Conference paper prepared by Bessie Smith regarding “maximum feasible participation” of the poor in War on Poverty efforts in Newark. In the paper, Mrs. Smith describes the struggles for community control of the United Community Corporation, Newark’s Community Action Agency for War on Poverty funding. — Credit: Newark Public Library
Issue of the African-American newspaper, Advance, from January 6, 1966. The issue contains coverage of demands made by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) for the dismissal of Police Director Dominick Spina. CORE demanded Spina’s ouster in a meeting with Mayor Addonizio after a Black teenager, Walter Mathis, was fatally shot by Newark police. This issue also details several high-profile cases of police brutality from 1962-1966, a period in which Newark’s Black and Puerto Rican communities continuously advocated for police reform and accountability to no avail from City Hall. — Credit: Newark Public Library
Report submitted by Newark Police Captain Charles Kinney, regarding his “Investigation Into Possible Criminal Conspiracy During Riots of July 1967.” Wright was one of several figures under surveillance from the Newark Police Department before and after the 1967 Newark Rebellion. The report relied mostly on word-of-mouth accounts from informants, with little hard evidence to support its allegations. — Credit: Seton Hall University Libraries
Flyer encouraging Newark community members to vote in the Model Cities Neighborhood Council election on April 22, 1968. Model Cities was a federally funded grant program to cities with a mandate to plan integrated designs for the “Model Neighborhood.” –Credit: Junius Williams Collection
Transcript of statements made by Newark-Essex CORE Chairman Fred Means before hearings of the Newark Human Rights Commission in July, 1965. The Commission held public hearings about a possible police advisory review board after Lester Long, an unarmed Black man, was fatally shot by Newark Policeman Henry Martinez. -Credit: City of Newark Archives and Records Management Center
“Robert Curvin speaks at a CORE rally at the corner of Spruce and Belmont in Newark.” -Credit: Wally Akerberg/The Star-Ledger
Police profile of Robert Curvin from sometime after 1965. Curvin, civil rights activist and community leader, was surveilled by Newark police and labeled as a “militant racist” and “irresponsible” by city officials. -Credit: Junius Williams Collection
“Robert Curvin, Northeast regional vice president of the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) speaks at a rally in Military Park, Newark, urging the creation of a Civilian Police Review Board in Newark. The demonstration was held because of the shooting death on June 12, of a black motorist by a white police officer.” -Credit: Wally Akerberg/The Star-Ledger
Portrait of Robert Curvin, civil rights activist, Newark community leader, and scholar, taken by photographer Al Henderson in 1964. -Credit: Al Henderson, Newark Public Library
Newark Police Department report on members of the Newark-Essex Chapter of CORE distributing leaflets outside of Hahne’s department store on Broad Street. Members of CORE, led by Fred Means, distributed leaflets to encourage Newark’s Black and Puerto Rican communities to protest discriminatory hiring practices at the store in 1966. -Credit: Newark Public Library
