Join AIM’s next Saturday Social, on February 27 at 2:00pm, featuring Montclair resident, educator, and researcher Betty Holloway.

Betty’s presentation, “The Hooe Family and the Shaping of the African American Community of Montclair,” is an intimate portrait of this family and their contributions to Montclair from 1874 to 1940 as business and civic leaders. Two Hooe brothers established what is believed to be the first African American business in Montclair.

Their sister, Alice Hooe Foster, was the first African American woman to graduate from Montclair High School. She became involved in local social justice initiatives in the early 20th century, including the founding of a YWCA for African American girls. Descendants of the Hooe family will join Betty for this presentation, during which she will also discuss how she researches the past.

Betty Holloway received a Bachelor of Science degree from North Carolina Central University in Durham, NC, and a Masters of Arts from Montclair State University. A retired public school educator, she became interested in historical research over 30 years ago, starting with research into her own family’s genealogy. She continued to do research as a member of the Montclair African American Genealogy Group and the Archives Project at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church. She presently dedicates her time and efforts to public history projects and, above all, aims to bring history alive for new and young investigators.

To attend this program, the community is invited to email AIM at aginginmontclairAIM@gmail.com by February 24th to receive a zoom link.