Category: African Americans
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Anna Lois Russ Jones
1911-1987 Mother of Amiri Baraka. Born in Alabama, lived in Newark from 1926. Attended Tuskegee, Fisk, and Shaw College. Administrator for Community Hospital for many years. Community relations specialist for the Newark Housing…
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Sarah Catherine Howard Johnson
1907-1993 One of the first African American nurses in the Visiting Nurses Association of Newark, where she worked from 1930-1950. Nurse at Hawkins Street School from 1965-1977. Received degrees from Tuskegee Institute (1929)…
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Maggie Clay Beckett
c. 1892-1972 Founded the James H. Beckett funeral home with her husband. President of the New Jersey State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs 1943-1947, as well as Vice President. She was the first…
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Delores Rich
1948-1996 President of the Aspen Riverpark Tenants Association, who did lots of organizing for tenants in the building. Tenants were forced out of the old Prudential Apartments to allow Aspen to renovate it.…
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Marion Roberson Kidd
1928-2012 Born in Newark. Worked 15 years with the North Jersey Community Union later named Newark Community Health Center, as a Social Outreach Manager and clerk in the Social Security program. She was…
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Dorothy Gould
1922 – 2015 Early Black teacher, hired in 1943 for $144 a month at Cleveland Junior High as a “permanent sub” since Black teachers couldn’t be officially hired above primary level. Later, principal…
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Katherine Bell Banks
1912-2008 Photo from Vailsburg yearbook 1973. Born in Tennessee, the Banks family shared a home with the WEB Dubois family in New York before moving to Newark in 1922. She graduated Barringer in…
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Tina Eugene Holtzclaw Bohannon
1905-1999 Photo from Arts High Yearbook, 1966 An early Black teacher in Newark, hired before 1945, firstly as a “permanent sub” at Cleveland Junior High, because Black teachers could not be officially hired…