I was 11 years old when the riots occurred,
sending Newark into a downward spiral, a spiral that is still apparent
on some Newark Streets today,37 years later. Down Neck aka The Ironbound
section of Newark lies on the eastside of Penn Station. The violence,
the rioting never physically touched Down Neck Penn Station stood
as a barrier, a frontier fortress standing between the riots and
my neighborhood.
I remember the adults talking about business owners being openly
armed, "just in case". The neighborhood taverns filled
with their patrons talking about bearing arms to protect their homes.
Some spoke as if opening day of the hunting season was nearing.
Anthony Imperiale visited our closely knit neighborhood, promising
to be there to protect us if the time ever came for such a need.
There were black residents Down Neck, but I don't remember seeing
any walking the streets during this time. The housing projects,
the majority of the tenants black, stood silent, the tenants fearful
of reprisal for the violence occurring Uptown by Blacks. It changed
the City and my youth.
After the riots, the bus rides with Mom uptown to go shopping ended.
Many longtime neighbors left the City for the safety of the suburbs.
Doubt began to show in Mom & Dad's faces when I declared my
desire to attend Essex Catholic High School on Broadway in North
Newark. It was a 2 bus trip each way, waiting for the connecting
bus on Broad & Market Sts. My older brother was attending Essex
at that time, and I did attend the school in the Fall of 1969. It
would be a few more years that the after effects of the riots were
felt at the school and sent it and it's declining registration to
East Orange. I am not claiming this to be the demise of Essex catholic
,officially, but I personally believe that the racial tensions in
the post riot days sounded the death knell of a great Newark Institution.
Yes, today there is hope in the City of Newark, a "renaissance",
a "rebirth", is happening there. The scars of the 1967
riots will always be a part of Newark. Healing has begun, but the
recovery process will take more than a lifetime, more than my lifetime
at least. I always say that people look for the bullet holes in
me even today when I tell them that I grew up in Newark.
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