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
Memo from civil rights activist Derek Winans to Junius Williams regarding the political impacts of the proposed site of the College of Medicine and Dentistry in Newark’s Central Ward. The displacement of residents and consequential disruption of African American electoral voting strength was a major concern of Newark’s civil rights activists in the 1960s. — Credit: Junius Williams Collection
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
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
Emergency resolution signed by City Council President Ralph Villani, appropriating $15,000 of city funding to enable the United Community Corporation (UCC) to establish a local anti-poverty program. Mayor Addonizio requested the funding to ensure that Newark met the eligibility requirements of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, which authorized the establishment of Community Action Agencies, like the UCC in Newark. — Credit: Junius Williams Papers
Position paper from the Newark Community Union Project (NCUP) regarding the civil rights organization’s “insurgent political action” during the 1966 campaign in Newark. Members of NCUP, an affiliate of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), had conflicting views about the organization’s involvement in electoral politics. — Credit: Junius Williams Papers
