Photo: Great Falls of Paterson, New Jersey. The rapids of Paterson provided energy to numerous industries, including the Black Van Rensalier-Huntoon spice mill owners that harbored freedom seekers before the Civil War. By FirozAnsari, Wikimedia Commons
A Journey of Discovery and Unity: The Life and Living Legacy of Mrs. Delores Van Rensalier
Dolores Van Rensalier Warren was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York, in 1940, but her story stretches far beyond her birthplace. Raised in San Diego, California, her parents, passing as Caucasian, coached her to believe she was American Indian, white, and Italian. This identity, however, was met with hostility and violence from her Black peers in grade school, who felt she was denouncing her true heritage.
Her mother, with only a 4th grade education, was wise in her own way, while her father, half-Italian and abusive, shaped much of Dolores’s early life. At just seven years old, she was told a fanciful story by her parents of ancestors from East India, connected to a man named King Abdul whose son (Prince Abdul) hid along the Nile River after losing a war. This story, however, began to unravel. During a high school lesson on Africa and the Nile River, a river historically significant for its role in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, as a vital route for transporting enslaved Africans to the north. That’s when Mrs. Van Rensalier Warren began to discover that her true ancestors were African and had indeed run along the Nile.
“I realized that racism was stronger than love, so I left home. It’s just a miracle I made it,” Dolores said as she reflected on her painful but formative years.
Despite the confusing journey with identity during her young adulthood, which was marred by isolation, rejection, and ostracism, Mrs. Van Rensalier found pride in her Black roots. "At that time, I was angry and shaky, literally shaken by it because it told me that my parents really didn’t love us—they were too involved in being white, so that meant they were racist,” she recalled.
She later became the wife of NFL player Willie West, one of only four Black athletes on his team. It was during this time that Dolores, through a combination of family stories and confirmation via ancestry research, embraced her half-Black heritage—a badge of honor she vowed never to hide again.
Reminiscing about the mistreatment she endured in grade school, Van Rensalier was clear: She was never prejudiced. “I was taught in Catholicism to look beyond people’s color, so that’s what I did. I didn’t like those kids because they were mean,” she humorously recalled. Those kids were the black children in her school who misunderstood her (then) believed representation and physically attacked her.
When she and her (then) husband moved back to New York during his time with the NY Jets, Dolores began a relentless search to reconnect with her Black family. This search led to an emotional reunion with a relative and the discovery of her grandfather, a piece of her identity that had been kept secret by her parents until she was about 70 years old.
Her research eventually led her to a vacant lot in Paterson, New Jersey, where she uncovered a family history deeply intertwined with the Underground Railroad. The lot, initially empty and misleading, hid cellars beneath the grass—remnants of an old spice mill where her great-grandfather William P. Van Rensalier, an engineer, and his abolitionist friend (a spice mill owner), Josiah Huntoon, had hidden runaway slaves seeking freedom.
Dolores’ mother told her that her great grandfather was a “conductor” on the railroad. The "railroad" her mother alluded to in her childhood was, in fact, the Underground Railroad.
“I made a vow that, because my family had hidden me, I was determined to honor my Black great-grandfather. That’s how I did it!” Dolores declared with pride.
Her journey of discovery didn’t end there. While living on the West Coast and working in Watts, Los Angeles, an area known for its history of gang violence and police brutality, Dolores was highly decorated with awards ranging from World Humanitarian to Congressional recognition. As a former vice president of a senior center in Watts, she curated a national rose garden to symbolize love and togetherness—a project many initially mocked, but it ultimately became a national symbol of community and resilience.
Just two days after the garden’s induction, Dolores learned that the city of Paterson, New Jersey, was planning to turn her family’s historical marker, the Underground Railroad site, into a convenience store. Armed with her reputation and determination, a five-page essay, a phone call, and one radio interview later, the Huntoon and Van Rensalier Underground Railroad was ruled a historic monument site in 1996.
Today, the Huntoon-Van Rensalier Underground Railroad National Historic Site serves as a public monument maintained by the city. Built by renowned Black architect Ed Dwight, known for his memorial sculptures across the country, the monument stands as a testament to the unity and strength of the Black community.
The Huntoon Van Rensalier Underground Railroad Foundation now gives annual scholarships and is planning to reintroduce its yearly awards dinner to support local high school and community college students in the Paterson, NJ area.
Affectionately named “Huntoon’s Corner,” the monument, it was once a hidden landmark and a piece of Dolores’s secret heritage. It is positioned in the highly political city of Paterson, NJ, where riots also once took place. It is now a historic site where people from all walks of life come together to reflect on the unity that began there.
It is a full-circle story of togetherness and a tribute to Mrs. Van Rensalier’s legacy—a living legend and testament to unity in the BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color)community of America.
For more information about the Huntoon and Van Rensalier Underground Railroad Historic Site and its foundation, visit www.patersonugrr.org.
The full story of Mrs. Van Rensalier’s journey can also be found in her book “Bridge Street to Freedom,” available on Amazon
