IRREPLACEABLE
James Stevenson, Hamilton legend and township’s first Black elected official, dies at 83 >>
HAMILTON » James Stevenson, the first Black elected official in Hamilton Township history, died Saturday from a long illness connected to cancer. He was 83.
“He is irreplaceable without question,” the Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Woods, pastor of Saint Phillips Baptist Church of Hamilton, said Saturday in an interview. “His life and legacy is one that has touched so many lives.”
First appointed to the Hamilton Township Board of Education 1976, Stevenson won election to the seat in 1979 and served on the school board until 1986. He became a political force in Hamilton Township by speaking openly and publicly on behalf of Black residents in this 40-square-mile township.
Known as the “Mayor of White City,” a township neighborhood surrounding Saint Phillips Baptist Church, Stevenson was a “role model” who “will never ever be forgotten,” Woods said.
A retired New Jersey state worker, Stevenson began public employment decades ago as a custodian in the Hamilton Township School District who later became a school board member and moved on to bigger and better things in terms of his career and community impact.
Stevenson retired in 2002 as a regional manager for the New Jersey Department of Transportation, but he always remained active in community engagement.
Stevenson received the Spirit of Community Service Award at Hamilton’s 17th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ceremony at Faith Baptist Church last year.
“He to his very end served people, served his community and wanted to point people in the right and positive direction,” Woods said of Stevenson. “Personally, it is a great loss because I considered Mr. Stevenson to be a great friend and confidant.”
Mayor Jeff Martin, who famously presented Stevenson with the Spirit of Community Service Award last year, on Saturday expressed his deepest condolences.
“On behalf of Hamilton Township, I want to extend my prayers and condolences to the family of James ‘Junebug’ Stevenson,” Martin said in a statement.
“It has been my honor to know him and have him as a mentor towards the goals of making Hamilton stronger through education and diversity. His legacy to those goals will live on forever.”
Born Jan. 2, 1938, in Alexandria, Virginia, Stevenson’s family moved to Trenton and then relocated to Hamilton Township in the 1940s when he was a toddler.
A trendsetter, Stevenson made history as the first Black coach or manager for the Hamilton Township Babe Ruth League in addition to his historic election to the school board.
Dr. Scott Rocco, superintendent of the Hamilton Township School District, issued a statement Saturday remembering Stevenson’s service.
“As a Board of Education member he became a beacon for our community during a decade of service to the students, faculty, staff, and the Hamilton Township School District community,” he said. “Mr. Stevenson’s leadership did not wane after his time on the board ended. Instead, he continued to positively impact the lives of those in education and in our community. His township home was a place where many would go — including students — to seek advice and wisdom.”
Stevenson helped empower people of color in Hamilton Township and beyond.
“I would stop by his house on Berg Avenue and literally sit and talk for five or six hours at a time,” Trenton Councilman-at-large Jerell Blakeley said Saturday of Stevenson. “He was one who enjoyed mentoring people and sharing his knowledge with the world.”
Blakeley has known Stevenson since the early 2000s, he said, adding he would take notes to document some of the “savvy” advice he would provide.
“He was a first-rate gentleman,” Blakeley said of Hamilton’s first Black elected official. “He was more than my mentor; he was my friend. I lost a dear friend.”
Stevenson was a master of bipartisanship, according to Blakeley, who said the community leader would often interact with Democrats and Republicans to bring positive change to the region.
“African-American leaders of my age, we owe so much to Mr. Stevenson because he’s the one who laid the foundation that we walk upon,” Blakeley said. “He was really in the business of helping people, of making sure other people got opportunities. He was a heck of a guy, just a very very nice guy.”
Stevenson is survived by his wife, children and grandchildren.