Daniel Greenberg
Professor Jack Selzer
English 083T
15 November 2011
The Newark Riots of 1967
Newark, New Jersey has been a hub for commercial business, transportation, and
manufacturing since the 19th century, largely because of its coastal location. Although Newark
was plagued with high unemployment and poor living conditions during the 1960s, it was the
largest city in New Jersey in 1967 with 402,000 citizens, according to NJ.com, and still holds the
position as the state’s largest city. Newark was one of the first cities in the country to be home to
a large Negro community, which was almost half of the entire population. With this mix, racial
segregation and discrimination were inevitable, and it was a matter of time before a riot
occurred.
During much of Newark’s history, there was a large shift in the demographics of
Newark’s population, which had a lot to do with what happened in 1967. According to the Report
For Action, an assessment of the riots, “A recent Rutgers University survey of the Newark
population showed that 52% was Negro; 10% ‘other’ (mostly Spanish-speaking); and less than
40% established white residents. The survey also showed that Negroes accounted for only
approximately 45% of the voting population. Whites were a majority when it came to voting and
taxation” (New Jersey 2). Schools had been integrated since 1908 (New Jersey 6), but a large
majority of Newark citizens lived in poverty, white and black. Black migrants from the south
flooded the city as middle-class whites moved into the suburbs. This rush of unskilled and
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uneducated workers created essentially no competition for jobs as the remaining whites, who
were more educated than the blacks, quickly filled open spots (New Jersey 45). The Commission
that authored the Report for Action said, “Between 1960 and 1966, Newark had changed from 65
percent white to 62 percent nonwhite, as blacks moved in and whites moved out” (Harris 8). The
city government remained predominantly white, though, and that was a problem.
In 1953, Irvine Turner, a former Negro journalist from the Central Ward, was elected to
the city council. African Americans had been running for office since 1941, but no one had ever
made it to office until Turner. With a large population of African Americas residing in the city,
candidates running for office had to please both the whites and blacks of the community in order
to secure a position (New Jersey 4). Although the city government had at least 5 black
representatives and officials, the Negro community soon began to question whether the
administration was sensitive to the black community and whether the Negroes who held office
positions really had the power and authority to voice their individual opinions (16).
Stokely Carmichael’s Black Power movement was making its way into the Central Ward.
Why were riots breaking out in all parts of the country? Who and what triggered these riots in the
northern states? In particular, what sparked the riots that struck Newark in 1967?
Before the riots occurred, African Americans in poor neighborhoods of Newark, like
Clinton Hill and the Central Ward, demanded the end of discrimination and the redistribution of
resources through President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society programs. At this point in the
northern states, as I previously stated, discrimination was more of the problem than was
segregation. The public realm of Newark ended up to be unresponsive to the initiatives that
blacks were making to be better off and to get more involved with the community. Soon enough,
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the community as a whole drifted away from Martin Luther King Jr’s ideals of non-violence and
became more involved with black radical ideals from Stokely Carmichael, ideas that had been
making their way up to the North (Mumford 105-108).
The Newark Race Riot, which took place between July 12th through July 17th of 1967, is
possibly one of the longest and most devastating riots in the nation. Most agree that the riots
were tipped off Wednesday night, July 12th, when two Newark police officers stopped John
Smith, an African American taxi driver, and brutally beat him. The police claim the cabby was
tailgating the patrol car for about a block and then proceeded to shoot in front of the patrol car
and drive on the opposing side of the road for about another block. The police officers reported
that when they stopped the taxi cab driver, he was talking back and being very rude, as well as
acting out on the ride to the station. Mumford writes in his book, Newark: A History of Race,
Rights, and Riots in America, that the police officers were said to have physically attacked the
driver for no reason, based on bystanders accounts, while the police report outlined that Smith
had brutally attacked the officers. Ironically, the officers had no markings whatsoever and were
completely clean (Mumford 98 -101).
Smith’s account was quite different. He claimed that as he was driving, he came across a
patrol car that was double parked. He assumed that the police vehicle was doing work, so he
went to pass the car. Before he knew it, his taxi cab lit up like a Christmas tree from police lights.
As the officer began to accuse Smith of making an illegal pass, he went on to tell the officer to
do whatever he would like. The police officer took offense to this and immediately arrested
Smith. Smith claimed that the officer then began to physically assault him inside the car, and
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brutally beat him even more once at the station (New Jersey 106). Smith ended up being charged
with assault and battery, but the charges were eventually dropped.
Later that evening, a resident of the Hayes Homes, a housing project, called Robert
Curvin1, an active civil rights leader in Newark, over to the apartment complex, which was
located right outside of the fourth precinct, where police were holding John Smith. Curvin
recalls, “it was a kind of anxious call that unfortunately is frequently received by me and
members of our organization in the city of Newark on many occasions” (Mumford 127). Other
cabbies found out about the beatings, which created a lot of buzz (Mumford 98 -101). Cabbies
broadcasted the message of the brutality to other cab drivers, who in turn relayed the message to
family and friends. In a matter of hours, a majority of the black community had received the
news of the event and were being shuttled downtown to the fourth precinct station. This
somewhat small but significant stir up caused “the most devastating riots in the history of New
Jersey” (98). The African American community was getting very angry from this incident and
was fed up, and their anger quickly escalated to violence. Cars were set on fire, prompting the
fire department to be dispatched. Fire trucks were vandalized and firefighters were then assaulted
by rioters (128-129).
Wednesday night was the craziest night of the riots, in part because the city government
and police were caught off guard and were unorganized. Once the crowds started to develop,
patrol officers began to monitor the streets. The crowds quickly became violent. Molotov
cocktails were exploded near the 4th precinct police station, and a car was lit on fire near the
Hayes projects; the police and fire department were called in, prompting even more chaos.
Looting began later in the night and by the time the riots were dying down for the night, 23
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arrests had been made. The Report for Action states that, “by 4 A.M. Newark’s streets were quiet.
Police report showed that damage to the Fourth Precinct was estimated at $2,500 for the
destruction of 102 windows, screens and doors and for miscellaneous damage” (New Jersey
110-11).
Most of the city council had thought Wednesday night was the end of the riots, but they
soon found out they were mistaken. Early Thursday morning, the city council held a meeting and
after confirmation by Mayor Addonizio, the two patrolmen who had arrested John Smith were
taken off of patrol duty and transferred to the administrative department. In addition to the white
officers being ousted from their patrol duty, a handful of Negro police officers were promoted to
captain, and a task force was assembled to investigate the cause of Wednesday nights events.
Thursday afternoon, Negro community leaders distributed leaflets outlining details for a
rally against police brutality for the evening. In preparation for the rally, media crews arrived and
at least 500 police officers were ordered to be available. At around eight PM, a crowd developed
across the street from the precinct and proceeded to throw rocks, stones, bottles, and pieces of
wood at the precinct, resulting in broken windows. The crowds that developed for the rally
became forceful and violent, and police were sent to break them up. Later in the evening,
Springfield Avenue became the site of looting and vandalism. In response, the police set up
containment areas, where they would chase people to keep the crowds small. At around 12:30
AM, the crowd of citizens became significantly larger and the rally quickly escalated to a riot.
The state police recommended that the National Guard be called in. Soon enough, the National
Guard was prepared to enter the city with a game plan (New Jersey 112).
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Early Friday morning, the state police, the Newark police, and the National Guard
collaborated to create a plan on how to combat and eradicate the violent crowds. The biggest
issue at hand was that each department communicated on different frequencies so it was very
difficult for each branch to discuss plans with each other. In the National Guard’s report on their
effort, they stated that there was a big error in timing because of the Newark police department’s
hesitance to step in at the right time. By 9:30 AM, about 50 people had already been arrested
(New Jersey 114). Governor Hughes “issued an emergency proclamation under the National
Defense Act of New Jersey” (116), stating that no motor vehicle traffic could take place between
ten o’clock PM and six o’clock AM, except for the use of major highways. The proclamation
also prohibited the sale and possession of alcohol between 11 PM and six o’clock AM (117).
Checkpoints were created at city limits for vehicles, and blockades were put up at intersections.
A New York Times article reported that the US Postal Service had to reroute mail to Philadelphia
because it was too dangerous to send mail trucks into downtown Newark (Newark Mail). Large
retail stores and small businesses located downtown temporarily closed because they were
receiving no business. Some bars and liquor stores claimed to close under orders from New
Jersey Governor Hughes (Gansberg).
Looting created gunfire on Springfield Avenue, which led to about a dozen deaths that
night. At the end of the day, the Guard had sent in almost 3,500 men, the state police had sent in
about 600 men, and 906 people were arrested. Many blacks were beginning to testify that the
police were brutally beating people without probable cause. One credible example was published
in the Report for Action: “The Reverend Herbert G. Draesel, an Episcopal priest, testified that on
Friday evening, July 14th, he was standing on a corner when several police cars drove down the
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street, stopped in front of the Colonnade Bar and began firing into the bar for no apparent reason.
Suddenly, Father Draesel said, the policeman changed their firing from the bar to the group
standing in the corner....Two men were wounded in this encounter” (New Jersey 119). This
police brutality at its peak was one of the key issues behind why the riots continued for so long.
Towards the last day of the riot, Mayor Addonizio agreed to ease the forces. He realized
that in order to make the African community cease in violence, he had to end the brutality and to
return to normal day to day schedules. In a thesis on the architecture of the riots, a Princeton
University student writes:
At 3 p.m. on Monday, July 17, Governor Hughes agreed that the time was right to “pull
out.” He said the “primary mission to restore order has been accomplished.” Soon,
electricity was restored, garbage removed, roads cleaned, mail delivered, businesses
opened, public transportation put back on a normal schedule, and so on. Hughes also
predicted that “People will feel safe to walk the streets again.” (Dockray)
Dockray also references a Los Angeles Times article, which in regards to the riots, concluded
that outbreaks must be seen as more of results than the source of the issues, and occur out of
anger and irritation.
The rioting finally began to calm down Saturday. The areas that massive crowds had
occupied were completely contained, spanning 14 square miles. There still was violence; fire
Captain Michael Moran and 6 other civilians were shot and killed. Once the sun went down,
shooting, looting, and vandalism picked back up, but not with the severity that it had before.
Sunday the crowds and anger truly tapered down. Since food stores were closed, finding food in
the wake of the riot in the Central Ward was a problem. The National Guard was charged with
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delivering food into downtown Newark and distributing it in various locations throughout the
city.
In total 23 people died and more than 1600 people were arrested. Donald Malafronte, an
administrative assistant to the Mayor, refereed to the events on Wednesday night and the days
that followed as “the most serious incident Newark ever had” (111).
There is not a single reason why these riots occurred, but they definitely should not have
been a surprise. A year before the riots, Paul Ylvisaker, a political scientist and a key figure
overseeing civil rights issues in New Jersey, was appointed by Governor Hughes to head a newly
created cabinet post titled Community Relations Advisor. His responsibilities included race
relations and urban issues, primarily within major cities of New Jersey. Ylvisaker saw that the
black community in Newark was in need of help and reform. He tried to urge the President to
forge a grand national coalition to put more money into city problems, particularly through
programs redistributing wealth through taxes and other similar means. The president did not act
fast enough.
Hugh Addonizio, Mayor of Newark, was elected into office with “heavy Negro support,”
and many believed he was honestly interested in African American problems (New Jersey 7).
During his campaign, he took interest towards the Negro community by reaching out to
community leaders and supporting their efforts to improve the community. In 1963, Housing
projects began to spring up, causing anger in the Negro community because of fear of having to
relocate (New Jersey 9). Although this was still quite early before the riots took place, this is
undoubtedly one of the reasons why African Americans became angry and restless.
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Addonizio turned out to be the stereotypical politician. He knew how to get elected and
how to pursue his self interests. When he was running as a mayoral candidate, almost half of the
population of Newark was African American. Therefore, he had to appeal to the African
American community, and he did. The New York Times published an article on July 14th, 1967
titled, “Newark’s Mayor Calls in Guard as Riots Spread.” As the article states, “Mayor Hugh J.
Addonizio telephoned Gov. Richard J. Hughes...and told the Governor that the rampaging
Negroes who had looted, burned, and smashed their way through the city in the second straight
night of violence had produced an ‘ominous situation’” (Carroll). He almost refers to the African
American community as animals by referring to them as “rampaging Negroes.” In coordination
with Governor Hughes, Mayor Addonizio called the National Guard in to control the riots from
spreading outside of the Central Ward into the downtown area of Newark.
Stokely Carmichael2 of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a key
figure and leader associated with the Newark Riots of 1967, assisted the efforts of the black
community in retaliating against the Newark police department and government. Carmichael was
perceived by some as a radical civil rights activist. The FBI reported that he was “adopting the
communist tactic of linking the civil rights movement with the Anti-Vietnam war
protest” (Mumford 109). Carmichael compared the black community in America with African
decolonization, arguing that in both situations the black community members were “victim[s] of
imperialism and colonial exploitation” (109). In a way his argument could be seen as true;
African Americans were subject to white power without much say in the situation at all. On the
other hand, it is rather extreme. If his ideals were reality, it would almost be as if the members of
African American community were subjects of the white people. He still played a monumental
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role in the riots by helping to unite the black community, which was a commonality among most
civil rights campaigns throughout the nation.
Because of his debatably “radical” ideals, Carmichael was banned from a handful of
European governments and was facing many criminal charges in Washington, D.C.. About a year
before the riots, Carmichael went on to address an audience of about 800 high school students in
the Central Ward of Newark, stating that, “the masses can participate in making the decisions
which govern their destiny” (Mumford 109). Additionally, Carmichael spoke to a crowd on
Springfield Avenue in Newark, which would be the future location of the riots a year later,
discussing that black activists are “taking over” Lowndes County, Alabama and that, similarly,
they should be taking over Newark. All of Carmichael’s actions increased black nationalist
sentiment.
From the African American perspective, the riots were brought on because of poor
housing, large unemployment numbers, overcrowding of city areas, and undoubtably police
brutality (New Jersey 3). In the Milwaukee Star, an African American newspaper, the riots are
referred to as the “Newark Holocaust,” and the paper argues that the white leadership and
citizens of Newark itself is unquestionably responsible for the damage because of poor politics.
The Commission on Civil Disorder came to an overall conclusion that “the burden of
responsibility weighs most heavily on those in positions of leadership, power and with control
over the resources that will be needed to produce tangible results” (New Jersey xi). From the
white perspective, the riots were caused by criminals and a search for attention. The white
response to the police brutality was that it was too soft (New Jersey 3). This type of response is
to be expected. One of the problems here is that there were lots of free riders just jumping onto
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the bandwagon. Most of the white citizens did not want to be ostracized for disagreeing with
their fellow community members for taking the side of African Americans. Yes, not every single
white citizen of Newark discriminated against the Negros, but most of those who didn’t kept
quiet. The white citizens who were indifferent just went along with the status quo. This is most
likely the case throughout the nation in regards with racial discrimination and segregation.
On August 8th, 1967, Richard Hughes, Governor of New Jersey from 1962 to 1970,
appointed seven white members and four black members to a commission to investigate the riots.
The commission presented a summary of its findings, titled the Report for Action, which was
published the following spring (98-99). The Report provides a tremendously detailed and
authoritative review of the riots. It delves deep into every single factor which led to the anger of
the Negro community. It also recounts all of the major and minor disturbances throughout the
five days, going day by day with personal recounts. It provides an exceptional resource for
researching the causes and effects of the riots.
Perhaps among the most significant information found in the report was the commission’s
proposal of the three main causes for the civil disturbance. First was the lack of political
representation within the black community. Unquestionably, the African American community
was unjustly represented and therefore it was very difficult for them to voice their opinions and
problems. Second, police brutality enraged African Americans. Throughout the Central Ward,
Negroes were arrested and assaulted for no specific reason. Third, the worsening social
conditions of the city was a contributing factor. The social and living conditions in the city did
not improve as a result of the riots, and in fact may have just worsened from the event. Newark
was, and still is, one of the most impoverished cities in New Jersey, and suffers high
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unemployment rates and a poor school system. The African American community wanted to see
change, as did many African Americans nationwide. In establishing these three key causes of the
riots and in gathering and detailing all of the events and data from the riots into one publication,
the commission helped to restore authority of government through its accuracy and detail. The
report helped to prove that racial discrimination was not just exclusive to the south, but was a
pressing issue in the north as well. Very similar riots had taken place in Milwaukee, Detroit,
California, Harlem, and Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia. In fact, 28 other cities
experienced similar riots, although a fraction of the length of the one that Newark had
experienced.
This local event that took place miles from my current home plays as an example to the
larger picture of the civil rights movement in the United States, and more specifically the
movement taking place in the northern states, where discrimination and segregation are
sometimes overlooked. Although discrimination in the North was not exactly the same as it was
in the South, there were still numerous examples and situations of police brutality,
discrimination, and inequality.
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Notes
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1 Robert Curvin was a key figure during the Newark Race Riots. An African American from
Newark, Curvin attended from Rutgers Universty. As a student, he was very interested in getting
involved with the civil rights movement, so he joined the Newark chapter of the NAACP. Curvin
later joined CORE, or the Congress of Racial Equality, a civil rights organization with similar
goals to the NAACP. The Essex County Core did not just include African Americans, and at least
half of the members, and those who participated in the demonstrations, were white. Curvin
worked his way up to a high position in the organization and was the leader of CORE during the
riots.
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2 Stokely Carmichael, later known as Kwame Ture, had been a civil rights activist since his years
in high school. In 1964, he became an organizer for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC) and later became chairman of the organization. Later that year Carmichael
began to distance himself from the SNCC and later joined the Black Panther Party, an
organization dedicated to the Black Power movement. It has been said that Carmichael himself
coined the term “black power” (Grant). In a blog post, Giemmevi says, “Carmichael stressed that
Black people first of all would need to develop a strong solidarity among themselves. This
solidarity he believed would emerge if Black people would organize themselves politically
without outside support. By doing so they would become aware of their qualities, their political
strength and they would also get to know the United States’ political arena from the inside. In
short, Stokely Carmichael intended to create strong political foundation with enough power to
create equal coalitions.” Carmichael was like most civil rights activists and agreed that the black
community needed to unite to overcome racism. What made him unique was the way he believed
African Americans should unite. An article published in the Times states that Carmichael’s
actions were frowned upon by many well-known civil rights activists such as Martin Luther
King, Jr. and Roy Wilkins, a leader of the NAACP. Carmichael grew fond of black separatism
and became very radical. In 1969, he even resigned from his own party because the Black
Panthers had been aligning too closely, which in reality was not very close at all, with white
activists (Kaufman).