Over the next 25 years, Hunter’s personal passion project expanded into a traveling museum and ultimately two permanent homes: AAHMSNJ in Newtonville, New Jersey and the newer location anchoring the marvelous 15,000-square-foot Noyes Arts Garage, anchoring 18 arts, retail and museum spaces in the heart of Atlantic City. And Hunter isn’t stopping there. Looking towards the future, Ralph is working towards creating a larger edifice in Atlantic City to honor the African American legacy of the city, county, and the entire region.

“As long as I have a cellphone and my body and strength continue to escalate, I can keep doing this,” Hunter mused before elaborating on the joys of AC Inlet, his favorite soul food spot, and his bowtie collection.

These are edited excerpts from conversation with Marion Jacobson, Director of NJ Folklife at Perkins Center .

Little Black Sambo (1899 children’s book)

When my kindergarten teacher read this book to our class, where I was one of four Black kids, I’d put my hands over my ears to block it out. At graham cracker time, the other kids would call me “Little Black Sambo.” That was my introduction to how people would treat you as an African American. Many years later, I began buying up Sambo books and putting them on display, as a reminder of our past and the need to question where we are today and where we are headed. That one book changed my life–because of it, we have the African American museum in Newtonville.

The Atlantic City Arts District

Atlantic City is going to change because of the arts. The Arts District is getting stronger because of the numbers of people that come here–20 million for our gambling industry, our beaches and our Boardwalk. Now they can go to the Arts Garage to really understand what art is all about in AC. The Noyes Museum, along with the African American Museum, will give artists a chance to showcase their goods to the people who come down the Jersey Shore.

Bowtie Collection

I have a collection of 161, and used to wear them every day. When I put one on, I’m telling the world who I really am. It’s a different kind of respect you get than a necktie. Things are more casual now, but I still put one on for Easter.

Boardwalk Empire banner

As a consultant on the show, my role was to help tell the story of the Northside, an almost entirely African American Atlantic City neighborhood that was ruled by [community leader/racketeer] Chalky White. When they had a closing celebration for the show at Caesar’s Palace, I was able to talk to one of the maintenance guys, who happens to be my son. The seven-foot banner is now in my guest bathroom. I really take pride in it.

Shug’s

My favorite restaurant is a new one that just opened up in the lobby of Atlantic Cape Community College [Worthington Campus]. The oxtail, the rice and beans, ackee and saltfish and callaloo…reminds me of Jamaica, my big place to travel. Every Christmas when I was growing up, my family would travel to Jamaica.

The telephone

My “tool of the trade” is the old fashioned telephone. I pick up the phone and call antique dealers and ask them how they’re doing, how their kids are doing and have a meaningful conversation prior to talking about antiques. Then they’ll remember me forever and call me when they have something I’m looking for—hopefully something I haven’t seen before!

His father’s trumpet

My grandfather was a preacher in Memphis, Tennessee. People would be out drinking in the nightclubs, and my father would stand outside his church [Church of God in Christ] and play his trumpet, standing on a peach crate. He was able to get many heathens off of the street! Membership in the church really grew rapidly. When the bishop in Philadelphia found out about my father, he was brought up North to lead a large church in the City. After my father died, my brother and I had the trumpet for awhile until the Smithsonian envoys came to pick it up. It’s now on display at the [National] Museum of African American History and Culture] in Washington, DC.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

When I was a youngster in junior high school, my dad brought it home for all of us. We had to know the beginning, the middle, and no end—because what happens in that story, continues for the rest of our lives. It’s a must-read, everybody I meet.

AC Inlet

I’m a beach guy, I go every day after work. I’ve got my posse. By five o’clock, they’re all there waiting for me, folks in their 80s and 90s. Our beach is on Maine Avenue, in front of these beautiful multi-million-dollar homes, it’s absolutely breathtaking. Lots of people who look like me own those homes. It’s amazing to have the opportunity to go and hang out on the beach and have dinner or cocktails. My drink of choice is Grey Goose and cranberry on the rocks.

The smell of must

Whenever I smell must, euphoria happens! I’m in a state where I have to go open that box and see what’s in the very bottom of it, put my gloves on and touch it, and find out where that photograph came from, why they have it, go and do some research. I love to get an old scrapbook from an antique shop or find an old doll or any instrument of choice they might have had back in the day. It’s just knowing that someone other than me touched that thing that came down from generation to generation. An old banjo, wow! Just the smell of the case….what a wonderful feeling!

Six-foot wooden statue of Aunt Jemima

It’s hand carved by a Native American artist. She used to be in a pancake restaurant. When I moved to my apartment, I put her by the front door. She’s my greeter!