5 Days in July: The Newark Riots of 1967

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5 Days in July The Newark Riots of 1967

• Dr. Fran Corvasce Macko
• Curriculum Specialist New York City Department
  of Education (retired)

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New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards

• STANDARD 6.4 (United States and New Jersey
  History) All students will demonstrate knowledge
  of United States and New Jersey history in order
  to understand life and events in the past and how
  they relate to the present and future.
• Analyze the Civil Rights and Women's Movements,
  including the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Civil
  Rights Act (1957 and 1964), the Little Rock
  Schools Crisis, the Voting Rights Act, Brown v.
  Board of Education, the formation of the National
  Council of La Raza (NCLR), the American Indian
  Movement (AIM), the formation of the National
  Organization for Women (NOW), and the passing of
  Title IX.

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Setting the Stage The National Picture

• What were the key events in The Civil Rights
  Movement that set the stage for the 1967 Newark
  Riots?
• What was the tension between policy and practice?

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The Civil Rights Acts of 1964

• July 2, 1964 President Johnson signs the Civil
  Rights Act of 1964. The most sweeping civil
  rights legislation since Reconstruction, the
  Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination of all
  kinds based on race, color, religion, or national
  origin. The law also provides the federal
  government with the powers to enforce
  desegregation.

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Murder of 3 CivilRights Workers

• Aug. 4, 1964 The bodies of three civil-rights
  workerstwo white, one blackJames E. Chaney, 21
  Andrew Goodman, 21 and Michael Schwerner, 24,
  had been working to register black voters in
  Mississippi, and, on June 21, had gone to
  investigate the burning of a black church. They
  were arrested by the police on speeding charges,
  incarcerated for several hours, and then released
  after dark into the hands of the Ku Klux Klan,
  who murdered them.

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Bloody Sunday

• March 7, 1964 Blacks begin a march to
  Montgomery in support of voting rights but are
  stopped at the Pettus Bridge by a police
  blockade. Fifty marchers are hospitalized after
  police use tear gas, whips, and clubs against
  them. The incident is dubbed "Bloody Sunday" by
  the media. The march is considered the catalyst
  for pushing through the voting rights act five
  months later.

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Voting Rights Act of 1965

• Aug. 10, 1965 Congress passes the Voting Rights
  Act of 1965, making it easier for Southern blacks
  to register to vote. Literacy tests, poll taxes,
  and other such requirements that were used to
  restrict black voting are made illegal.

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The Watts Riots

• Aug. 1117, 1965 Race riots erupt in the Watts
  section of Los Angeles.

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Affirmative Action

• Sept. 24, 1965 Asserting that civil rights laws
  alone are not enough to remedy discrimination,
  President Johnson issues Executive Order 11246,
  which enforces affirmative action for the first
  time. It requires government contractors to "take
  affirmative action" toward prospective minority
  employees in all aspects of hiring and
  employment.

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The formation of the Black Panthers

• October 1966 The militant Black Panthers are
  founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.

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Stokely Carmichael coins the term black power

• April 19, 1967 Stokely Carmichael, a leader of
  the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
  (SNCC), coins the phrase "black power" in a
  speech in Seattle. He defines it as an assertion
  of black pride and "the coming together of black
  people to fight for their liberation by any means
  necessary." The term's radicalism alarms many who
  believe the civil rights movement's effectiveness
  and moral authority crucially depend on
  nonviolent civil disobedience.

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The Newark and Detroit Race Riots

• July 1967 Major race riots take place in Newark
  (July 1216) and Detroit (July 2330).

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Setting the Stage Newark 1967

• What social, economic and political factors
  created a sense of powerlessness and
  disenfranchisement among the black community in
  Newark?

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Police-Community Relations

• The police force was predominantly Irish and
  Italian.
• Young blacks were routinely stopped and
  questioned with or without provocation.
• During the decade before the riots, several high
  profile cases of police brutality against young
  black men, some resulting in death, were
  reported few cases ever made it to a jury.

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Political Exclusion

• Black residents of Newark were excluded from
  positions of political power.
• Mayor Hugh Addonizio, who ran on a ticket of
  sensitivity to blacks concerns, failed to appoint
  blacks to leadership positions in his
  administration.
• Key example The appointment of Councilman James
  T. Callaghan
• over Wilbur Parker.

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Johnsons War on Poverty

• The Federal Government channeled funds to
  community groups in poor neighborhoods as a means
  of empowering poor people to address local social
  problems.
• As a result, black communities like Newark began
  to organize politically.
• Then anti-poverty funds were cut, curtailing
  these grass roots efforts.

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Urban Renewal

• A plan was proposed to build a superhighway that
  would bisect the black community.
• A plan was proposed to clear 150 acres of slum
  land to build a medical school/hospital complex.
• The result was the demolition of homes in the
  predominantly black Central Ward and the
  squeezing out of black residents.

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Unemployment and Poverty

• The decline of industry in Newark
• and the loss of manufacturing jobs
• Closing of breweries, tanneries, and the
  Westinghouse and General Electric plants
• Greatest impact on blue color workers, most of
  whom were African-American
• The lack of jobs for young blacks entering the
  job market
• 37.8 jobless rate among 16-19 year old black men

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Housing

• Much of the housing in the predominantly black
  neighborhoods was uninhabitable by current health
  and safety standards.
• Newarks application for the Model Cities program
  in 1966 described over 40,000 of the citys
  136,000 housing units as substandard or
  dilapidated.
• Landlords often set fire to their buildings
  rather than make necessary repairs.
• Newark averaged 3620 structural fires per year
  between 1961 and 1967.
• Public housing resulted in a concentration of
  poverty and further isolation of the black
  community.

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Demographic Change

• The black population of Newark rose from 70,000
  in 1950 to 220,000 in 1967.
• There was a corresponding decline in the white
  population of 158,000.
• By 1967, 55 of Newarks population was
  African-American.
• The highest concentration was in the Central Ward.

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The Pivotal Event

• The arrest of black cab driver John W. Smith by
  white police officers John DeSimone and Vito
  Pontrelli, allegedly for driving around their
  double parked police car.

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The Consequences

• Smith was severely beaten by the arresting
  officers.
• He was taken to a precinct across the street from
  a the Hayes Homes, a large public housing
  project.
• Despite efforts by civil rights workers to calm
  the crowd, rumors spread that Smith was killed by
  the police.
• The crowd threw bottles and bricks at the
  precinct and the violence began.

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The Fatalities

• Over the course of 5 days
• 26 people were killed all but 2 were
  African-American.
• Most of the victims were killed by the police or
  National Guard.
• Many were innocent bystanders
• Eddie Moss, a 10 year old boy
• Eloise Spellman, a 41 year old mother
• Rose Lee Abraham, a 45 year old mother

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The Injuries

• The number of injuries ranged from 725 (according
  to a New Jersey state police report) to 1020
  reported by the director of Newark City Hospital.
• Not counted in the statistics is the impact of
  the deaths and injuries on the families of the
  victims.

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Collateral Damage

• 1,500 people were arrested.
• Newark suffered 10 million dollars in property
  damage, mostly in the predominantly black Central
  Ward.

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Perspectives on the 1967 Newark Riots

• Students at Rutgers University spent nearly two
  years conducting interviews in Newark with people
  who witnessed these events firsthand.
• They chose to interview a broad variety of people
  including residents, merchants, militants,
  police, and national guardsmen.

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Interviews with Eyewitnesses

• Listen to some perspectives on the question
• What language would you use to describe this
  event? Riot? Rebellion? Civil Unrest?
• http//www.67riots.rutgers.edu/question1.htm

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The Legacy of the 1967 Newark Riots

• Personal Legacy the impact on the survivors
• Moise Abraham (Rose Lees son) struggled
  emotionally since (the death of his mother).
  Almost as painful, Abraham says, is the lack of
  acknowledgment for what the riots wrought.
• "It is personal, but it is a pain that we all
  felt," says Abraham, 56, who yearns for a
  citywide memorial service for the 26 who died in
  the riots. "Even if they had done it once every
  20 years, I would have appreciated that. But it's
  just total silence. ... It seems that for some
  reason, Newark has forgotten."

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The Economic, Social and Political Legacy

• What challenges continue to face Newark today?
• What efforts have been made to address the
  conditions/ inequities that led to the 1967
  riots?
• Why is Newark still struggling to rebuild over 40
  years later?

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Resources

• Web-based resources and video
• http//www.67riots.rutgers.edu
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vJmXebsimMx8feature
  related (News report with bias)
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vhNsduB0YlS8NR1
  (Contrast of white and black neighborhoods after
  the riots)
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vhNsduB0YlS8NR1
  (5 days in July)
• http//www.5daysinjulyinstallation.com/info.php
  (Non YouTube link)