13 10 894 https://archive.englewoodmakeshistory.org/files/original/6f1daef7cb64685278a6d0bd406a3991.jpg 716c2c28505d5b426c002b52921279f5 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Places Places A fixed location. Metadata for a place provides descriptive information that is the basis of discovery of the creation, purpose, and agents associated with a place. Date Started 1876 Type of Place Other Source of File Attached "<a href="https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/99899/brookside-cemetery">Brookside Cemetery.</a>" Find A Grave. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Brookside Cemetery Description An account of the resource Brookside Cemetery is a burial ground established in 1876 by Englewood Residents. The original plot of land was six acres before the trustees purchased nineteen more acres on the west side of Engle Street. The chapel near the cemetery was built in 1860 and donated to the location in 1887. The cemetery is non-denominational, however. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived "<a href="https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/99899/brookside-cemetery">Brookside Cemetery.</a>" Find A Grave. "<a href="https://brooksidecemetery.net/about-us/">About Brookside Cemetery</a>." Brookside Cemetery. "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brookside_Cemetery_(Englewood,_New_Jersey)">Brookside Cemetery (Englewood, New Jersey).</a>" Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Mar. 2023. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Ludder, Rachelle Death Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource People People An individual. Metadata for a person provides detailed biographical information to describe the life of a historical figure. Birth Date 1932-04-21 Birthplace Englewood, New Jersey, USA Occupation Politician Activist, Civil Rights Lawyer Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Brown, Arnold (1932-?) Type The nature or genre of the resource Other Subject The topic of the resource Englewood New Jersey, Fourth Ward Politics, Bergen County Activism, African American Description An account of the resource Arnold Brown was born on April 12, 1932, in Englewood, Brown's family had deep roots in New Jersey and Englewood. Arnold’s great-great-grandfather, John Brown, was born into the Ramapough Munsee Lenape Nation. His five-time great-grandparents James and Catherine Oliver settled in Skunk Hollow. Their son Joseph married Flora Ann Cisco and settled in Englewood. James and Catherine's granddaughter Ollie married Arnold's grandfather, a Pullman named John Scott Brown. Arnold Brown was also descended from J. and Susan Oliver who were enslaved in Bergen County. Brown grew up in the 4th ward and attended Lincoln Elementary during a time of racial segregation. He then attended Dwight Morrow High School. Brown graduated from Bowling Green State University and received his law degree in 1957 from Rutgers University. He practiced law from 1957 to 1986. Brown became a key figure in the Civil Rights movement in Englewood as a leader of the NAACP and Urban League. He also founded the Du Bois Book Center, which focuses on African American Studies. On August 28, 1963, Brown sat several rows behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream,” speech. The next year Brown was part of a group of thirty civil rights leaders who met with President Lyndon Johnson in the White House. In 1965, Brown became the first African American elected to the state legislature from Bergen County. In the 1980s and 1990s, Brown became a prominent historian of African American history in Bergen County. He laid most of the groundwork for the uninvestigated black history of the area. This includes the history of black Civil War soldiers, African American burial grounds, and important black figures. He served as a trustee on the Englewood Library Board, Chair of the Bergen County Juneteenth Celebration Committee, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the First Baptist Church of Teaneck, a member of the Bergen County Human Relations Committee, the Bergen County Historic Preservation Advisory Board and has remained active in the Kappa Theta Lambda chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha. He married Lydia Barbara White in 1955. After her death, Brown married Gwendolyn Wertby. He has four children, Crystal L., Beverly M. Brown-Fitzhugh, Dale E. Brown-Davis, and Arnold E. EARLY LIFE AND FAMILY HISTORY Arnold Brown was born on April 12, 1932, in Englewood. He is connected to the strongest and deepest anchor and sinker roots that provide strength and stability to the city's black community in the 4th ward. These roots include Bennettsville, South Carolina, Skunk Hollow in Harrington Township, and the Ramapough Munsee Lenape nation in Bergen, Passaic, and Rockland counties. Brown’s mother, Hortense Melle Stubbs was born in 1906 in Bennettsville, South Carolina. In the late 19th century, hundreds of black Bennettsville residents began to head north to work as domestic servants, chauffeurs, and gardeners in the mansion being built for the prominent industrialists and bankers on the city’s East Hill. Bennettsville was known for its cotton plantations worked by enslaved African Americans. After the Civil War, the small town’s economy revolved around the railroad and a cotton mill. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the condition of the town’s African Americans deteriorated. The rise of Jim Crow segregation, convict leasing, disenfranchisement, lynching, and the boll weevil’s destruction of the cotton economy convinced many of the town’s black residents to look North. Today, there are still dozens of African American families in Englewood with ties to Bennettsville. Brown’s father, John Scott Brown was a postal worker born in Englewood in 1907. He had deep roots in Bergen County, one of the anchor roots holding the 4th ward’s black community in place. He was a direct descendent of an enslaved man and woman named J. and Susan Oliver, who married in the mid-1700s. Bergen County had more enslaved African Americans than any other County. During their lifetimes, enslaved African Americans made up more than 20% of Bergen County’s population and more than 40% of its workforce. At the time most of the enslaved people in Bergen County had arrived on slave ships from West Africa in either Perth Amboy or New York Harbor. The enslaved worked in all occupations and built most of the County’s thriving Dutch and English farms. On these farms enslaved peoples harvested wheat, corn, and rye, maintained the orchards, and herded cattle, pigs, and horses. Enslaved Africans and second and third-generation enslaved Africans also did much of the work in the iron mines of northwestern Bergen County. The copper mine in what is now Arlington, which helped make Arent Schuyler wealthy, was discovered by a man he enslaved. The enslaved in Bergen County, like J. and Susan Oliver, faced a particularly brutal form of slavery. In the South, the larger plantations offered some degree of protection from the constant surveillance and cruelties of white enslavers. In Bergen County, however, most enslaved African Americans lived and worked in close proximity to their enslavers on small farms. The tensions that built in such environments often led to severe punishments for infractions of the slave code. Runaway slaves were often branded with their enslaver’s initials and enslaved people who stole or committed other “crimes” were whipped bare-bodied as they were cuffed to the back of a moving cart. Many enslaved persons were lashed at the County’s whipping post where the statue of General Enoch Poor now stands on the Hackensack greens. Bergen County was also known for the “frequent” “burning” of enslaved African Americans who committed certain crimes. These “crimes” could range from murder to physically attacking a white enslaver. According to reports “One way of punishing a slave for murder was to cut off his right hand, burn it before his eyes, then hang him, and afterward burn his body.’ The enslaved in Bergen County also had to face the daily fear of being illegally kidnapped and sold South by the infamous “Van Wickle Slave Ring,” led by Middlesex County Court Judge, Jacob Van Wickle. As slavery declined in Bergen County in the 19th century, Arnold Brown’s 5 times great-grandparents, James and Catherine Oliver, found refuge and hope in Skunk Hollow, or “The Mountain.” Skunk Hollow was a free black settlement in what is now Alpine. After some difficulty, because of his former slave status, James Oliver purchased land in Skunk Hollow in 1840. The Olivers established a family burial ground on their land. By the late 1800s, Skunk Hollow had 13 mostly home-owning households and a population of 75. One of the community’s wealthier residents, a man named William Thompson, also known as Reverend Billy, established a successful church named St. Charles African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. The church, known as the “Swamp Church,” is now located in Sparkill, New York. James and Catherine’s son Joseph married an Englewood woman named Flora Ann Cisco and he settled in the Highwood section of Englewood in what is now the 3rd ward. Their granddaughter Ollie, married Arnold’s grandfather, a Pullman porter named John Scott Brown, who also was born and raised in Englewood in the 4th ward. John Scott’s father, John Brown, is the tie to the third anchor root that connects the 4th ward to place. John Brown was born in the Ramapo Mountains into the Ramapough Munsee Lenape nation in Rockland County. The Ramapough, locally known as the Ramapough Mountain Indians or by the pejorative term “Jackson Whites,” are a Munsee-speaking group of the Lenape People, a subgroup of people under the Algonquian-speaking people. There were around 20,000 Lenni Lenape in New Jersey and parts of Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New York in the early 1600s when the Dutch colonists arrived. A combination of the mid-17th century Dutch wars of extermination, disease, and “Indian Removal” caused the number of Lenape people to have dwindled to several thousand by the 1800s. The Ramapough were part of the remaining Lenape groups. In the 18th and 19th centuries, free Afro-Dutch and African-American migrants moved into the Ramapough mountains intermarrying with some of the Munsee Lenape people. In the 19th and 20th centuries, many Ramapough people found work in the emerging cities of southern Bergen County and a number of these migrants, like Arnold’s great-great grandfather, John Brown, settled in Englewood’s 4th ward. STUDENT Arnold enrolled in Lincoln Elementary School on West Englewood Avenue in what was then known as “Little Texas.” Englewood’s schools had become increasingly segregated at that point. Although New Jersey was one of twelve states that prohibited racially segregated schools, in 1936 Englewood had 66 “colored” schools serving 3,845 students and employing 419 black teachers. In Englewood, most black children were segregated into Lincoln Elementary. The year before Brown was born, 70% of the children attending Lincoln were African American. When Brown started first grade in 1938, black students made up 90% of the student body. There were no black students at Cleveland Elementary in the 3rd ward or Roosevelt Elementary in the 2nd ward. The year Brown entered Lincoln, the City Council under the guise of ‘overpopulation’ at Franklin Middle School, voted to segregate the city’s middle school population by creating an all-black Junior High School at Lincoln. There were also no black teachers at Lincoln and the students faced inefficient teachers, discriminatory promotion practices, inadequate remedial work, and prevention from transferring to other elementary schools even though this was common practice for white students and the city’s Board of Education. In 1945, Brown entered the integrated Dwight Morrow High School where he watched the legendary Dwight Morrow basketball player Sherman White play against the legendary Coach Vince Lombardi’s St. Cecilia’s Saints. After graduating Dwight Morrow in 1949, Brown went on to Bowling Green State University where he earned a B.A. in Political Science and Psychology and then graduated from Rutgers Law School with a Juris Doctor Degree in 1957. LAWYER, CIVIL RIGHTS, AND POLITICIAN After graduating from Rutgers, Brown returned to Englewood where he set up his law practice. He soon joined the growing civil rights movement and helped build what would become the nationally known Englewood Movement that desegregated Englewood’s elementary schools, Bergen County’s swimming pools, and a notoriously discriminatory housing market. First as President of the Bergen County NAACP and later as President of the Bergen County Urban League, Brown played a critical role in efforts to integrate Englewood’s Quarles and Cleveland Elementary Schools. Brown’s civil rights activism led him to national prominence. On August 28, 1963, Brown sat several rows behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream,” speech. The next year Brown was part of a group of thirty civil rights leaders who met with President Lyndon Johnson in the White House. The following year Bergen County voters elected Brown to the New Jersey State Assembly, making him the first African American from the County to sit in that legislative body. As an assemblyman, Brown authored the “Tenants Reprisal Act,” and “Prohibition of Discrimination in All Employment” bills. Brown also played a critical role in easing tensions during Englewood’s 1967 “race riot” and supported urban renewal projects to provide decent low-income housing to Englewood’s 4th ward. Brown’s legislative aide was a young Jewish civil rights activist named Byron Baer. Baer would go on to have a long-distinguished career in the New Jersey state legislature and serve as president of the National Association of Jewish Legislators. During the 1960s, Brown served on the Board of Directors of Rutgers University, the boards of the Bergen County Girl Scouts, the Salvation Army, and the New Jersey Law Enforcement Planning Agency. HISTORIAN AND CIVIC LEADER In the 1970s and early 1980s, Brown established the Dubois Book Center in his home, which became a center of African American and Black Studies in northern New Jersey. He began to conduct research into the un-investigated history of African Americans in Bergen County. Over the next three decades, Brown laid the groundwork for the study of black history in Englewood and Bergen County. Brown has done important work in recovering the history of and locating slave burial sites in the state. His recovery and mapping of the African American burial grounds of Gethsemane Cemetery in Little Ferry was groundbreaking. The cemetery is listed on the National and State Registers of Historic Places and is now managed by the Bergen County Department of Parks Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs. School children often visit the site and the cemetery hosts annual Juneteenth celebrations. Brown’s scholarship extends beyond slave burial sites to include important research and writing on 19th-century black businesspeople in Bergen County including Alfred P. Smith and Elizabeth Dulfur. Brown published an important chapter on African Americans in the Revolutionary War in Bergen County titled “Black Loyalists in Bergen County and ‘The Book of Negroes,’ which appears in an edited collection of the essay "The Revolutionary War in Bergen County: The Times That Tried Men’s Soul" by Carol Karels. His work has also appeared in "Images of America: Englewood and Englewood Cliffs" and "Past and Promise: Lives of New Jersey Woman." Brown has also made significant contributions to our understanding of the role that African American soldiers from Bergen County played in the Civil War. At the start of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln and most Congressmen opposed enlisting black soldiers in the Union Army. Initially Lincoln reassured southern states that he was opposed to ending slavery and supported removing free African Americans from the United States and moving them to countries like Haiti. Most New Jersey politicians were fiercely opposed to enlisting black soldiers. New Jersey’s pro-southern and pro-slavery “Cooperhead” Democratic Party controlled the state legislature throughout the Civil War and won the gubernatorial race in 1864. Abraham Lincoln lost in New Jersey in 1860 to Democrat John Breckinridge and in 1864 against Democrat General George B. McClellan. Bergen County voted overwhelmingly for these pro-slavery Democrats. In 1877, New Jersey voters elected McClellan the 24th governor. Despite such opposition, Brown has helped uncover and tell the story of the successful mobilization of black men in New Jersey to enlist in the Union Army. By the end of the Civil War, almost 3,000 black men from the state had served in the United States Colored Troops and as Brown reveals, at least 100 of these soldiers hailed from Bergen County. Bergen County’s own Sergent Samual Thompson played a key role in fighting for the fair treatment of black veterans after the war ended. In 1865 Thompson forced the state of New Jersey to live up to its promise to pay the widows of Union soldiers a $6 a month pension. Until Thompson complained, New Jersey was only paying the widows of white soldiers. As Brown pioneered the study of African Americans in Bergen County, he remained active in civic life. He served as a trustee on the Englewood Library Board, Chair of the Bergen County Juneteenth Celebration Committee, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the First Baptist Church of Teaneck, a member of the Bergen County Human Relations Committee, the Bergen County Historic Preservation Advisory Board and has remained active in the Kappa Theta Lambda chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_E._Brown">Arnold E. Brown</a>.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Feb. 2024. <div></div> Maag, Christopher. “<a href="http://www.northjersey.com/story/news/columnists/christopher-maag/2018/05/10/englewood-historian-and-activist-long-journey-civil-rights-arnold-brown/592656002/.%20Accessed%2022%20June%202024">An Englewood Man’s ‘long Journey’ of Fighting Racism in Bergen County</a>.” North Jersey Media Group, North Jersey, 10 May 2018. <div></div> "Democratic Assembly Aspirants Have Pet Issues They Support." The Record, October 28, 1965, p.7. Kerwick, Mike. "The used-book store is becoming a relic." The Record, March 11, 2007, p. F1, F7. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Colman, David Ludder, Rachelle African American Civil Rights Politics Race https://archive.englewoodmakeshistory.org/files/original/39d7aa40774a8f0e89820e1cb5e28dbc.jpg 89d72a376d4ec6d4592721be1949a90b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource People People An individual. Metadata for a person provides detailed biographical information to describe the life of a historical figure. Birth Date 1927 Birthplace Bronx, New York, USA Occupation Soilder Military Officer Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Brown, William E., Jr. (1927-?) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived “<a href="http://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/107598/lieutenant-general-william-e-brown-jr/">Lieutenant General William E. Brown Jr.</a>” Air Force. <div></div> Supik, Wilma. "The 'serving' church." The Record, 11 Apr. 1980, p. A-17. Subject The topic of the resource Veterans Description An account of the resource William E. Brown Jr. was a Lieutenant General of the Allied Air Forces Southern Europe and the deputy commander in chief of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe for the Southern Area. He attended Dwight Morrow High School and was a member of the Bethany Presbyterian Church. Brown received a bachelor of science from Pennsylvania State University in 1949. He graduated from Squadron Officer School at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alaska in 1956, Armed Forces Staff College, Norfolk, Virginia in 1966, and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington D.C. in 1973. From 1951 to 1970 he served in numerous fighter squadrons. 1971 he served the Department of Defense Manpower and Reserve Affairs Office at the Pentagon. In 1973 he was the deputy commander for operations at Reese Air Force Base. By September 15, 1982, he was promoted to lieutenant general. <div style="text-align:center;"></div> Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Colman, David Ludder, Rachelle Military War https://archive.englewoodmakeshistory.org/files/original/01599c48bfdabae02d19340e70f4e0b2.jpg 3646787f485ca40b3ce7430e05fda751 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Events Event A non-persistent, time-based occurrence. Metadata for an event provides descriptive information that is the basis for discovery of the purpose, location, duration, and responsible agents associated with an event. Examples include an exhibition, webcast, conference, workshop, open day, performance, battle, trial, wedding, tea party, conflagration. Date Started 1900-04-02 Source of File Attached "Our Labor Troubles." The Paterson Evening News, 3 Apr. 1900, p.1. Type of Event Protest Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Building Trades Strike (1900) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived "Our Labor Troubles." The Paterson Evening News, 3 Apr. 1900, p.1. Subject The topic of the resource Labor Strikes Labor Conditions Description An account of the resource The Building Trades Strike in 1900 was a strike in New Jersey in which thousands of carpenters, painters, and decorators protested low compensation. In Englewood masons and laborers demanded an increase of twenty-five cents a day and shorter hours on Saturdays. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Colman, David Ludder, Rachelle Labor Labor Movement Protests Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Places Places A fixed location. Metadata for a place provides descriptive information that is the basis of discovery of the creation, purpose, and agents associated with a place. Type of Place Businesses Source of File Attached Dr. Willoughby is Dead at 59." The Record, 1 Mar. 1945, p.2. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bullock Funeral Home Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived "C. Bullock Jr., funeral home owner, director." The Record, 10 Oct. 1982, p.C-26. Description An account of the resource The Bullock Funeral Home was created by Charles H. Bullock Jr. One was open in Hackensack and one was open in Englewood. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Colman, David Ludder, Rachelle Death https://archive.englewoodmakeshistory.org/files/original/8157e94539818360fea957da7fbedeb3.png 1d304cfeba53f4dc415f1b2ac3bd0453 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource People People An individual. Metadata for a person provides detailed biographical information to describe the life of a historical figure. Birth Date 1903-04-17 Death Date 1982-10-05 Occupation Funeral Home Director Source of File Attached Photograph, Cheryl Ann Birthplace Charlottesville, Virginia, USA Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bullock, Charles Harmon Jr. (1903-1982) Description An account of the resource The following is a description of Charles H. Bullock written by his granddaughter Cheryl Ann. "My grandfather Charles H. Bullock Jr. was born in 1903 in Charlottesville Virginia. He was the second to oldest of six children. His father Charles Sr. was Secretary of the Carlton Avenue YMCA in Brooklyn New York at the time of his birth and wife Lottie remained in Virginia raising their family. It wasn’t until about 1907 did the family move to Louisville Kentucky where Charles Sr. was called to serve as Secretary of the colored YMCA there. By 1916 the family had moved again to Montclair New Jersey, where Charles Sr. would be called to open a new modern building on Washington Street. Charles Jr. graduated from Montclair High School and would go on to attend and graduate from Hampton Institute. Seeking to secure his future, he interned for Mr. Holcombe and became a funeral director. After meeting and marrying Edna Everett of Hackensack he opened Bullock Funeral Home there as well as in Englewood New Jersey." Bullock married Edna Everett in 1935. He married Eleanor M. Coleman in August 1956. He had two children, Charles III and Eleanor Leake. "Charles Harmon Bullock Jr in the U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947." Ancestry. "Charles Bullock in the New Jersey, U.S., Marriage Index, 1901-2016." Ancestry. "C. Bullock Jr., funeral home owner, director." The Record, 10 Oct. 1982, p.C-26. Partly written by OpenAI. (2026, January, 28). ChatGPT (GPT-5.2.) [Large Language Model] https://chat.openai.com/chat Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Colman, David Ludder, Rachelle Death People An individual. Metadata for a person provides detailed biographical information to describe the life of a historical figure. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Butler, Leroy Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource People People An individual. Metadata for a person provides detailed biographical information to describe the life of a historical figure. Birth Date 1908? Birthplace Macon, Georgia, USA Death Date 1976-08 Occupation Teacher Business Owner Source of File Attached "Margaret Butler, 68." The Record, August 23, 1976, p.2. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Butler, Margaret (1908?-1976) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived "Margaret Butler, 68." The Record, August 23, 1976, p.2. Subject The topic of the resource Blind Community Public Schools Description An account of the resource Margaret Butler was an economics teacher in Englewood. She taught the fifth grade in Harlem and home economics at Dwight Morrow High School. Butler became blind in 1945 and was an instructor at the Community House Social Service Federation in Englewood, teaching braille. She also founded Shining Light, an organization to help the blind community. She was a member of numerous organizations, including the American Foundation of the Blind, the National Council of Negro Women of Bergen County, the W.C. Handy Foundation of the Blind, and the New Jersey Commission of the Blind. She was awarded the Lydia Hayes Foundation Achievement Award in 1951. Butler attended St. Cecilia's Roman Catholic Church. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Colman, David Ludder, Rachelle Businesses Disabilities Education https://archive.englewoodmakeshistory.org/files/original/df12bc49427e2dce70f935c37636c2d9.jpg 5a28d50b417cd99f62de30c9313249dd Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource William Butler was a prominent African American political leader and community advocate in Englewood, New Jersey during the 1920s and early 1930s. He emerged as one of the most visible Black voices in local politics at a moment when African American civic participation was expanding but still sharply constrained by racial discrimination. Butler served as president and later chairman of the Englewood Colored Democratic Club, positioning himself as the leading Democratic spokesman for Black residents in the city and a persistent challenger to the long-standing dominance of Black Republican leadership in Bergen County. At the core of Butler’s political philosophy was a rejection of automatic Black loyalty to the Republican Party. Through public speeches, newspaper columns, and a highly publicized debate series, Butler argued that African Americans owed no permanent allegiance to any party and should instead support whichever political organization best advanced their civil, economic, and social interests. He sharply criticized what he described as “slave psychology” in politics—the idea that Black voters should remain loyal to Republicans solely because of the party’s Civil War–era legacy. For Butler, freedom required independent political judgment, not inherited party loyalty. He insisted that Black citizenship meant the right to criticize, realign, and demand tangible results rather than symbolic gestures. Butler’s willingness to challenge Republican orthodoxy made him a controversial figure. His rivalry with Robert L. Burrell, a leading Black Republican from Rutherford, culminated in a widely attended public debate held at the Lincoln School auditorium in Englewood in September 1928. The debate, focused on whether African Americans should continue to be loyal supporters of the Republican Party, drew both Black and white audiences and underscored Butler’s belief in open, public political engagement. By taking the negative position, Butler framed Black political independence as a necessary step toward genuine equality and leverage within local and national politics. Beyond party politics, Butler was deeply engaged in issues of representation, labor, and economic justice. He consistently pushed for recognition of African Americans in municipal appointments and city affairs. One of the clearest outcomes of his advocacy was the appointment of Dr. William F. Willoughby, an African American physician, to the Englewood Board of Health. Butler publicly described this appointment as a personal and collective victory, seeing it as the first concrete result of sustained campaigning for racial recognition in city governance. Although Willoughby was affiliated with the opposing political party, Butler welcomed the appointment as evidence that pressure and organized political action could produce results across party lines. Butler also spoke forcefully on working-class issues affecting Black residents. He denounced proposals to lower wages for domestic workers, arguing that such ideas ignored the real cost of living and condemned Black families to perpetual economic insecurity. His critiques linked racial justice to economic fairness, emphasizing that dignity and citizenship were hollow without livable wages and material stability. In Englewood’s civic life, Butler functioned as both agitator and institution builder. He organized, wrote, debated, and negotiated, using the press and public forums to keep racial inequality and political accountability at the center of local discussion. While his confrontational style drew criticism from opponents, it also expanded the boundaries of acceptable political discourse for Black residents in Englewood. William Butler’s legacy lies in his insistence that African Americans act as independent political agents—demanding representation, fair treatment, and concrete gains rather than symbolic loyalty—and in his role in pushing Englewood’s political culture toward greater inclusion and debate during the interwar period. https://archive.englewoodmakeshistory.org/files/original/27a0d48a52e7ce5468b995e7ffa8f824.jpg 76a02d1fcb44cad49877f91854bcbf30 https://archive.englewoodmakeshistory.org/files/original/29edd8d28503ae8f374da412116c9895.jpg f4653937538429519616050a8e31193f https://archive.englewoodmakeshistory.org/files/original/231bf34577a0b872d28775f03bec7711.jpg 7b5e8b956433106fdfd62d1a9cdf143b https://archive.englewoodmakeshistory.org/files/original/2c6cf437ff50de1065058afd41a747dd.jpg 129daaa690af88b1100df43c8502dfdf https://archive.englewoodmakeshistory.org/files/original/70f43ebd00a27275c3bb99addbaa876d.jpg 87b03d8098592d490db795e8b8095289 https://archive.englewoodmakeshistory.org/files/original/60337f56a7d8bd57cf6009c750faee3d.jpg 1d99fc061016a3af1f1ea3ec5c9fbffd https://archive.englewoodmakeshistory.org/files/original/d4c692908244aded0814a4fe6e0c413b.jpg 93665a1693cbc6fac664062c9028a86e https://archive.englewoodmakeshistory.org/files/original/95abb1d4a96535ee1586f9fee6e63895.jpg b519ed4b5ebbc7fd539ce6a56e552d88 https://archive.englewoodmakeshistory.org/files/original/7d5ffa41a371997535a3a8b4dddd02f3.jpg 0d7fa9541262907af48fb39c70184d55 https://archive.englewoodmakeshistory.org/files/original/e6242e424c09ae2e391302401ba97b4c.jpg 598c451944b2a62b2c8449b5896169ca https://archive.englewoodmakeshistory.org/files/original/e9568d9e98c9ea9edcf231cafbc2aabd.jpg 6780627fdc5405349a56c1899341221f People An individual. Metadata for a person provides detailed biographical information to describe the life of a historical figure. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Butler, William Description An account of the resource William Butler was a prominent African American political leader and community advocate in Englewood, New Jersey, during the 1920s and early 1930s. Born in South Carolina and raised from boyhood in New York City, Butler brought to Englewood a political outlook shaped by both the post-Reconstruction South and the urban North. By the late 1920s, he had emerged as one of the most visible Black voices in local politics at a moment when African American civic participation was expanding but still sharply constrained by racial discrimination. As president and later chairman of the Englewood Colored Democratic Club, Butler positioned himself as the leading Democratic spokesman for Black residents in the city and a direct challenger to the long-standing dominance of Black Republican leadership in Bergen County. At the core of Butler’s political philosophy was a forceful rejection of the idea that African Americans owed automatic loyalty to the Republican Party. In a widely circulated 1928 newspaper article, Butler bluntly declared that Black citizens “owe not a thing” to Republicans as a matter of inherited obligation. While acknowledging the historical role Republicans played in emancipation, he argued that freedom lost its meaning if it required perpetual political submission. To Butler, continued loyalty without results amounted to what he derided as “slave psychology”—a mindset that replaced independent judgment with habit, memory, and fear of breaking ranks. True citizenship, he insisted, required the ability to question, realign, and vote based on present-day conditions rather than nineteenth-century history. Butler emphasized that African Americans in the twentieth century were no longer wards of any party but modern citizens entitled to the same privileges and responsibilities as others. He argued that Black voters had the right to ask hard questions: What had a party done recently? What tangible benefits had it delivered? Why should loyalty be demanded without accountability? In this framework, political independence was not betrayal but maturity. Butler maintained that only by demonstrating a willingness to shift allegiances could Black voters gain real leverage and force political parties to compete for their support. This philosophy brought Butler into open conflict with Republican leaders, most notably Robert L. Burrell of Rutherford. Their rivalry culminated in a widely attended public debate at the Lincoln School auditorium in Englewood in September 1928, centered on whether African Americans should remain loyal to the Republican Party. Taking the negative position, Butler framed the debate not as an attack on Black history but as a defense of Black self-respect and agency. The event drew both Black and white audiences and underscored Butler’s commitment to public, confrontational political engagement rather than behind-the-scenes negotiation. Beyond party politics, Butler linked racial justice to representation, labor, and economic dignity. He consistently pressed for African American inclusion in municipal appointments and city governance, arguing that recognition without power was meaningless. One concrete outcome of this advocacy was the appointment of Dr. William F. Willoughby, an African American physician, to the Englewood Board of Health. Although Willoughby was affiliated with the opposing party, Butler publicly celebrated the appointment as proof that organized pressure—rather than blind loyalty—produced results. He described it as the first tangible return on sustained political agitation by Black residents. Butler also spoke forcefully on working-class issues, particularly proposals to reduce wages for domestic workers. He condemned such ideas as morally bankrupt and economically destructive, arguing that they ignored the realities of survival for Black families and reinforced a racialized labor hierarchy. For Butler, civil rights divorced from economic justice were hollow; freedom required both political voice and material security. In Englewood’s civic life, Butler functioned as both agitator and institution builder. Through speeches, editorials, debates, and organizing, he used the press and public forums to challenge complacency and demand accountability. Though his confrontational style unsettled both white officials and established Black Republican leaders, it expanded the boundaries of acceptable political discourse for African Americans in the city. William Butler’s legacy lies in his insistence that Black citizens act as independent political agents—owing loyalty to principles and outcomes rather than parties—and in his role in pushing Englewood’s political culture toward greater inclusion, debate, and democratic pressure during the interwar period. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bergen Record, January 1, 1929. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Bergen Record Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available newspaper.com Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1929 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Colman, David Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Public Domain People An individual. Metadata for a person provides detailed biographical information to describe the life of a historical figure. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Carrillo, Karen Juanita Description An account of the resource Karen Juanita Carrillo is a writer based in Brooklyn, New York, who frequently presents on topics related to African American and Afro-Latino history, culture, and politics. Throughout her journalism career, she has helped bring greater attention to Black communities across the Americas. Her reporting has earned recognition from organizations including the New York Association of Black Journalists, the New California Media Awards, and the National Newspaper Publishers Association. Carrillo also co-founded AfroPresencia, an online platform dedicated to increasing awareness and visibility of people of African descent throughout the Americas. Through its work as a United Nations-accredited non-governmental organization, AfroPresencia supports grassroots initiatives and collaborates with community groups that provide advocacy, resources, and assistance to Afro-descendant populations.