Alma Flagg Collection

Dr. E. Eloise Alma Williams Flagg was born in City Point, VA, on September 16, 1918, to Hannibal Greene Williams and Caroline Moody Williams. Her family, which included a sister and three brothers, settled in Newark when she was eight. She grew up in the Ironbound section of the city and graduated from East Side High School in 1935 and Newark State College in 1940. She earned a Master’s degree at Montclair State College and a PhD from Columbia University.

In 1942 Alma married J. Thomas Flagg, who also grew up in the Ironbound. J. Thomas Flagg attended East Side High School, and graduated from Barringer High School, where he was a track star. After he earned a BA and MA at Montclair State College, and served in the military in World War II, he taught in Newark schools, was a summer-school principal, served as Director of Secondary Education, and eventually became a Professor of Education at Montclair State College. The couple had two children, Thomas and Luisa.

Alma Flagg's full-time teaching career began in Washington, DC but she returned to Newark in 1943 to take up a position at Eighteenth Street School, where she stayed until 1952. While teaching at Peshine Avenue School (from 1954), she earned a doctorate at Columbia University. Flagg filed a formal complaint, along with other African American teachers, against discriminatory promotion practices in the Newark system. After several adverse rulings, the complaints finally won some measure of action by the Board.

In March 1963 Flagg was appointed vice-principal of Garfield School, and in 1964 became principal of Hawkins Street School, the first African-American woman to be principal of an integrated school in Newark. In 1967 she was appointed Assistant Superintendent, and she later held the position of Director of Curriculum and Instructional Services.

In 1985 a new elementary school was dedicated and named for her. A longtime advocate of improving resources for the study of African-American history and culture, Dr. Flagg was a founding member of the New Jersey Historical Society's Committee on the African-American Contribution to the Culture and History of New Jersey. The Committee, chaired by Vera Brantley McMillon, grew out of an NJHS conference held in June 1969, which recommended that the Society should "enlarge its collections relating to Negro history in New Jersey." On a motion of Seth M. Scheiner, a Rutgers history professor, the meeting recommended that McMillon be appointed as the first black member of the NJHS Board of Trustees. Other Committee officers were Rev. Homer T. Tucker, Vice-Chairman, and Miriam Studley, Secretary. Flagg took over as Recording Secretary in 1970. (See coverage of controversies at the founding meeting, Newark Sunday News, Jun 14, 1969.)

Among Flagg's other interests were music and writing poetry. She published several volumes of poems, and sang for many years in the Newark Choral Society choir. She was the recipient of many honors and awards, and, in 2004, she was chosen to deliver the John Cotton Dana Lecture at the Newark Public Library.