Levi Fox is passionate about the history of the Jersey Shore.

The historian and adjunct professor at Stockton University has dressed like the HBO fictional gangster Nucky Thompson on some occasions to lead tours. The character was based on a real-life gangster and public official Nucky Johnson in Prohibition-era Atlantic City.

Now Fox is leading a series of four walking history tours in July for a Stockton program aimed at tourists who want to see a different side of the city, away from the Boardwalk and casinos.

“You can smell the Italian bread baking,” Fox said about one leg of the tour in Ducktown, known as Atlantic City’s Little Italy. “It’s a tour where multiple senses are engaged. You get a sense of the immigrant history of Atlantic City.”

The series allows participants to experience the landmarks, events, prominent figures and subcultures of Atlantic City.

Atlantic City’s Northside has historically been a predominantly African American neighborhood. It was central in providing lodging and accommodations to Blacks during Jim Crow-era policies through nearly the end of the 20th Century in which people of color were not able to find such services in most towns.

“The incredible role of African Americans goes back to the founding of the city,” Fox said. “The more that we can highlight that history, the more we can help people understand the complexity of Atlantic City is so much more than a gambling town.”

Bob Linhares was new to town when he went on a history tour with Fox last year.

“We thought it would be a way to find out a little about our new city,” said Linhares, 57, an IT professional who moved to New Jersey from Brooklyn, where he had lived for the past 20 years. “There’s a lot of people who don’t know the history of the city outside of the casinos. Knowing that history makes you really appreciate what it can be. It’s working class city by the sea, something for everyone.”

Long before Atlantic City was incorporated in 1854, the Lenni Lenape Native Americans lived on the island in the summer. The railroad connection in the 1850s led to popularity and growth. In 1870, Atlantic City opened the first boardwalk in the nation, according to the Library of Congress.

But Fox’s tour concentrates on lesser known parts of the city.

“There’s so much more to know about Atlantic City,” Fox said. “I’ve yet to have a tour when a person took it and said ‘I already knew all of that!’”

The weekly tours start on July 7 with Ducktown Revitalization, followed by South Inlet Tour, July 14; Upper Chelsea Tour, July 21; Northside Heritage Tour, July 28.

All tours are $10 per person and will begin at 10 a.m.

For more information and to register for the tours visit stockton.edu/continuing-studies/ac_walkingtours.html.

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Bill Duhart may be reached at [email protected].