Sometime ago, those of us who entered political movements for change walked on our first picket line or marched in our first demonstration. At some point we got hooked on concepts like “Freedom”, “Direct Action” and “Resistance” to get rid of Jim Crow racism. Eventually we came to learn how to spend time in jail, […]
Rufus Council was born in North Carolina and moved to Newark a number of years before the rebellion that broke out in July of 1967. According to those familiar with him in Newark, Council was “a neighborhood drifter who did odd jobs to survive” and was working for a moving company in the city that […]
Around 12:30 A.M., July 14th, Moise and Rose Abraham were awakened by the sound of gunshots outside their home at 42 Blum Street. The two had married in 1944 and raised their six children in their single-family home, with all but the eldest still living there. After hearing the gunfire, Mr. Abraham walked downstairs to […]
Leroy Boyd had lived in Newark for ten years, after moving to the city from his birthplace of Virginia. There, he had two children with his ex-wife before relocating to Newark. By the summer of 1967, Boyd lived in a second-floor apartment on Belmont Avenue, just south of Avon Avenue, and worked at a paper […]
Mrs. Hattie Gainer had lived in the Hayes Homes project at 302 Hunterdon Street for over twenty years. Those in the neighborhood knew the 54-year-old woman, who suffered from terrible arthritis, to sit in the window of her second floor apartment and chat with friends on the street as they passed by. Mrs. Gainer’s daughter, […]
