New Jersey state government, closed today to honor the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., has failed to honor the lives of two African American trailblazers despite legislation that was approved almost two years ago.

P.L.2007, c.64., signed into law by Governor Jon Corzine on April 4, 2007, directed the Secretary of State to commission plaques commemorating Hutchins Inge, M.D. and Walter Gilbert Alexander, who were the first African Americans to win election to the New Jersey Senate and General Assembly, respectively.  The legislation, which had primary sponsorship from both parties and in both houses, included an appropriation to play for the plaques.

Alexander, a Republican who was elected to the State Assembly in 1920. The son of former slaves, Alexander was born in Virginia in 1880; he went to college at age sixteen and then to medical school. Alexander moved to Orange to build a medical practice and became involved in local politics. He ran unsuccessfully for the State Assembly in 1912 on the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party ticket with Theodore Roosevelt, and won in 1920. He went on to serve two terms in the Legislature and then spent many years on the state Health Commission. He died in 1953.

Inge, a 64-year-old Newark physician, became the first African American to serve in the New Jersey State Senate. Inge was elected in 1965, after the U.S. Supreme Court's one-man, one-vote decision increased the size of the Essex County Senate delegation from one seat to four.