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
Campaign pamphlet distributed during Irvine I. Turner’s successful 1958 campaign for City Council in the Central Ward. Turner was the incumbent in the race, after becoming Newark’s first African-American City Councilman in 1954. — Credit: Newark Public Library
Campaign card distributed during Irvine I. Turner’s 1954 City Council campaign. Turner won race in the Central Ward to become Newark’s first African American City Councilman. — Credit: Newark Public Library
Transcript of an oral history interview with Russell Bingham, conducted by Komozi Woodard on December 4, 1984. –Credit: Komozi Woodard
Transcript of an oral history interview with Russell Bingham, conducted by Komozi Woodard on November 27, 1984. –Credit: Komozi Woodard
Transcript of an oral history interview of Eulis “Honey” Ward conducted by Komozi Woodard in 1986. Ward reflects on growing up in Newark, his involvement in city politics, and his experiences with struggles for Black liberation in the city. –Credit: Komozi Woodard
Police report forwarded to Newark Legal Services Project director, Oliver Lofton, from Newark Police Director Dominick Spina on June 19, 1967. The report was based on information provided by the City Clerk regarding alleged plans of the UCC Area Boards 2 and 3 to bring the Black Panthers to Newark. The report names several influential Black and Puerto Rican community leaders, including Lofton, Robert Curvin, Louise Epperson, Honey Ward, George Richardson, and Jesse Allen, as accomplices to a planned “revolt” by the “Spanish and Negro population” on June 27. The UCC and other community organizations in Newark were continuously subjected to official surveillance and later blamed for the outbreak of the 1967 Newark rebellion. — Credit: Junius Williams Papers
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
