Black Women and the Civil Rights Movement in New Jersey, featuring Dr. Hettie V. Williams

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Black women played a crucial role in the Civil Rights Movement in New Jersey. These leaders forged interracial, cross-class, and cross-gender alliances locally and nationally, and were key to securing progressive civil rights legislation in New Jersey.

This fascinating history is the subject of a presentation to be given by Professor Hettie V. Williams, author of The Georgia of the North: Black Women and the Civil Rights Movement in New Jersey, in honor of Black History Month. Durand-Hedden House & Garden and the South Orange-Maplewood Community Coalition on Race are pleased to host Dr. Williams at The Woodland Parlor, 60 Woodland Avenue, in Maplewood on Sunday afternoon, February 9, to discuss this ground-breaking research. Doors will open at 1 p.m. and the lecture will begin at 1:15 p.m.

Dr. Williams will explore how and why New Jersey’s Black leaders, community members, and women in particular, affected major civil rights legislation, legal equality, and integration a decade before Brown v. Board of Education. In this interesting analysis, the Civil Rights Movement began in New Jersey, and Black women were central to this struggle.

The presentation will be followed by a guided discussion among the audience.

Dr. Williams is Professor of History, Department of History and Anthropology at Monmouth University. She received the Eugene Simko Faculty Leadership Award, the PGIS Award in Social Justice, and is a co-founder of the Monmouth University Race Conference. She is the former president of the African American Intellectual History Society.

Following the talk and group discussion, light refreshments will be served at Durand-Hedden House, 523 Ridgewood Road in Maplewood.

The Maplewood Division of Arts & Culture has generously donated the use of The Woodland Parlor, 60 Woodland Avenue, Maplewood.

Pre-registration for this event is requested at communitycoalitiononrace.org/events.