Grace Baxter Fenderson

Newark has produced many notable activists who have fought for African American liberation. One of those figures is Grace Baxter Fenderson, a daughter of Brick City. She was born on November 1, 1883, to parents James Miller Baxter, who was the first Black school principal in Newark, and Pauline Louisa Mars Baxter, a dental surgeon and state legislator. Fenderson always had a strong passion for teaching, graduating from Newark Normal School in 1906 to start a career in education. Fenderson made her mark as one of the first Black teachers in Newark public schools, teaching at Monmouth Street School for over forty years. By 1914, she started to become more involved in advocacy work, co-founding the Newark chapter of the NAACP with J. Leory Baxter and went on to serve on the national board of directors in 1936. She had become a vocal critic of injustices for African Americans, organized events like an anti-lynching parade in Newark, and ran for state assembly in 1940. She would go on to become the president of the Lincoln-Douglass Memorial Association where you continued working with the NAACP on a local and national level. Fenderson’s legacy helped a lot of local institutions thrive, and many we continue to use today, like the Newark YWCA, the New Jersey Urban League, and the New Jersey Education Association. Her efforts push to educate African Americans in her community to become educated voters and become more active in advocating for the progress of their neighborhoods.