Category: Education, Museums and Libraries
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Emma Holman Coleman
1864-1935 Emma Coleman ran and served as President of Coleman National Business College, at Academy and Halsey, in Newark after the death of her husband in 1903. She worked to adapt the school to the 20th century including expanding shorthand and practical offerings. Born in Poughkeepsie, as Emma Holman, Emma was the second wife of…
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Miriam Studley
1899-1984 Miriam Van Arsdale Studley was the first director of the New Jersey room at the Newark Public Library from 1951-1966. She also ran the NJ collections from 1943, when Julia Sabine went to graduate school. That’s a total of 23 years in charge of the library’s New Jersey materials. Miriam Studley was born Jul…
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Zelma Mitchell Collins
1930-2023 Zelma Collins was the first Black teacher at South 17th Street School in 1952 and rose to principal in 1973, the first Black principal. From 1986, she was principal of Clinton Ave., before retiring in 1996. She taught briefly at Oliver Street School before South 17th. She said, “I left a legacy…I gave it…
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Rebecca “Becky” Andrade Doggett
1941- Rebecca Doggett has had a long varied career in community organizing, social services, government, education and corporate. She was a founder of Tri City Citizens Union for Progress in 1966 and in the 1970s. In 1965, she was first President and later Executive Director of the Newark Preschool Council. In 1979, she was appointed…
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Marion Alexander Bolden
1946- Marion Bolden was superintendent of the Newark Public Schools from 1999-2008. In 2009, Marion founded the Newark Public Schools Historical Preservation Committee, to preserve Newark school history. Marion was born in Newark and is a graduate of South Side High School, where she was president of the National Honor Society and Clinton Place Jr.…
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Grace Baxter Fenderson
1882-1962 Grace Baxter Fenderson (1882-1962) was one of the first African American teachers in the Newark Public Schools and taught for 42 years, helped found the Newark Branch of the NAACP and served on the board of the Sojourner Truth branch of the YWCA. She was president of the Lincoln-Douglass Memorial Association. From 1936, she…
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Pansy L Borders
1906-1978 Pansy L. Borders (1906-1978) was the first director of Child Guidance for the Newark Board of Ed and served 43 yrs. Pansy worked in nearly every Newark school and wanted to infuse social work into the curriculum. She was one of the early Black teachers in the system, she was one of seven when…
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Maria DeCastro Blake
1911-2001 Maria DeCastro Blake was a dean of admissions at Rutgers and recruited hundreds of Hispanic students. She was one of the founders of ASPIRA, a founding member of the Puerto Rican Congress of New Jersey, founder and president of the Association for Professional Education of Puerto Ricans, a founding member of FOCUS and involved…