Category: 1910-1929 (Born)
-
Gladys Berry Francis
c. 1911-1993 Gladys Francis was director of Elementary Education for the Newark Public Schools from 1967-1978. Gladys previously taught at Charlton Street School and South 8th Street School and was Vice Principal at South 8th Street, Oliver Street and Bragaw Avenue Schools. She started teaching in 1936. Gladys was a member of the Phillis Wheatley…
-
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…
-
Cabiria Assunta Polo Accarino
1914-2007 Cabiria Accarino lived in Newark most of her life. She ran for North Ward Council in 1962 and organized the Forest Hill Little Children’s Theater in 1959. Cabiria taught piano, voice and drama for many years and had her own Italian language radio program where she wrote her own material. She was involved in…
-
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…
-
Martha Belle Williams
1924-1969 Martha Belle Williams, with M. Bernadine Johnson Marshall, was the first African American woman admitted to the New Jersey Bar. She said, “I haven’t thought much about taking the examination as a Negro or as a woman either, I just want to be a good lawyer.’ Martha was from Montclair but attended Essex Junior College…
-
Clara McGuire Dasher
1930-1995 Clara Dasher was President of the Essex County College Board of Trustees and a longtime active member and leader of the Newark Teacher’s Union. Clara was a teacher from 1959-1973. She was an assistant to Carole Graves and Vice President, who took over leadership of the Teachers Union while Carole was in jail for…
-
Elitea Bulkley Allison
c. 1913 -2007 Elitea was one of the early African Americans to work professionally at the Newark Public library after Theresa Moore. She was hired by Newark in 1938, according to Who’s Who, though the Newark News suggests 1940. By 1945, a Senior Children’s and Education Librarian, likely the first African American in this position…
-
Mildred Lockett Lipscombe
1922-2025? Mildred Lipscombe was one the library’s first Black librarians (possibly the third), hired 8 years after Theresa Moore, and after Elitea Allison. After graduating Virginia Union University, and then the University of Illinois (MLIS), she became a junior librarian in 1946. In 1949, she took place in a library course on “Great Books” and…