Category: African Americans
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Janyce Jackson Jones
1951- Janyce Jackson Jones was co-Pastor of Unity Fellowship Church located in Newark, NJ. Prior to UFC, she served as Pastor of Liberation in Truth Unity Fellowship Church for which she was a founding member in 1995. Janyce was executive Director of the Liberation in Truth Social Justice Center, which provided support, groups, education and…
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Grace L Boynton Gregory
1919-2007 Grace Gregory owned Poro Beauty Shop on West Market in the 1940s-1950s. She was also a certified Notary Public. In 1983, she founded “Guiding Light Inc.” (originally Caring and Sharing) a tutoring and counseling agency. She said “We want to help people develop a ‘road of life’ plan…We want to help the children and…
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Audrey Harris West
Audrey Harvey Massiah Harris West 1927-2003 Audrey West worked for the Essex County Welfare Dept and then became Director of the Division of Welfare for Newark after Grace Malone, in 1969. She said, “I took this position because I wanted to get closer to the problems of Newark and that is where the real social…
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Aneatha Dames Todd
1918-1998 Aneatha Dames Todd was vital in many civic organizations, especially within UMDNJ and United Hospitals. Black Mirror News called her “a voice for Newarkers”. She said, “I just have a desire to be part of things, rather than having things given to me. It may sound old fashioned but I still believe in doing…
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Olivia Queene Brown
1882-1954 Beauty culturist since 1912, ran the Poro Beauty School on 9 Wallace Street which she opened in 1936 or 1937. On her death, the Afro American wrote how she had organized the Poro Club, training women, and allowing hundreds of women to enjoy “a comfortable living as Poro beauticians, agents and shopowners”. The Afro…
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Anna E Whittington
c. 1875-1956 African American woman who ran her own real estate agency in Newark for more than 30 years from at least 1910. Left an estate over $100,000. She went by “A E Whittington”. Member of the Priscilla Art and Literary Club and the exec committee of the North Jersey Branch of the National Negro…
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Gloria Fowles Gaynor
1943- Gloria Gayner, born Gloria Fowles in Newark, is a singer, whose biggest hit is the 1978 “I Will Survive”. Gloria lived on Howard Street and the Stella Wright Projects as a child and graduated South Side High in 1961. In 1963, she wrote a letter to the Star Ledger in tribute to President Kennedy.…
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Sandra L West
1947-2019 Sandra West was a 1964 Weequahic graduate. She was the editor of the Black Organization for Students newsletter at Rutgers and first African American female editor of Rutgers Observer. Sandra worked as a journalist for Information published by the City of Newark, as well as in multiple other journalism positions and freelance for publications…