View of the storefront office of United Community Corporation Area Board #2, “Operation We Care” at 415 Springfield Avenue. Edna Thomas was active in Area Board #2 and served as its Vice President for a time. –Credit: Newark Public Library
A speech written by Reverend T.M. Booth, pastor of Newark’s St. John’s Methodist Church, that he presented at the National Conference on Black Power in Newark. The Black Power Conference began just days after the 1967 Newark Rebellion had come to a close and brought a wide array of national Civil Rights and Black Power leaders to Newark. — Credit: Newark Public Library
Summary of the 78-page report issued by the United Community Corporation (UCC) in response to the 1965 report of the City Council Committee to Study the Anti-Poverty Program for the City of Newark, NJ. The document summarizes the charges made against the UCC by the Council Committee and provides a detailed rebuttal to each charge. — Credit: Newark Public Library
Minority report of Councilman Irvine Turner on the City Council Committee’s investigation of the United Community Corporation (UCC) in 1965. Turner disassociated himself from the Committee’s report on the ground that he disagreed with many of the assumptions and recommendations of the report. In his report, Turner refutes the claim that ‘the UCC has taken many of the aspects of a political-action pressure group,” citing the policy of the Board of Trustees that required any member of the UCC running for political office to take a leave of absence during the candidacy. — Credit: Newark Public Library
Report of the City Council Committee’s investigation of the United Community Corporation in 1965. The Committee charged that the UCC misappropriated funds and utilized federal money to fund and organize political campaigns. The Committee concluded that the City of Newark “should immediately undertake its own Anti-Poverty Programs and…that it should not combine with or participate in or contribute to any provate groups or non-profit agencies.” Community members like George Richardson and Hilda Hidalgo, however, argued that the Committee’s investigation was an attempt to “bring the anti-poverty program under the control of the Mayor and the City Council.” — Credit: Newark Public Library
Letter from United Community Corporation (UCC) members George Richardson and Hilda Hidalgo, to Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., seeking assistance in response to the City Council Committee’s investigation of the UCC in 1965. Many Black and Puerto Rican ommunity members, like Richardson and Hidalgo, argued that the Committee’s investigation was an attempt to “bring the anti-poverty program under the control of the Mayor and the City Council.” — Credit: Newark Public Library
Telegram from Bessie Smith, President of the People’s Action Group (Area Board #3) of the United Community Corporation (UCC), to Sargent Shriver, Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity on October 28, 1965. Mrs. Smith sent the telegram to request Shriver’s assistance in response to the City Council Committee’s investigation of the UCC. Mrs. Smith and many others felt that the investigation was an attempt to bring the antipoverty agency under the control of the Mayor and the City Council. — Credit: Junius Williams Papers
Flyer distributed to warn against City Hall control of the United Community Corporation and encourage community members to vote for representatives from their neighborhood to the UCC Board of Trustees. City officials in Newark feared that the antipoverty program would undermine their political power in the city and moved to exert control over the antipoverty agency. — Credit: Newark Public Library
