'She never sold out': Lt. Governor Oliver praised for breaking barriers at Newark funeral

NEWARK — She showed up, stood up, spoke up, and she didn’t back down.

New Jersey bid farewell Saturday to the first Black woman elected to statewide office in the state, in a solemn but energetic service under the vaulted ceilings of the packed Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver’s hometown of Newark.

It was an occasion marked by soaring oratory and gospel music as civil rights and political leaders praised Oliver for breaking through barriers at a time when few woman political leaders were in office.

During his eulogy for Oliver, the Rev. Al Sharpton chided some Black leaders of the past for forgetting their roots once they entered elected office.

"Sheila never had amnesia. She never forgot why she was in the room," he said. "When she was in the room we were in the room."

Oliver, the first Black woman to serve as the state's Assembly speaker and as lieutenant governor, died Aug. 1 at the age of 71.

The cause of death was not immediately disclosed, but Oliver had been in the hospital in recent days.

Oliver was not only the first Black woman to be speaker of the General Assembly in New Jersey, she was the second in the nation’s history to lead a house of a state Legislature, with Karen Bass of California being the first. She was also the second Black person to serve as New Jersey's Assembly speaker, following S. Howard Woodson in the 1970s. Marion West Higgins, a Bergen County Republican, was the first woman to hold that role, in 1965.

Oliver rose to prominence in the early dark days of the COVID-19 pandemic when Gov. Phil Murphy was in the hospital battling cancer and she stepped in as acting governor.

"She led our state with a calm, steady hand," Murphy said, adding that during her career, "she didn’t settle for breaking through one glass ceiling after another. Each time she would make history she dedicated herself to breaking down barriers for everyone else, especially young women of color."

As a leader and politician, "She was the definition, as they say in baseball, of a five-tool athlete," he said.

And Murphy added: "Sheila loved New Jersey like a mother."

Murphy said choosing Oliver as his running mate in 2017 was the best decision he ever made. Her long experience with New Jersey politics — she cut her teeth in the hard-knuckled political world of Essex County — smoothed the way for Murphy, a newcomer.

"He needed an insider who perfected the art of managing the political climate of New Jersey," said the Rev. DeForest "Buster" Soaries, former secretary of state of New Jersey.

Five former New Jersey governors attended the service, Murphy said: Thomas Kean, Christine Todd Whitman, Donald DiFrancesco, Jim McGreevey, who made remarks during the service, and Jon Corzine, as well as former Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno. Iconic R&B and pop singer Dionne Warwick, a New Jersey native and friend of Oliver's, also attended and spoke briefly. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka sang a gospel song before his remarks.

Oliver was born in Newark. Her family first settled in East Orange and stayed a few years before moving to Newark. She graduated from Newark's Weequahic High School in 1970 and went on to receive a bachelor's degree from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, a historically Black school. She was in the third class of women at Lincoln, after it became a coeducational institution.

She later earned a master’s degree in planning and administration from Columbia University, and, by the late 1970s, her family moved back to East Orange, where Oliver began her career in politics and established her base for the next four decades. Oliver moved up the political ladder, serving as a member of the East Orange Board of Education from 1994 to 2000 and landing on the Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders (now Board of County Commissioners). She lost a bid to win a second term in the 1999 Democratic primary.

In what would be part of her career priority, Oliver had ambitions to be a first in a succession of positions, and she maintained that focus in the face of defeat. In 1997, she ran for East Orange mayor and lost the Democratic primary by 52 votes to Robert Bowser.

Oliver was first elected to the Assembly in 2003, and in 2010 she became the state's 169th speaker, succeeding Camden County's Joe Roberts. Her rise to the top post was fueled, in part, by a deal to ensure stronger North Jersey representation. And it was backed by Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo Jr., whom Oliver also served as an assistant county administrator.

She continued to serve in the Assembly before Murphy tapped her as his running mate for lieutenant governor in 2017.

Under the constitution, Murphy has 45 days as of Aug. 1 to appoint a replacement for Oliver. The replacement does not require Senate confirmation.

At the end of the service, her nephew and godson, Charles E. Oliver, said his aunt placed high expectations on him and prepared him for them.

"Thank you for showing me how to swim in shark-infested waters," he said. "She always told me every setback in life is an opportunity in disguise."

He mentioned some advice she once gave him, borrowing a line from her role model Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to be elected to Congress: "Chuck, if they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair."

Ken Serrano covers breaking news, crime and investigations. Reach him at 732-643-4029 or at kserrano@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver praised for breaking barriers