningham.
She would receive a standing ovation from the attendees that came to the ceremony when commenting on her husband’s integrity and character, as she referred to him as “unbossed and unbought”.
His sister Dyanne Cunningham described her brother as a God-fearing man who was completely devoted to being as she called him, ‘the tree of life” and also devoted to finding out about his heritage.
“He was one of those who heard the murmurings and the whisperings of his ancestors,” said Dyanne Cunningham. “And he read and he researched, so that he could find out that being an African-American man was a wonderful thing.”
Jersey City Public Library Director Priscilla Gardner was emotional in remembering Cunningham and how he helped get the library built. Gardner later was in tears and had to be comforted by Sandra Cunningham as she looked up to the sky, where a group of balloons including one golden star-shaped one (a symbol associated with Cunningham when he was alive) floated over the library after let go at the front entrance.
After the ceremony ended, childhood friend Daoud David Williams offered a reminiscence of Glenn Cunningham while waiting to enter the new library.
“We both grew up together not far from this library stands, and I just think back to those days,” said Williams, the director of the Community Awareness Series at the Miller Branch Library. “Even then, he was always reading, always studying, and always no-nonsense. This library to me is the most fitting tribute to him.”