| Author | Message | ||
     newjerz Citizen Username: Newjerz Post Number: 123 Registered: 5-2003  |
I am a college senior and am writing a research paper on the 1967 Newark Riots and their impact (particularly with regards to race relations) on the surrounding communities. I was wondering if anyone could share their memories of the reaction to these event in our towns at the time of the riots? How was Newark perceived prior to the riots? How was it perceived after them? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks | ||
| bella Citizen Username: Bella Post Number: 373 Registered: 7-2001 |
I wasn't alive then, but my father has told me that the National Guard lined up on Springfield Ave at the Maplewood border to 'protect' the town. Good luck with your paper. | ||
| Gary Garetano Citizen Username: Millburn_gg Post Number: 1 Registered: 10-2003 |
If you don't get much regarding neighboring towns - you may want to look at how the "spillover" affected plainfield. People boarded up their homes and split. Racial demograhics totally flipped. | ||
| imacgrandma Citizen Username: Imacgrandma Post Number: 207 Registered: 5-2001 |
My youngest daughter was attending a Montesori school in Newark on the day the riots broke out. She was 4 years old. The school sent the children home early, but the high school students, already out, rocked the bus and terrified the little children. The (black) bus driver got them all home and then died of a heart attack, and he was a young man. After the riots a coalition was formed and a group of us met regularly in Newark and conferred with other groups and leaders. We had many meetings with polititians and church groups and writers, etc. We gathered subscriptions and helped underwrite and finance a two-story housing unit in Newark. I was attending Prospect Presbyterian Church at the time and they also worked to help in the situation. | ||
| sk8mom Citizen Username: Sk8mom Post Number: 7 Registered: 11-2003 |
I was in grade school in Rahway. We were let out early and the National Guardsmen were lined up in the parking lot with rifles and bayonets, or at least that's what I remember. My father was a police officer and his summer vacation got cancelled because everyone had to work extra shifts. Years later, when my mother was dying in the hospital, a nurse in her 20's told my father that her father, who had died when she was a baby or small child, was a police officer who had been killed in the Newark riots. She said as a nurse she often wondered if he had suffered before he died. My father told me he had assured her that you don't feel anything after the first blow. But he told me that he remembered her father, and that he had been beaten to death with a shopping cart. None of my comments are intended as social commentary. It's just what I remember from those days. Good luck with your project. | ||
| mtierney Citizen Username: Mtierney Post Number: 486 Registered: 3-2001 |
In July 1967 I was in Orange Memorial following the birth of our youngest child - our 4th. I had requested a private room with no TV. The noise of ambulances and police cars arriving at the hospital seemed constant to me. There was definitely tension in the air. I recall seeing nurses whispering and looking worried in the halls and at the nurses station. I had no idea what was going on and nobody had much info for me. Family and friends visiting seemed edgy, but no one wanted to upset me. I didn't find out what was happening until I got home. BTW, back then, a new mom could enjoy 5 days recuperation - 4, I recall if it was a girl! | ||
| Psychomom Citizen Username: Psychomom Post Number: 24 Registered: 5-2005 |
I was about 13 years old. I remember seeing sandbags piled up at the South Orange Ave/Newark border and also the Springfield Ave Irvington/Newark border. Before the riots we thought nothing of hopping on a bus with my mom and going shopping...they had all the big department stores like Bambergers (later Macy's), Orbach's. They had floors and floors of merchandise and the basements were for the sale merchandise...Bambergers had more than one basement. The neighborhood wasn't real upscale, but you didn't feel threatened. After the riots it went downhill so fast. The looting and destruction of the businesses never completely recovered. People started fearing for their property values and "white flight" was common in areas of South Orange, Vailsburg, Irvington. |
