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James Earle Fraser's Lincoln in Jersey City, New Jersey is a thoughtful portrait of Abraham Lincoln, seated on a boulder, lost in either meditation or deep thought, contemplation. It is possible that the sculptor drew inspiration for seating Lincoln on a boulder from Augustus Saint-Gaudens's Adams Memorial, which Fraser had admired before he undertook his tutelage under his master. There is an air of pensiveness and quiet tension in the piece mixed with a touch of serenity, almost as if Lincoln has finished breathing a sigh and is now centered in calm repose of mind and heart. Standing before Lincoln the Mystic one might imagine Lincoln thinking, “thy will be done versus my will be done”, and like the true mystic embracing the void and silence fully. That is their way. Here it would appear that Lincoln could commune easily in silence with either a Buddhist or Trappist monk.

This epilogue shows that Hague v. CIO had a legacy more complex than its reputation as a speech rights victory for workers and others over dictatorial city boss Frank Hague under the Bill of Rights. The American Civil Liberties Union and renamed Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) immediately split over the decision’s ramifications. Moreover, while the ruling enlarged constitutional protection for the right of public assembly to the benefit of Jehovah’s Witnesses, civil rights demonstrators, and others, it did little to enhance picketing and other “labor speech,” or to shield union organizers from police harassment. And while the decision freed the CIO to organize in Jersey City, it did not destroy Mayor Hague, who accommodated CIO unions and was ousted later due to city politics.

This chapter details the controversy arising from the New Jersey commission's street-widening agreement with Jersey City. Under the deal, the New Jersey negotiating committee agreed to pay for the widening of streets in Jersey City at a cost of about $1 million, with New York paying half. However, the New York commissioners denied any knowledge of such an agreement. The street-widening controversy was more than just an argument over what negotiating authority the New York commissioners had given to their brethren from across the river or if they had known all along about the commitments made. It also became a debate among the New Jersey commissioners over the true purpose of the agreement with Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague.

The color line was effectively breached the day Jackie Robinson stepped to the plate at Jersey City's Roosevelt Stadium in the first inning of the Little Giants versus Montreal Royals game in April of 1946. It was a fortuitous game as the Royals won 14–1. Robinson's fiery temperament was effectively on hold and he was advised by Rickey to fight back only with his bat, glove, and flying feet and this he did splendidly, topping almost every hitting average, runs scored, and bases stolen. He was joined as a pioneer by John Wright however; Wright could not stand the pressure and thus succumbed to it. As expected, the move was widely met with disapproval by the major league clubs and some even threatened to ban playing with the Royals.

Chapter 3 describes Headen’s life in Jersey City, NJ, from 1903 to 1911, a period in which he worked as a Pullman porter and as a dining car waiter for the Erie Railroad. It documents his life as a trainman, his growing interest in aviation, his frustrations at being locked out of skilled work, and his initial forays into invention. The chapter examines how Headen’s wife, Tena Drye Headen, and other African American migrants active in Lafayette Presbyterian Church and the Railroad Porters’ and Waiters’ Voluntary Subscription Fund, expanded social networks critical to Headen, and on the specific strategies that Headen observed other African American inventors employ to circumvent segregation and raise capital in a time when funding for independent inventors was waning.