Alma E. Flagg

A graduate of Newark’s East Side High School. Throughout her career she has been a trailblazer. In 1964 she was appointed principal of the integrated Hawkins Street School. She became the first African-American woman to hold that distinction. Her appointment as assistant superintendent in charge of curriculum services in 1967 was also a milestone. In 1985 a new elementary school was dedicated and named for her.

Charles Cummings

He was a librarian for more than 40 years and a nationally recognized expert on Newark. He had served as the citys official historian for more than 15 years and also wrote columns for The Star-Ledger.

Clement Alexander Price

Distinguished Service Professor of History, Rutgers University-Newark Campus, and Director of the Rutgers Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience - an interdisciplinary academic center that, through public partnerships and programming, offers the Newark metropolitan area the finest thinkers and artists engaged with key issues of modern life.

James Baxter

He was just 19 when he was hired in the midst of the Civil War for a job that was at most an afterthought to the city fathers: principal of Newark’s “Colored School.” James M. Baxter did the job so well and for so long — 45 years — that the school became known as “Mr. Baxter’s School.”

James Oliver Horton

He is the Benjamin Banneker Professor of American Studies and History at George Washington University and Historian Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. A 1961 Weequahic grad.

John Cotton Dana

John Cotton Dana was a librarian and museum director in Newark whose main objective was to make the library relevant to the daily lives of the citizens and to promote the benefits of reading.

Marion Bolden

A 1964 graduate of South Side High School. Newark mathematics teacher, and state-appointed Superintendent of Schools in Newark from 1999 to 2009. She is now heading up the Newark Public Schools Historical Preservation Committee.

Muriel Fox

A prominent public relations executive who in 1966 co-founded the National Organization for Women and led the communications effort that introduced the modern women's movement to the media of the world. A 1945 grad of Weequahic.

Nathan Weiss

He served as president of Kean College of New Jersey for 20 years, retiring in 1989 as senior president of the New Jersey state colleges.

Paul Tractenberg

An attorney and professor who established the Education Law Center in 1973, a public interest law project, and served as its director for three years. He also established and continues to serve as co-director of the Institute on Education Law and Policy (IELP), an interdisciplinary research project at Rutgers University–Newark. He authored a book titled "A Centennial History of Rutgers Law School in Newark: Opening a Thousand Doors." A 1956 Weequahic grad,

Reynold & Mary Burch

Reynol is remembered by many Newark residents for having started an educational and cultural program for minority youths. He and his wife, Dr. Mary Beasley Burch, a teacher, founded the program, Leaguers Inc., in 1947 and organized the events.

William Ashby

A fighter for civil rights for more than nine decades and New Jersey's first black social worker. He founded the state's first Urban League office in Newark.