Alexander Mark Collection

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: MG Mark -(Offsite)

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of documents, correspondence, clippings, and reports related to Alexander Mark's public service. It is especially rich in material that documents the history of the Mayor's Commission on Human Relations from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, and the unfolding history of race relations, urban renewal, and civil rights controversies in the city during the Carlin and Addonizio administrations.

Box 1: contains 5 files of material on the Mayor's Commission on Human Relations, including memos, minutes, reports, newsletters, clippings, and correspondence (incoming and copies of outgoing). Among the correspondents represented are Mayor Leo P. Carlin, Mayor Hugh Addonizio, Daniel S. Anthony, Walter D. Chambers, Stanley Winters, and many others involved in intergroup relations in Newark. One file is devoted to material on the Commission's role in the controversial proposal to establish a Police Review Board in 1963. Also in Box 1 is a letter and report relating to Mark's role in Newark's Business and Industrial Coordinating Council.

Box 2: This unnumbered second box of the Mark Collection (perhaps set aside for cataloguing as library material) contains copies of two reports prepared for the Mayor's Commission: "Group Relations in Newark - 1957," by Chester Rapkin and Eunice and George Grier, July 1957; and "Newark: A City in Transition," 3 Vols., Market Planning Corporation, 1959.

Dates

1954 - 1966

Creator

Mark, Alexander (Person)

Conditions Governing Use

Photocopying of materials is limited and no materials may be photocopied without permission from library staff. Researchers wishing to publish, reproduce, or reprint materials from this collection must obtain permission.

Biographical / Historical

Alexander Mark was born in 1915 and raised in Newark, where he attended Avon Avenue School, Cleveland Junior High School, and South Side High School. He earned a BA degree at the University of North Carolina (1936) and did graduate work in Education at Montclair State Teachers College (1936-1937). After a brief time teaching science in the Newark Schools, he went to work at the Newark Post Office in 1941, where he later held various personnel-related positions, including Supervisor of Training. He served in the U.S. Army in World War II he returned to civilian life in 1946 and joined the Reserves, serving as Commanding Officer of the 741st Army Postal Unit. He was for many years the representative of Local 190, National Federation of Post Office Clerks, to the Essex Trades Council, and also served as Vice-President of the Local.

Mark joined the Mayor's Commission on Human Relations when that body was reactivated by Mayor Leo P. Carlin in 1955. He became Chairman of the Commission in 1960 and served in that capacity for several years.