Shirley M. Lacy was a civil rights strategist, Black feminist organizer, and public official whose work spanned grassroots protest, policy reform, and electoral politics in New Jersey for more than four decades. Based in Englewood, she became a central figure in northern civil-rights struggles that challenged segregation, economic exclusion, and political marginalization beyond the South.

Lacy first emerged in public life during the early 1960s as a leader within the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). As a regional representative and spokesperson, she helped organize sustained demonstrations against racially exclusionary policies at private recreational facilities throughout Bergen County. CORE actions she led or coordinated targeted segregated swim clubs in places such as Fair Lawn, Old Tappan, and Maywood, combining picketing, negotiations, and the threat of civil disobedience to expose discriminatory practices that were often defended as “private” or informal. Lacy made clear that these campaigns were not about punishment, but public accountability—designed to force communities to confront racial barriers operating in plain sight.

Her CORE leadership brought her into direct confrontation with state officials. In correspondence with Governor Richard J. Hughes, Lacy challenged claims that New Jersey was a national model for civil rights, pressing the administration on housing discrimination, rent control, migrant farmworker protections, employment access, and the exclusion of Black and Puerto Rican residents from policymaking positions. Her advocacy reflected a broader critique of liberal governance that emphasized symbolic progress while resisting structural change.

Alongside protest work, Lacy built a parallel career in policy development and political education. She held senior positions with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, serving as national director of education and training and later as a technical assistance and leadership-training director with the Scholarship, Education, and Defense Fund for Racial Equality (SEDFRE). In these roles, she designed leadership programs, developed community-based projects, and worked to secure federal resources for minority communities. The organization became one of the major vehicles for training Black leadership and developing community projects nationwide, helping prepare individuals for public office, school boards, and civic leadership roles.

During the late 1960s, Lacy articulated a clear and nuanced position on integration, community, and self-determination. While she had spent years fighting for the right of Black families to live wherever they chose, she also emphasized the importance of that right as a matter of genuine choice. Having grown up in Harlem and later moved from the slums of Brooklyn, she chose to live in an all-Black neighborhood in Englewood, describing it as a well-tended and attractive community. For Lacy, the central achievement of the civil-rights movement was not simply the breakdown of barriers, but the expansion of freedom—the ability of Black Americans to decide where to live and how to define their communities on their own terms.

At the same time, she stressed that building leadership within Black communities was essential to sustaining long-term progress. Through her work with SEDFRE, she helped train individuals for roles in public service, civic organizations, and elected office. These efforts contributed to the emergence of a new generation of Black leadership at the local and state levels. Lacy maintained that strengthening Black communities did not exclude others, emphasizing that the gains achieved through civil-rights organizing ultimately benefited poor people across racial lines.

Her outlook also reflected the broader cultural transformations of the era. Lacy embraced the growing expression of Black pride, viewing developments such as the adoption of natural Afro hairstyles and the rise of the “Black is Beautiful” movement as important affirmations of identity and dignity. Rejecting long-standing pressures to conform to white cultural standards, she saw these changes as evidence of increasing confidence and self-definition within Black communities. Ultimately, she underscored that the most important outcome of these shifts was the freedom to choose—whether in matters of identity, community, or opportunity.

Looking ahead during this period, Lacy emphasized unity and empowerment within the Black community. She spoke frequently about the importance of collective action and leadership development, noting that poor people—Black and white—stood to benefit from the social and political advancements achieved through organized activism. Her work consistently reflected a belief that political education and civic participation were essential tools for securing long-term equality.

Lacy was also a key figure in Black women’s political organizing. Active in the National Women’s Political Caucus, she became a leading voice within its Black caucus and a thoughtful critic of feminist movements that failed to confront race and class inequality. She argued that Black women were often forced to “wear two hats at the same time,” navigating racism and sexism while being marginalized within movements that claimed to speak for equality. Her commitment to collective Black women’s leadership was evident in her work with United Black Women in Bergen County, where she helped organize conferences and public discussions addressing housing, employment, family law, education, and domestic violence—issues often overlooked in mainstream political discourse.

This political vision guided her involvement in the 1972 presidential campaign of Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to seek the Democratic nomination for president. Lacy served as a Bergen County organizer and coordinator, helping recruit delegates, assemble local slates, and mobilize Black voters, women, and young people across New Jersey. She openly acknowledged the steep odds facing Chisholm’s campaign but insisted that its deeper significance lay in challenging entrenched political structures and creating pathways for future leadership.

By the late 1960s and 1970s, Lacy increasingly translated movement work into governance. She served as a legislative aide to Byron Baer, became a leading figure in the Englewood Democratic Club and Bergen County Democratic Organization, and was appointed to the Englewood City Council, representing the Fourth Ward. She later served as Council President in 1985 and 1986, bringing a civil-rights and community-development lens to municipal decision-making.

Throughout her tenure in local government, Lacy was known for her willingness to confront economic exploitation and racial targeting. At a 1992 council hearing, she forcefully opposed the proposed expansion of a Hackensack adult novelty business into her Fourth Ward, accusing the owner of deliberately targeting Englewood’s Black population. More broadly, she consistently pressured developers and contractors working in Englewood to hire minority workers, framing economic inclusion as an essential component of civil rights.

At the state level, Lacy served on advisory and oversight bodies focused on employment equity, including a special council monitoring affirmative-action compliance in major public construction projects such as the Meadowlands sports complex. In this role, she helped ensure that minority workers and contractors were not excluded from large-scale public investment.

Lacy also sought countywide office, running for the Bergen County Board of Freeholders on a platform emphasizing government transparency, equitable public spending, housing access, healthcare, and economic development. Though she did not win county office, her campaigns reflected a consistent belief that civil rights required sustained engagement with political institutions, not protest alone.

Shirley Lacy was married to Reginald Lewis Lacy, who died in 1969. She was the mother of two daughters, Deirdre Gaskin of Englewood and Celeste Lacy Davis of Brooklyn, and a grandmother and great-grandmother. She remained a respected civic voice in Englewood until her death in 2012.

Across every phase of her life, Shirley M. Lacy worked to bridge community struggle and public power. Whether challenging segregation at the gates of private clubs, organizing for a historic presidential campaign, training future leaders, or shaping policy from the council dais, she insisted that democracy be judged by its outcomes for those most often excluded.

Her legacy stands as a testament to the depth of northern civil-rights activism and to the central role Black women played in redefining political power at the local, state, and national levels.

"Planning at the Community Level." The Record, May 21, 1969.

"Volunteers Are Enlisted to Press Renewal Plans." The Record, June 6, 1967.

"Mrs. Lacy Seeks Bergen Nomination." The Record, March 6, 1974.

"Talks Secret on Pool Peace." The Record, July 12, 1963

Kuhn, John H. "Shirley Lacy to join council in Englewood." The Record, 27 Jan. 1977, p.C-3.

Levin, Jay. "Civil rights stalwart Shirley Lacy dies at 88." The Record, 23 May 2012, p.L-1, L-4.

"Shirley Mozelle Lorick Lacy in the New Jersey, U.S., Death Index, 1848-1878, 1901-2017." Ancestry.