Press release from the Committee Against Negro and Puerto Rican Removal, led by Louise Epperson, Eulis “Honey” Ward, and Harry Wheeler, announcing a telegram sent to Robert C. Weaver of the Department of Housing and Urban Development to demand the cessation of all urban renewal projects in Newark. — Credit: Junius Williams Collection
Leaflet distributed by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund including newspaper clips and a photograph regarding the protests against the development of the College of Medicine and Dentistry in Newark’s Central Ward. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund joined in the struggle with the Newark Area Planning Association and Committee Against Negro and Puerto Rican Removal to develop an alternate plan for the College of Medicine and Dentistry that would have originally displaced approximately 20,000 Black and Puerto Rican residents of the Central Ward. — Credit: Junius Williams Collection
Letter distributed to residents of Newark’s Central Ward by the Newark Area Planning Association (NAPA), to encourage community support in the struggle against the College of Medicine and Dentistry. NAPA led the charge to develop an alternate plan for the medical school that would have originally displaced approximately 20,000 Black and Puerto Rican residents of the Central Ward. — Credit: Junius Williams Collection
Press release from the Committee Against Negro and Puerto Rican Removal, led by Louise Epperson, Eulis “Honey” Ward, and Harry Wheeler, announcing a telegram sent to Robert C. Weaver of the Department of Housing and Urban Development to demand the cessation of all urban renewal projects in Newark. — Credit: Junius Williams Collection
Memo from Junius Williams, head of the Newark Area Planning Association (NAPA), to outline a possible strategy for combating the College of Medicine and Dentistry. NAPA led the charge to develop an alternate plan for the College of Medicine and Dentistry that would have originally displaced approximately 20,000 Black and Puerto Rican residents of the Central Ward. — Credit: Junius Williams Collection
In this essay, Stanley Winters, a veteran organizer in the Clinton Hill neighborhood, describes the interrelated nature of urban renewal politics and struggles for civil rights. Because the vast majority of urban renewal policy makers were white, Black and Puerto Rican communities had little representation in projects that they were disproportionately impacted by. Winters also argues that urban renewal projects were being utilized for the benefit of business interests, rather than community interests.
