Category: Politics & Government
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Shirley Northern Green
c. 1935-1983 Shirley Green was appointed director of the Division of Public Welfare in 1978 by Ken Gibson. She previously served as Rent Control Administrator from 1974 to 1978, and in the Business Administrator’s office before that. Shirley was forced to leave school at age 15 due to illness. In 1966, after a husband and…
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Helen M Berry
c. 1878-1941 Helen Berry was very active in Essex County Republican politics and a member of the Essex County Board of Elections. From 1920-1924, she was vice chairman of the Essex County Republican Committee. From 1926, she was a member of the Republican State Committee, serving as Vice Chairman (1927-1931). In 1938, she was appointed…
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Wynona Moore Lipman
1923* -1999 Wynona Lipman is well known as the first Black woman in the New Jersey Senate. You can read her full detailed biography from the Center for American Women and Politics here. Some of Wynona’s early accomplishments are lesser known. She got a Fulbright scholarship at a young age, was a professor at Morehouse…
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Eloise Frazer Gehin
c.1877-1941 Eloise Gehin was a leader in the Republican Party. She was the first woman to serve as Vice Chairman of the Essex County Republican Committee (1920) and first Essex woman member of the Republican State Committee (1921). Eloise was active in the General Wood Campaign Committee, president of the Calvin Coolidge Club (founded 1924),…
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Doris Thompson Dorsey
1911-1985 Doris Dorsey was the first Black woman supervisor in the Newark Post Office in 1966. She was “the only woman in an 18 member section”. Doris had been a Postal employee since 1942. She worked supervising West Station 255 Springfield Ave, before she was named foreman in charge of the supply division. She grew…
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Margaret Douglas Haines
1884-1966 Margaret Haines was a lifelong resident of Newark. She was a member of the General Assembly from 1949-1953, taught at Garfield and Avon Ave Schools, was a canteen worker and ambulance driver in WWI and a Signal corps driver and USO Organizer in Newark in WWII. The Newark News called her “the antithesis of…
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Alice Condit Kirkpatrick
11 Dec 1875 – 15 Jan 1951 Alice Kirkpatrick was the first woman in Newark to head a city governing board. She was elected in 1917 as President of the Recreation Commission, after being appointed for the start of 1916 by Mayor Raymond. Alice was head of the New Jersey Vacation Committee organized in 1914:…
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Maria Vizcarrondo-De Soto
1951- Maria Vizcarrondo-De Soto had many important executive roles in the community. She served as director of ASPIRA for many years, was the first Hispanic elected Essex county official and then was the first woman and Latina President of United Way of Essex and Hudson, for 10 years. She also was the first director of…