united community corporation
Conference Work Paper by Bessie Smith
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
Bessie Smith Community Center from The Crusader (Jan 1968)
Photograph from the newspaper of the United Community Corporation, The Crusader, showing the location of the newly established Bessie Smith Community Center at 160 Hawthorne Ave. — Credit: Newark Public Library
Carol Glassman and Bessie Smith at Area Board Meeting (1965) copy
Newark Community Union Project (NCUP) members Carol Glassman (left) and Bessie Smith (right) preside over a meeting of the United Community Corporation’s Area Board #3 in 1965. –Credit: Robert Machover
Advance Newspaper (Jan 6, 1966)
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
Newark Police Dept Report on Willie Wright (Capt Charles Kinney)
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
