Category: African Americans
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Carolyn Whigham
1949- Carolyn Whigham owns and runs Whigham Funeral Home and is known for skill in organizing funerals including for celebrity clients. She became director of Whigham Funeral Home in 1986 and has run over 6000 funerals including for Houston family and Congressman Donald Payne. She also hosted How to Conduct High Profile Funerals” seminars across New…
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Mary Wheeler Willis
1929-1987 Mary Willis was a founder of the Newark Day Care Council in 1967 and Springfield Avenue Community School in 1969. In 1987, she former Springfield Avenue Community school was renamed the Mary Wheeler Willis Day Care Center, in her memory. Mary was a lifelong resident of Newark. She was the sister of Newark power…
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Flora Freeman
c. 1753-1856 When Flora Freeman died in 1856 at 102 or 103 the Centinel of Freedom called her “a venerable colored woman” and “an interesting representative of her people of the past generation”. The Centinel wrote Flora, “often entertained her guests with the recital of many thrilling incidents which occurred during the American Revolutions”. Flora…
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Joan Whitlow
c. 1949- Joan Whitlow, now retired, has been called the first full-time Black woman reporter at the Star Ledger. She was also the first Black woman to be medical editor in the country. Joan wrote on health, education and the Newark city government. Joan worked for the Ledger from at least 1973-2011 and she had…
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Dr. Evelyn Boyden Darrell
1923-2016 Evelyn Boyden Darrell was a Newark Black journalist, writing a national column for the Afro, and later the first Black woman psychologist at Bellevue Hospital in NYC. Evelyn Boyden was born in Newark in 1923 and graduated with the West Side High class of 1940. She lived on South 13th Street and Bruce Street…
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Geneva Streeter
1943- Geneva Streeter (Wardell, Campbell) was the first Black “Queen of Rutgers-Newark” campus and her modeling career at Rutgers put her in national magazines. After college, she became a Newark teacher and principal for many years. Geneva Streeter grew up in Newark living at 156 Livingston St in 1950. She graduated West Side High, class…
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Vickie Donaldson
c. 1949 – Vickie Donaldson was a leader of the Black Organization of students during the takeover of Conklin Hall in 1969, and joined the Board of Education at age 23. Later, she became the first woman to be General Counsel of the Newark Board of Education and served as Director of Homeless Services for…
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Barbara Bell Coleman
1949- Barbara Bell Coleman is President of BBC Associates and a board member of the merged MCJ Amelior Foundation, Schumann Fund for New Jersey and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. She is co-founder and trustee emeritus of the Branch Brook Park Alliance, which she helped found in 1999. Barbara has served as CEO / Executive…