Poster to advertise a mass meeting for African American residents of Essex County on October 28, 1904 in Newark. A new political awareness in Newark’s African American communities began to grow at the turn of the 20th Century, and the 1920s through 1940s saw the beginning of black political power on the local scene. — Credit: New Jersey Historical Society
Photograph of William Maxwell, an influential political figure in Newark in the early 1900s. Maxwell was the first African American editor of the Newark Ledger and active in numerous political organizations in the city. — Credit: NJ Historical Society
A look inside an African American newspaper office in Newark in the early 1930s. The newspaper was most likely the New Jersey Herald News (later the Newark Herald News). — Credit: WPA Photographs, NJ State Archives
Poem written by William Maxwell, an influential political figure in Newark in the early 1900s. Maxwell was the first African American editor of the Newark Ledger and active in numerous political organizations in the city. — Credit: NJ Historical Society
Poster to advertise a mass meeting of the “New Idea” Colored Republican League” of the Ninth Ward. This was just one of many African American political organizations in Newark in the early 1900s. — Credit: NJ Historical Society
