Sheila Oliver, New Jersey's first Black Assembly speaker, dies at age 71

Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver, the first Black woman to serve as New Jersey’s Assembly speaker and as lieutenant governor, died Tuesday at the age of 71.

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

“It is with incredible sadness and a heavy heart that we announce the passing of the Honorable Sheila Y. Oliver, Lieutenant Governor of the State of New Jersey,” Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement announcing Oliver’s death. “Tammy and I, and our children, are incredibly saddened and distraught to learn of the passing of our dear friend, colleague, and partner in government.”

The Oliver family, in a separate statement, said that Oliver “was not only a distinguished public servant but also our cherished daughter, sister, aunt, friend, and hero. As we come to terms with this profound loss, we kindly request that you respect the privacy of the Oliver family during this difficult time as they grieve their beloved Sheila.”

Acting Gov. Nicholas Scutari, filling the role while Murphy is out of the country, confirmed Tuesday afternoon that flags would be ordered to half-staff in memory of Oliver. Murphy is expected to return early from a vacation in Italy. He was originally scheduled to come back on August 13.

‘Trailblazer in every sense of the word’

Oliver was the first Black woman to be speaker of the General Assembly in New Jersey and 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.

Throughout her tenure, Oliver stepped up to serve as acting governor when Murphy was out of state or otherwise unavailable.

Murphy said Tuesday that when he selected Oliver to be his running mate in 2017, she was “already a trailblazer in every sense of the word.”

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Newark native served in Essex County posts

Oliver was born in Newark. Her family first settled in East Orange for 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 university. 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 Commissioners).

She 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 was to the top post was fueled, in part, by a deal to ensure stronger North Jersey representation.

Oliver’s tenure as leader of the Assembly was rocky. Her ascendancy occurred just as Gov. Chris Christie came to power. Christie, with the support of then-Senate President Stephen Sweeney, a Gloucester County Democrat, sought cuts in pension and health care benefits for public employees, a core Democratic constituency.

Oliver eventually agreed to marshal the votes in the Assembly that helped win passage, giving Christie a major political victory that turned him into a national rising star in Republican Party circles. Oliver faced heated backlash from union officials but defended the move as necessary.

“I was demonized, but I never regretted it because I know that I was able to save jobs,” she said in a 2019 interview with NorthJersey.com.

Oliver was reelected in 2011. And in 2013, Oliver threw her name into consideration for the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate — even though Newark Mayor Cory Booker was the clear favorite among party leaders.

That same year, Oliver was succeeded as Assembly speaker by Vincent Prieto of Secaucus, and she would hold her post as a 34th Legislative District Assemblywoman until Murphy selected her as his running mate for lieutenant governor in 2017.

The political climate proved opportune for Oliver. Murphy ran as a progressive Democrat, promising to create one of the most diverse Cabinets in state history. It also came at a time when Democratic leaders across the country had become concerned about the lower-than-expected turnout of Black voters for Democrat Hillary Clinton in her loss the year before to Donald Trump for president. Turnout in Essex County, home to the largest cache of Democrats in New Jersey, was also down in 2016.