1902-1962
Marion Thompson Wright was a graduate of Barringer High and the first African American woman in the US to earn a PhD in History, according to most sources. There is a Rutgers annual lecture series named in her honor. Marion wrote, “The Education of Negroes in New Jersey” and other works.
Marion was one of only two black students in her class at Barringer. Her mother worked as a domestic servant in Newark while she was growing up.
Marion is visible on Newark censuses in 1905-1915. She married William Moss in 1918 in New York. There is a record in the 1920 census on Crawford Street in Newark, though the birthdates for her entire family are wrong. Her daughter Thelma is listed as 15 but should be 1 year old. She also had a son James.
In the 1920s Marion left for Howard where she got her Bachelor’s and Master’s, and received her PhD at Columbia in 1940. She remarried Arthur Wright, and is shown on the 1940 census again in Newark. They divorced as well.
In the 1930s, Marion also worked with the Newark Welfare Department. In 1940, she became an Assistant Professor of Education at Howard, and a full professor in 1957.
She was a member of the National Association of College Women, the American Teachers Association, and the Society of Advanced Education. She was also a editorial member of the Journal of Negro Education.
Tragically, Marion died in 1962 by suicide at age 57, while she was living in Montclair.
Bibliography
Marion Thompson Wright, BlackPast
Census Records
Stetler Carrie. “Quest for Learning Had a High Cost” Star Ledger Feb 22, 2008
“Dr. Wright Educator” Montclair TImes , Nov 1, 1962
“Dr. Wright Found Dead” Newark News Oct 28, 1962
https://www.aaihs.org/marion-thompson-wright-and-brown-v-board-of-education