Revolution '67
NJCU Screens Local Filmmaker's Documentary
By: Michael Palomino
Issue date: 12/15/09 Section: News
During the riots, the National Guard was called in to quell the violence and enforce martial law, effectively turning the city into a war zone here at home, at a time when the Vietnam War was raging overseas.
One of the film's objectives was to dispel some of the myths and misconceptions surrounding the riots, among them, that the Newark riots were responsible for "white flight" - the term used to refer to the exodus of working and middle-class whites from Newark into the suburbs - a claim that the film shows as false.
The film argues that a federal loan program aimed at providing low interest-rate mortgages, which at the time were available only to whites, started the exodus decades prior to the riots.
As these residents left, Newark became more balkanized and the poor and the working-class minority residents were left with fewer jobs and opportunities, which - in the aftermath of the riots - would be one of the underlying causes highlighted in a Senate report which studied the riots.
At the conclusion of the screening, the filmmakers behind Revolution '67 - New Jersey residents Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno and her husband Jerome Bongiorno took questions from the students in the audience.
The questions ranged in topic, dealing both with the film and current conditions such as crime and poverty in Newark and the surrounding areas.
The event was co-sponsored by the History and Sociology club and hosted by Dr. Timothy White, Assistant Professor of History and joined by Dr. Max Herman, Professor of Sociology and historian who has collected oral histories on the Newark riots.
Be sure to check out the documentary's website (http://www.bongiornoproductions.com/REVOLUTION_67) for more information on the film and the Newark Riots.
One of the film's objectives was to dispel some of the myths and misconceptions surrounding the riots, among them, that the Newark riots were responsible for "white flight" - the term used to refer to the exodus of working and middle-class whites from Newark into the suburbs - a claim that the film shows as false.
The film argues that a federal loan program aimed at providing low interest-rate mortgages, which at the time were available only to whites, started the exodus decades prior to the riots.
As these residents left, Newark became more balkanized and the poor and the working-class minority residents were left with fewer jobs and opportunities, which - in the aftermath of the riots - would be one of the underlying causes highlighted in a Senate report which studied the riots.
At the conclusion of the screening, the filmmakers behind Revolution '67 - New Jersey residents Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno and her husband Jerome Bongiorno took questions from the students in the audience.
The questions ranged in topic, dealing both with the film and current conditions such as crime and poverty in Newark and the surrounding areas.
The event was co-sponsored by the History and Sociology club and hosted by Dr. Timothy White, Assistant Professor of History and joined by Dr. Max Herman, Professor of Sociology and historian who has collected oral histories on the Newark riots.
Be sure to check out the documentary's website (http://www.bongiornoproductions.com/REVOLUTION_67) for more information on the film and the Newark Riots.
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