Category: African Americans
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Diane Sutton
1941-2001 Co-owned Je’s Restaurant. The first restaurant in Downtown Newark founded by people of color. Mayor Sharpe James called her “the heart and soul of downtown Newark”. Photo from Newark NJ Memories. Bibliography Kukla, Barbara J. Newark Women: From Suffragettes to the Statehouse. Roberts, Reginald. “Diane Sutton the soul of southern cooking” Star Ledger Aug…
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Marie Foster Whigham
1923-2006 Marie Whigam helped her husband Charles Whigham to found Citi National Bank (1973) and Whigham Funeral Home. Mayor Sharpe James called her “the queen of our city”, saying “she was a role model for young and old”. Marie also founded the Women’s League, which raised money for scholarships and was active in the Boys…
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Amealia Steward
1915-2001 Amealia Steward owned Steward’s Restaurant and later redesigned Peppermint Lounge. She was a self-made millionaire. “She was our queen in the city said Mayor James, “She had wealth, beauty and fame.” Steward’s Restaurant first opened in 1949 on Prince Street and later moved to Avon Ave. Black Mirror News wrote, “When most people become…
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Mae T. Muldrow
1909 -1977 Mae Muldrow owned LaVogue Beauty Salon (Beauty and Wig Center) for 37 years. Mae was one of the founders of the Modern Beauticians Association, a national organization, and former president of Modern Beautician Investment Corp. She was active with the Cordelia Greene Johnson Foundation (scholarships for beauticians) and general chairman of the Beauty…
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Ella Wright Moncur
1919-1999 Ella Moncur was born in Newark, lived in NYC in 1930. She was the wife of jazz artist and owned the Theatrical Beauty Salon in Newark, and also a salon called Monte’s Powder Puff. Ella later retired to Florida and taught there, her going away party featured in New York Age. She also was…
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Eugenia “Jeanne/Jean” (Byrd) Dawkins
c. 1926-1978 Eugenia Dawkins owned the Key Club, one of Newark’s most famous jazz clubs, with her husband. She ran the club after her husband died In 1976 she was named Newark’s Woman of the Year and received a Key to the City. In 1977, she organized the “Newark Salutes Jazz” festival. Eugenia was a…
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Sally Carroll
1922-2019 Sally Carroll was one of the first Black policewomen in Newark along with Rhoda Daniels and Eleanor M. Stokes in 1949 . She was the first Black woman detective with the Essex County Sherriff’s Office. She was active with the Batons. After entering the police in 1949, she took the Civil Service promotional exams…
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Hannah Mandeville
c. 1810 – 1902 Hannah Mandeville was born into slavery, one of the first members of the African American Plane St. Church and active in the church. Her Newark News obituary said she was “well known to the negroes of this city and to many white people for her piety and good works”. The Daily…