Category: Politics & Government
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Jennie Levell Lemon
1913-1982 Jennie Lemon ran for city council in 1969. She founded the Jennie Lemon Civic Association. She served as president of Zion Towers tenants association, advocating for tenants. She was active in the NAACP, serving in many roles, including as the county’s membership and political action chairman. She advocated for minorities, senior citizens, and the…
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H. Blanche Harris
1878-1956 (Thanks to George Robb who did much research on Harris, his full biographer is linked below.). Blanche Harris was active in the suffrage movement in Newark. Her obituary said she was a “member of one Newark’s first Negro families and active many years in community affairs” and “a pioneer in the Newark NAACP branch…
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Florence Haines
1869-1955 Florence Haines secretary of the New Jersey Women’s Political Union, a charter Member of the Newark League of Women Voters, and one of New Jersey’s first woman Assembly representative from 1926-1931, one of the first two sisters in the General Assembly with her sister Margaret. Bills she championed in the Assembly included better rehabilitation…
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Marie Siconolfi Villani
1921-2021 Marie Villani was the first women in Newark elected to citywide office. She served as Councilwoman from 1973-1993. In 1973, after her husband Ralph Villani resigned due to illness, she was appointed for the remainder of the term, and then was elected. She said she believed a “woman’s touch” on the council would be…