Fabio Borini opened the scoring from the penalty spot and the superb Adam Johnson made it 2-0 before half-time.
Jack Colback settled the 149th Tyne-Wear derby 10 minutes from time with a fierce drive, securing a 3-0 win for the Wearsiders on Tyneside for the second consecutive season.
Sunderland grabbed the initiative when Anita felled Phil Bardsley in the area. Borini dispatched the penalty to add to the winner he scored in the reverse fixture at the Stadium of Light in October.
Soon after Gus Poyet's men had a second when Johnson tapped in after Tim Krul had parried Colback's deflected effort.
Alan Pardew's side piled on the pressure in the second half, but Sunderland grabbed a third late in the match thanks to Colback's fine effort.
With Loic Remy suspended, Newcastle handed a start to Shola Ameobi – partnered up front with brother Sammy in the league for the first time - while the visitors handed a debut to Liam Bridcutt.
Both sides had chances to score within a frantic first five minutes. Mathieu Debuchy flashed a shot wide for the hosts before the unmarked Marcos Alonso headed over from six yards for Sunderland.
The match continued in an end-to-end fashion until the visitors moved ahead on 19 minutes.
Anita clumsily challenged Bardsley in the area and Borini thundered the resulting penalty into the top-left hand corner
Four minutes later the visiting supporters were on their feet again. Jozy Altidore's neat flick found Colback and his deflected effort deceived Krul who could only parry into the path of Johnson with the winger tapping home the rebound for his seventh goal in his last eight matches.
Sunderland were comfortable in defence and twice nearly had a third with Johnson heading wide and the impressive Altidore holding off three challengers before shooting tamely at Krul.
Unsurprisingly, Newcastle came out for the second half with more attacking intent and introduced Luuk de Jong from the bench for his debut.
The home side had claims for a penalty when Shola Ameobi appeared to be tripped by Bridcutt in the area, before Vito Mannone saved Cheick Tiote's drive and the Nigeria striker's headed over from the resulting corner.
Johnson remained a threat at the other end for Sunderland, however, and he almost wrapped the match up by weaving his way into the box from the right and curling his shot onto the far post.
Shola Ameobi continued to pose a threat for Newcastle and had a header cleared on the line by John O'Shea as the hosts grew desperate.
That missed chance proved costly, as Colback collected Borini's pass and fired past Krul, ensuring Sunderland ended another weekend out of the relegation zone.
