Social Justice: On the Agenda 70 Years ago

A Bit of Social Justice was on the calendar for the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship in December 1955. It has already been noted in this newsletter the Fellowship collected mittens for a mitten tree at its first Christmas celebration on Dec. 17, 1955, for distribution to needy individuals.

That event was promoted by the first newsletter issued earlier in the month, which also carried a message about a more serious issued under the headline “Don’t Just Sit There”.

The article read: “A prominent social worker in Morristown recently married, He is highly respected and has many friends in town. including two on our Steering Committee. He his wife are unable to find a place to live; they hesitate to inquire about apartments because they have reason to believe they are not welcome tenants. When they inquire about houses, they are quoted prices a thousand or more dollars higher than most. Why is this so? They are Negroes.”

Judy Deutsch was the contact person and the story, written by her husband Marshal, noted unnamed couple wanted an apartment with a minimum of three rooms and rent of up to $110 a month or if they could find a house, they could afford one for up to $13,000.

A review of Morris County helps put this in perspective, including the restrictive deeds that involved the Fellowship property and others in area of Millionaires’ Row. Moreover, the bias was not just about blacks.

When my first wife’s family moved to Madison in the early 1950s, she recounted there were families that would not let their children play with her because they were Italian. But it was only a few years later that barbers in Madison were being picketed and subject to state legal action because they would not cut black men’s hair. All the barbers mentioned in the local newspapers during the height of the protests in 1964 were Italian.

The December newsletter does not name the couple. But the February issue gave some very clear clues asking, “Is Paul L. Cooper, newly elected president of the New Jersey State Council of Urban Leagues related to our own Dru Cooper?” The answer was yes. Interestingly enough, the Coopers were noted in a set of three paragraphs that reported the activity of individuals who did not join the Fellowship. And that included the Coopers.

The Coopers housing status appears to be reflected in the 1954 and 1955 Morristown directory which showed he was living at the YMCA, where the Fellowship began meeting on Oct. 18, 1955. By 1957, Paul and Drucilla were shown on Van Beuren Road, Morris Township, where they presumably found something affordable and where houses today typically sell for more than $2 million, often much more.

Paul Lawrence Cooper (March 15, 1921-Sep. 22, 1997), who was born in Hallsville, Texas, and died in Morristown, came to Morristown from Columbus, Ohio, moving from one Urban League Job to another. Dru was his wife, Drucilla Hunter (May 13, 1922-April 11, 2007), who was born in Kentucky and died in Summit. They married in September 1955 in Madison.

In May 1955, Cooper was involved in a hearing a substandard housing in Madison based on a report conducted by 21 student volunteers at St Elizabeth’s college.The group had conducted similar surveys in 1955 for Boonton and Morristown, with the Madison study requested by the town’s mayor Alfred Smith in January.

The Cooper later divorced and Paul moved on from the Urban League. His obituary noted he spent 15 years as a psychiatric social worker for the Elizabeth school district. Along the way, he entered local polities ss the Republican nominee for the seat in Morristown’s second ward, which was held by long-time Democratic councilman William “Butch” Barber, who faced a primary fight that night.

Cooper’s campaign issues included the need for more police and better training with one position having a familiar ring. “He pointed to arrest of local men that angered the black community,” reported Daily Record of June 2, 1991. Barber trounced Cooper by a vote of 381 to 143.