The Gothic Times

Issue date: 12/15/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Donated to Revolution ’67 by Corbis-Bettmann African-Americans jeering at National Guardsmen

Monday, November 16 - students arrived on the fourth floor of the Karnoutsos building this evening to attend a special screening of Revolution '67, a film that documents the 1967 Newark Riots.

For many New Jerseyans, particularly those generations born in the years following the five days that brought the city to the boiling point, the 1967 riots are an enigma; an episode in the state's history spoken of in hushed tones, if at all.

Interspersed among the archival footage of the era, the film explores the subject of the riots through interviews with local historians and key figures who were present during the riots. Among those figures were political activists Tom Hayden and Carol Glassman, historian and former National Guardsmen Paul Zigo who served in Newark during the riots, former Newark Mayor Sharpe James, and The New York Times' Bob Herbert, among others.

Together they bore testimony to the tensions and frustrations of a 1960s Newark divided by the racial pressures of the era.

Indeed, before the riots took place racial tensions had already been running high in a city known for its corrupt government, run by then Mayor Hugh J. Addonizio.

Addonizio and his administration were responsible for numerous public projects like the UMDNJ that displaced thousands of black and other minority residents at the time. This, coupled with years of neglect of black residents, culminated when Addonizio appointed a white man to the Board of Education; the appointee, who lacked a college degree, was picked over a man who would be the state's first black certified public accountant.

These incidents alone did not result in the riot, but were merely a pretext to them.

It would not be until mid-July, when John Smith - a black taxicab driver - was stopped by Newark police for a traffic violation.

Rumors spread quickly that he had been beaten to death. (In fact, he was still alive and taken to a local hospital for minor injuries.)

The rumors took on a life of their own, however, and spread among the city's black residents fed up with their mistreatment at the hands of Newark's authorities.

For five days the city was gripped by rioting and violence that claimed 26 lives, injured hundreds and caused millions of dollars of property damage.

Continued...

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