 Section 7 of the Kerner Commission Report. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by William Jones, Benita Springs, Florida. Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, Kerner Commission Report. Chapter 1 Profiles of Disorder, Tampa. 1. Tampa. On Sunday, June 11, 1967, Tampa, Florida, sweltered in the 94-degree heat. A humid wind ruffled the bay where thousands of persons watched the hydroplane races. Since early morning, the police department's selective enforcement unit, designed as a riot control squad, had been employed to keep order at the races. At 5.30 p.m., a block from the waterfront, a photo supply house was broken into. 45 minutes later, two police officers spotted three Negro youths as they walked near the state building. When the youth caught sight of the officers, they ducked into an alley. The officers gave chase, and as they ran, the suspects left a trail of photographic equipment scattered from yellow paper bags they were carrying. The officers transmitted a general broadcast over the police radio. As other officers arrived on the scene, a chase began through and around the streets, houses and alleys of the neighborhood. When Negro residents of the area adjacent to the Central Park Village Housing Project became aware of the chase, they began to participate. Some attempted to help the officers in locating the suspects. R. C. Oates, one of 17 Negroes on the 511 man Tampa Police Force, spotted 19-year-old Martin Chambers, bare to the waist, wriggling away beneath one of the houses. Oates called for Chambers to surrender. Ignoring him, Chambers emerged running from beneath the house. A white officer J. L. Calvert took up the pursuit. Pursuing Calvert in turn were three young Negroes, all spectators. Behind one of the houses, a high cyclone fence created a two-foot-white alley 25 feet in length. As Chambers darted along the fence, Officer Calvert rounded the corner of the house. Calvert yelled at him to halt. Chambers ignored him. Calvert pointed his 38 revolver and fired. The slug entered the back of Chambers and passed completely through his body. Raising his hands over his head, he clutched at the cyclone fence. When the three youths running behind Officer Calvert came upon the scene, they assumed Chambers had been shot standing in the position in which they saw him. Rumor quickly spread through the neighborhood that a white police officer had shot a Negro youth who had had his hands over his head and was trying to surrender. The ambulance that had been summoned became lost in the way. The gathering crowd viewing the bloody, critically injured youth grew increasingly belligerent. Finally, Officer Oates loaded Chambers into his car and drove him to the hospital. The youth died shortly thereafter. As officers were leaving the scene, a thunderstorm broke. Beneath the pelting rain, the spectators scattered. When an officer went back to check the area, he found no one on the streets. A few minutes after 7 p.m., the Selective Enforcement Unit, tired and sun-parched, reported in from the races. A half hour later a report was received that 500 persons were gathering. A police car was sent into the area to check the report. The officers could find no one. The men of the Selective Enforcement Unit were told to go home. The men in the scout car had not, however, penetrated into the Central Park Village Housing Complex, where, as the rain ended, hundreds of persons poured from the apartments. At least half were teenagers and young adults. As they began to mill about and discuss the shooting, old grievances, both real and imagined, were resurrected. Discriminatory practices of local stores, advantages taken by white men of Negro girls, the kicking in the face of a Negro boy by a white man as the Negro lay handcuffed on the ground, blackballing of two Negro high schools by the athletic conference. Although officials prided themselves on supposedly good race relations and relative acceptance by whites of integration of schools and facilities, Negroes, composing almost 20% of the population, had had no one of their own race to represent them in positions of policy or power, nor to appeal to for redress of grievances. There was no Negro in the City Council, none on the school board, none in the fire department, none of high rank on the police force. Six of every ten houses inhabited by Negroes were unsound. Many were shacks with broken window panes, gas leaks, and rat holes in the walls. Rinse average $50 to $60 a month. Such recreational facilities as did exist like equipment and supervisors. Young tufts intimidated the children who tried to use them. The majority of Negro children never reached the eighth grade. In the high schools, only 3-4% of Negro seniors attained the minimum passing score on the state's college entrance examination, one tenth of the percentage of white students. A difference of at least three and a half years in educational attainment separated the average Negro and white. Throughout the report, in the presentation of statistics, Negro is used interchangeably with non-white. Wherever available, current data are used. Where no updating has been possible, figures are those of the 1960 census. Sources of the U.S. Bureau of the Census and other governmental agencies and in a few instances special studies. 43% of the Negro men in Tampa were working in unskilled jobs. More than half of the families had incomes of less than $3,000 a year. The result was that 40% of the Negro children lived in broken homes and the city's crime rate ranked in the top 25% in the nation. About a month before, police-community relations had been severely strained by the actions of a pair of white officers who were subsequently transferred to another beat. When officer Oates returned to the area, he attempted to convince the crowd to disperse by announcing that a complete investigation would be made into the shooting. He seemed to be making headway when a young woman came running down the street screaming that the police had killed her brother. Her hysteria galvanized the crowd. Rock-throwing began. Police cars driving into the area were stoned. The police, relying on a previous experience when, after the withdrawal of their units, the crowd had dispersed, decided to send no more patrol cars into the vicinity. This time the maneuver did not work. From nearby bars and tawdry night spots, patrons joined the throng. A window was smashed, haphazard looting began. As fluid bands of rioters moved down the Central Avenue Business District, stores whose proprietors were particularly disliked were singled out. A grocery store, a liquor store, a restaurant were hit. The first fire was set. Because of the dismissal of the Selective Enforcement Unit and the lack of accurate intelligence information, the police department was slow to react. Although Sheriff Malcolm Beard of Hillsborough County was in contact with the department throughout the evening, it was not until after 11 p.m. that a request for deputies was made to him. At 11.30, a recall order issued earlier by the police department began to bring officers back into the area. By this time streets in the vicinity of the housing project were lighted by flames of burning buildings. Falling power lines whipped sparks about the suspension line of officers as they moved down the street. The poppy noise of what sounded to the officers like gunshots came from the direction of the housing project. The officers did not return the fire. Police announced from a sound car that anyone caught armed would be shot. The firing ceased. Then and throughout the succeeding two days, law enforcement officers refrained from the use of firearms. No officer or civilian suffered a gunshot wound during the riot. Driving along the expressway, a young white couple, Mr. and Mrs. C.D., were startled by the fires. Deciding to investigate, they took the off-ramp into the midst of the riot. The car was swarmed over, its windows were shattered, C.D. was dragged into the street. As he emerged from a bar in which he had spent the evening, nineteen-year-old J.C., a Negro fruit picker from Arkansas, was as surprised by the riot as Mr. and Mrs. C.D. Rushing toward the station wagon in which the young woman was trapped, he interposed himself between her and the mob. Although rocks and beer cans smashed the windows, she was able to drive off. J.C. pushed through to where the white man lay. With the hoots and jeers of rioting youths reeling in his ears, J.C. helped him also to escape. By one a.m. police officers and sheriff's deputies had surrounded an area several blocks square. Firemen began to extinguish the flames, which by this time had spread to several other establishments from the three stores in which they had originally been set. No resistance was met. Control was soon re-established. Governor Claude Kirk flew to Tampa. Since the chief of the police was absent and since the governor regarded the sheriff as his direct arm, Sheriff Beard was placed in charge of the combined forces of the police and sheriff's departments. For the next twelve hours the situation remained quiet but tense. By afternoon of Monday, June 12th, the sheriff's and police forces both had been fully committed. The men were tired. There were none in reserve. As a precaution, the sheriff requested that a national guard contingent be made available. Late in the afternoon Governor Kirk met with the residents at a school in the Central Park Village area. It was a tense meeting. Most speakers, whether white or negro, were booed and hissed. The meeting broke up without concrete results. Nevertheless the governor believed it had enabled the residents to let off steam. That evening, as national guard troops began to supplant local forces in maintaining a perimeter and establishing roving patrols, anti-poverty workers went from door to door, urging citizens to stay off the streets. A reported attempt by black Muslims to incite further violence failed. Although there were scattered reports of trouble from several areas in the city, and a few fires were set, largely in vacant buildings, there were no major incidents. Several youths with a cache of Molotov cocktails were arrested. They were white. All the next day false reports poured into police headquarters. Everyday scenes took on menacing tones. Twenty negro men, bared to the waist and carrying clubs, were reported to be gathering. They turned out to be construction workers. Mayor Neucho met with residents at their suggestion that the man most likely to carry the weight with the youngsters was coach Jim Williams. He placed a call to Tallahassee where Williams was attending a coaching clinic. An impressive looking man with graying hair, Williams arrived in Tampa almost forty-eight hours after the shooting of Martin Chambers. Together with another coach, he went to an eatery called the Greek Stand, behind which he found a number of youngsters fashioning an arsenal of bottles, bricks, and Molotov cocktails. As in the crowds that were once more beginning together, the principal complaint was the presence of the National Guard, which the residents asserted gave them a feeling of being hemmed in. Williams decided to attempt to negotiate the removal of the National Guard if the people would agree to keep the peace and disperse. When Sheriff Beard arrived at a meeting called for the College Hill Elementary School, Robert Gilder of the NAACP was speaking to leaders of the Negro youth. Some were college students who had been unable to get summer jobs. One was a Vietnam veteran who had been turned down for a position as a swimming pool lifeguard. The youths believed that discrimination had played a part in their failure to find jobs. The suggestion was made to Sheriff Beard that the National Guard be pulled out of the Negro areas and that these young men, as well as others, be given the opportunity to keep order. The idea, which was encouraged by James Hammond, Director of the Commission of Community Relations, made sense to the Sheriff. He decided to take a chance on the youth patrol. In another part of the city, West Tampa, two Negro community leaders, Dr. James O. Brookins and Attorney Delano Estuart, were advised by acquaintances that unless the intensive patrolling of Negro neighborhoods ceased, people planned to set fires in industrial districts that evening. Like Coach Williams, Dr. Brookins and Estuart contacted neighborhood youths and invited Sheriff Beard to a meeting. The concept of the youth patrol was expanded. Participants were identified first by phosphorescent armbands and later by white hats. During the next 24 hours, 126 youth, some of whom had participated in the riot, were recruited into the patrol. Many were high school dropouts. On Wednesday, the inquiry into the death of Martin Chambers was concluded, with the verdict that Officer Calvert had fired the shot justifiable and in the line of duty, apprehension rose. That the trouble would erupt again. The leaders of the youth patrol were called in. The sheriff explained the law to them and pointed out that the verdict was in conformance with the law. Despite the fact that the verdict was not to their liking, the white hats continued to keep order. End of Section 7. Section 8 of the Kerner Commission Report. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by William Jones, Penita Springs, Florida. Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. Kerner Commission Report. Chapter 1 Profiles of Disorder, Cincinnati. 2. Cincinnati. On Monday, June 12, before order had been restored in Tampa, trouble erupted 940 miles away in Cincinnati. Beginning in October 1965, assaults on middle-aged white women, several of whom were murdered, had generated an atmosphere of fear. When the Cincinnati Strangler was tentatively identified as a Negro, a new element of tension was injected into relations between the races. In December 1966, a Negro jazz musician named Postiel Lasky was arrested and charged with one of the murders. In May 1967, he was convicted and sentenced to death. Two of the principal witnesses against Lasky were Negroes. Nevertheless, many Negroes felt that, because of the charged atmosphere, he had not received a fair trial. They were further aroused when, at about the same time a white man, convicted of manslaughter and the death of his girlfriend, received a suspended sentence. Although the cases were dissimilar, there was talk in the Negro community that the difference in the sentences demonstrated a double standard of justice for white and for black. A drive began in the Negro community to raise funds for an appeal. Lasky's cousin, Peter Frakes, began walking the streets on behalf of this appeal, carrying a sandwich board declaring Cincinnati guilty, Lasky innocent. After warning him several times, police arrested Frakes on a charge of blacking pedestrian traffic. Many Negroes viewed his arrest as evidence of police harassment, similar to the apparently selective enforcement of the city's anti-loitering ordinance. Between January 1966 and June 1967, 170 of some 240 persons arrested under the ordinance were Negroes. Frakes was arrested at 12.35 a.m. on Sunday, June 11. From that evening, concurrently with the commencement of a Negro Baptist convention, it was announced in one of the churches that a meeting to protest the Frakes' arrest and the anti-loitering ordinance would be held the following night on the grounds of a junior high school in the Avondale district. Part of the significance of such a protest meeting lay in the context of past events. Without the cities realizing what was occurring, over the years protests through political and nonviolent channels had become increasingly difficult for Negroes. Two young militant Negroes, especially such protest, appear to have become almost futile. Although the city's Negro population had been rising swiftly, in 1967, 135,000 out of the city's 500,000 residents were Negroes. There was only one Negro in the city council. In the 1950s with a far smaller Negro population, there had been two. Negroes attributed this to dilution of the Negro vote through abolition of the proportional representation system of electing the nine councilmen. Although by 1967, 40% of the school children were Negroes, there was only one Negro on the board of education. Of more than 80 members of various city commissions, only three or four were Negroes. Under the leadership of the NAACP, Picatin to protest lack of Negro membership in building trade unions took place at the construction site of a new city convention hall. It produced no results. When the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, who had been one of the leaders of the Birmingham demonstrations of 1963, staged a protest against alleged discriminatory practices at the county hospital, he and his followers were arrested and convicted of trespassing. Traditional Negro leaders drawn from the middle class lost influence as promises made by the city produced petty results. In the spring of 1967, a group of 14 white and 14 Negro business and community leaders called the Committee of 28 talked about 2,000 job openings for young Negroes. Only 65 materialized. Almost one out of every eight Cincinnati Negroes was unemployed. Two of every five Negro families were living on or below the border of poverty. A study of the West End section of the city indicated that one out of every four Negro men living there was out of work. In one public housing area, two thirds of the fathers were missing. Of private housing occupied by Negroes, one fourth was overcrowded and half was deteriorated or dilapidated. In the 90 degree temperature of Monday, June 12th, as throughout the summer Negro youngsters roamed the streets. The two swimming pools available to them could accommodate only a handful. In the Avondale section, once a prosperous white middle class community but now the home of more than half the city's Negro population, Negro youths watched white workers going to work at white owned stores and businesses. One youth began to count the number of delivery trucks being driven by Negroes. During the course of the afternoon of the 52 trucks he counted, only one had a Negro driver. His sampling was remarkably accurate. According to a study conducted by the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, less than 2% of truck drivers in the Cincinnati area are Negro. Late in the afternoon, the youths began to interfere with deliveries being made by white drivers. Dr. Bruce Green, president of the local NAACP chapter, was notified. Dr. Green asked his colleague, Dr. Robert Reed, the director of the Opportunities and Desk Realization Center to go and try to calm the youngsters. Dr. Reed found several whom he knew and convinced them to go with him to the Avondale Special Services office to talk things over. They were drawing up plans for a meeting with merchants of the Avondale area when word came of an altercation at a nearby drug store. Several of the youths left the meeting and rushed over to the store. Dr. Reed followed them. The owner of the store was complaining to the police that earlier the youths had been interfering with his business. He declared that he wasn't going to stand for it. Dr. Reed was attempting to mediate when a police surgeon arrived and asked the officers what was going on. One allegedly replied that they had been called in because young nigger punks were disrupting the deliveries to the stores. A dispute arose between Dr. Reed and the surgeon as to whether the officer had said nigger. After further discussion, the surgeon told the kids to break it up. Dr. Reed, together with some of the youngsters, returned to the Special Services office. After talking to the youngsters again, Dr. Reed left to attend a meeting elsewhere. Soon after, some of the youngsters headed for the junior high school where the meeting protesting the Frank's arrest and the anti-loitering ordinance was scheduled to take place. The police department alerted to the possibility of a disturbance mobilized. However, the police were wary of becoming, as some Negro militants had complained, an inciting factor. Some months earlier, when Ku Klux Klansman had been attracted to the scene of a speech by Stokely Carmichael, a Negro crowd reacting to the heavy police patrolling had gathered about the car of a plain clothesman and attempted to overturn it. On Monday, June 12th, the department decided to withhold its men from the immediate area of the meeting. It appeared for a time as if this policy might be rewarded. Near the end of the rally, however, a Negro real estate broker arose to defend the police and the anti-loitering ordinance. The crowd, including the youngsters who had had the encounter with the police officers only a short time earlier, was incensed. When the meeting broke up, the window was hurled through the window of a nearby church. A small fire was set in the street. A Molotov cocktail was thrown through the window of a drugstore. The police were able to react quickly. There was only one major confrontation between them and the mob. Little resistance was offered. Although windows were broken and some two dozen stores, there was virtually no looting. There were 14 arrests, some unconnected with the disturbance. Among those arrested was a community worker now studying for a doctorate at Brandeis University. When he went to the area to help get people off the streets, he was arrested and charged with a loitering. The next morning, a judge of the municipal court, before whom most of the person charged were to be brought, said he intended to meet out with anyone found guilty of riot-connected offence. Although the judge later told the commission that he knew his statement was a violation of judicial ethics, he said that he made it because the city was in a state of siege and he intended yet to act as a deterrent against further violence. Maximum sentence were, in fact, pronounced by the judge on all convicted court, regardless of the circumstances of the arrest or the background of the person's arrested. Police were charging most white persons arrested with disorderly conduct, for which the maximum sentence is 30 days in jail and a $100 fine. Many Negroes, however, were charged with a violation of the Riot Act, for which the maximum sentence is one year in jail plus a $500 fine. Consequently, a major portion of the Negro community viewed this as an example of discriminatory justice. Tuesday morning, Negro leaders presented a list of 11 demands and grievances stemming from the Monday night meeting to the Mutual Municipal Government. Included were demands for repeal of the anti-loitering law, release of all prisoners arrested during the disturbance, full employment for Negroes and equal justice in the courts. Municipal officials agreed that the City Council would consider the demands. However, they rejected a suggestion that they attend an open meeting of residents in the Ovidale section. City leaders did not want to give stature to the militants by recognizing them as the de facto representatives of the community. Yet, by all indications, the militants were the only persons with influence on the people on the streets. Mayor Walton H. Bachrock declared that he was quite surprised by the disturbance because the Council had worked like hell to help Negroes. Municipal officials whose contracts were, as in other cities, generally with middle class Negroes appeared not to realize the volatile frustrations of Negroes in the ghetto. Early in the evening, a crowd consisting mostly of teenagers and young adults began to gather in the Avondale district. When, after a short time, no one appeared to give direction, they began to mill about a few minutes before 7 p.m., cars were stoned and windows were broken. Police moved in to disperse the gathering. Fires were set. When firemen reached the scene, they were barraged with rocks and bottles. A full-scale confrontation took place between the police riot squads and the Negro crowd. As police swept streets, people scattered. According to the chief of police, at approximately 7.50, all hell broke loose. The fire leaked to other sections of the city. The confusion and rapidity with which it spread made it almost impossible to determine its scope. Many reports of fires set by Molotov cocktails, cars being stoned and windows being broken were received by the police. A white motorist who died three weeks later and a Negro sitting on his porch suffered gunshot wounds. There were spread of Negro gangs raiding white neighborhoods of shootings and of organization of the riot. Nearly all of them were determined later to be unfounded. At 9.40 p.m., following a request for aid to surrounding communities, Mayor Bacharach placed a call to the governor asking for mobilization of the National Guard. At 2.30 a.m. Wednesday, the first Guard units appeared on the streets. They followed a policy of restraint in the use of weapons. Few shots were fired. Two hours later, the streets were quiet. Most of the damage was minor. Of the 40 odd fires reported before dawn, only 11 resulted in a loss of more than $1,000. The fire department log listed four as having caused major damage. That afternoon, the city council held an open session. The chamber was jammed with Negro residents, many of whom gave vociferous support as their spokesman criticized the city administration. When the audience became unruly, a detail of National Guardsmen was stationed outside the council chamber. Their presence resulted in a misunderstanding causing many of the Negroes to walk out of the meeting to end. Wednesday night, there were virtually no reports of rightist activity until 9.00 p.m., when scattered incidents of violence again began to take place. One person was injured by a gunshot. Despite fears of a clash between Negroes and Sam's, white Southern Appalachian migrants whose economic conditions parallel those of the Negroes, such a class was averted. H. Rap Brown, arriving in the city on Thursday, attempted to capitalize on the discontent by presenting a list of 20 demands. Their principal effect would have been total removal of all white persons, whatever their capacity from the ghetto area. Demand number 18 stated that at any meeting to settle grievances, any white proposal or white representative objected to by black representatives must be rejected automatically. Number 20 amended a veto power over police officers patrolling the community. His appearance had no galvanizing effect. Although scattered incidents occurred for three days after the arrival of the National Guard, the disorder never returned to its early intensity. Of 63 reported injuries, 12 were serious enough to require hospitalization. 56 of the persons injured were white. Most of the injuries resulted from thrown objects and glass splinters. Of 107 persons arrested Tuesday night when the main disturbance took place, 75 were 21 years of age or younger. Of 404 persons arrested, 128 were juveniles and 338 were 26 years of age or younger. Of the adults arrested, 29% were unemployed. End of section 8. Section 9 of the Kerner Commission report. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Colleen McMahon. On Saturday, June 17th, as the National Guard was being withdrawn from Cincinnati, the same type of minor police arrest that had initiated the Cincinnati riot took place in Atlanta. The rapid industrialization following World War II, coupled with annexations that quadrupled the area of the city had made Atlanta a vigorous and booming community. Pragmatic business and political leaders worked to give it a reputation as the moderate stronghold of the Deep South. Nevertheless, despite acceptance and principle of integration of schools and facilities, the fact that the city is the headquarters both for civil rights organizations and segregationist elements created a strong and ever present potential for conflict. The rapidly growing Negro population which by the summer of 1967 had reached an estimated 44% and was scattered in several ghettos throughout the city was maintaining constant pressure on surrounding white residential areas. Some real estate agents engaged in block busting tactics to stimulate panic sales by white homeowners. Footnote, a block is considered to have been busted when one Negro family has been sold a home in a previously all-white area. End of footnote. The city police were continually on the alert to keep marches and counter marches of civil rights and white supremacist organizations from flaring into violence. In September 1966, following a fatal shooting by a police officer of a Negro auto-thief who was resisting arrest, only the dramatic ghetto appearance of Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. had averted a riot. Boasting that Atlanta had the largest KKK membership in the country, the Klan on June 4, 1967 marched through one of the poorer Negro sections. A massive police escort prevented a racial clash. According to Mayor Allen, 55% of municipal employees hired in 1967 were Negroes bringing their proportion of the city workforce to 28%. Of 908 police department employees, 85 are Negro, a higher proportion of Negroes than in most major city police departments in the nation. To the Negro community, however, it appeared that the progress made served only to reduce the level of inequality. Equal conditions for blacks and whites remained a hope for the future. Different pay scales for black and white municipal employees performing the same jobs had been only recently eliminated. The economic and educational gap between the black and white populations may in fact have been increasing. The average white Atlantan was a high school graduate. The average Negro Atlantan had not completed the eighth grade. In 1960, the median income of a Negro family was less than half of the whites $6,350 a year. And 48% of Negro families earned less than $3,000 a year. 50% of the men worked in disabled jobs. And many more Negro women than men, 7.9% as against 4.9% of the respective workforces held well-paying white-collar jobs. Living on marginal incomes in cramped and deteriorating quarters, one third of the housing was overcrowded and more than half substandard. Families were breaking up at an increasing rate. In approximately 4 out of every 10 Negro homes the father was missing. The family's living in public housing projects more than 60% are headed by females. Mayor Allen estimated there were 25,000 jobs in the city waiting to be filled because people lacked the education or skills to fill them. Yet overcrowding in many Negro schools forced the scheduling of extended and double sessions. Although Negroes comprised 60% of the school population there were 14 white high schools compared to nine Negro. It has integrated its schools but de facto segregation as a result of housing patterns has had the effect of continuing separate schooling of nearly all white and Negro pupils. White high school students attended classes 6.5 hours a day. Negroes in high schools with double sessions attended 4.5. One Atlanta newspaper continued to advertise jobs by race and in some industrial plants they were Negro jobs and white jobs with little chance of advancement by Negroes. Shortly after 8pm on Saturday June 17 a young Negro, E.W., carrying a can of beer attempted to enter the Flamingo Grill in the Dixie Hill Shopping Center when a Negro security guard told the youth he could not enter, a scuffle ensued. Police officers were called to the guards aid. E.W. received help from his 19 year old sister who flailed away at officers with her purse. Another 19 year old Negro youth entered the fray. All three were arrested. Although some 200 to 300 persons had been drawn to the scene of the incident when police asked them to disperse they complied. Because the area is isolated from the city in terms of transportation and there are few recreational facilities the shopping center is a natural gathering place. The next night Sunday an even bigger crowd was on hand. As they mingled residents discussed their grievances they were bitter about their inability to get the city government to correct conditions and make improvements. Garbage sometimes was not picked up for two weeks in succession. Overflowing garbage cans, littered streets and cluttered empty lots were breeding grounds for rats. Inadequate storm drains led to flooded streets. Although residents had obtained title to several empty lots for use as playgrounds the city failed to provide the equipment and men necessary to convert them. The area lacked a swimming pool. A nearby park was inaccessible because of the lack of a road. Petitions submitted to the mayor's office for the correcting of these and other conditions were acknowledged but not acted upon. Since only one of the 16 aldermen was a negro and a number of black words were represented by white aldermen many negroes felt they were not being properly represented in the city government. This small number of elected negro officials appeared to be due to a system in which aldermen are elected at large but represent specific boards and must reside in the wards from which they are elected. Because of the quilted pattern of black white housing white candidates were able to meet the residency requirements for running from predominantly negro wards. Since however candidates are dependent upon the city wide vote for election and the city has a white majority few negroes had been able to attain office. A decision was made by the Dixie Hills residents to organize committees and hold a protest meeting the next night. The headquarters of the student nonviolent coordinating committee SNCC is located in Atlanta. Its former president Stokely Carmichael wearing a green Malcolm X sweatshirt appeared together with several companions approaching a police captain Carmichael asked why there were so many police cars in the area informed that they were there to make sure there was no disturbance Carmichael clapping his hands declared in a sing song voice that there might have to be a riot if the police cars were not removed. When Carmichael refused to move on as requested he was arrested. Soon released on bail the next morning Carmichael declared that the black people were preparing to resist armed aggression by the police by whatever means necessary. Shortly thereafter in the Dixie Hills shopping center which had been closed down for the day a negro youth using a broom began to pound on the outside bell of a burglar alarm that had been set off apparently by a short circuit police officers responded to the alarm and ordered him to stop hitting the bell a scuffle ensued several bystanders intervened one of the officers drew his service revolver and fired superficially wounding the young man Tension rose approximately 250 persons were present at that evening's meeting when a number of negro leaders urged the commission of a petition of grievances through legal channels the response was lukewarm when Carmichael took to the podium urging negroes to take to the streets and force the police department to work until they fall in their tracks the response was tumultuous the press quoted him as saying it's not a question of law and order we are not concerned with peace we are concerned with the liberation of black people we have to build a revolution as the people present at the meeting poured into the street they were joined by others the crowd soon numbered an estimated 1000 from alleys and rooftops rocks and bottles were thrown at the 9 police officers on the scene windows of police cars were broken firecrackers exploded in the darkness police believe they may have been fired on reinforced by approximately 60 to 70 officers the police firing over the heads of the crowd quickly regained control the 10 persons arrested 6 were 21 years of age or younger only one was in his 30s the next day city equipment appeared in the area to begin work on the long delayed playgrounds and other projects demanded by the citizens it was announced that a negro youth patrol would be established along the lines of the Tampa white hats SNCC responded that volunteers for the patrol would be selling their black brothers out and would be viewed as black traitors we dealt with in the manner we see fit nevertheless during the course of the summer the 200 youths participating in the corps played an important role in preventing a serious outbreak the police believe that establishment of the youth corps became a major factor in improving police community relations another meeting of area residents was called for Tuesday evening at its conclusion 200 protesters were met by 300 police officers as two police officers chased several boys down the street a cherry bomb or incendiary device exploded at the officers feet in response several shots were fired from a group of police consisting mostly of negro officers the discharge from a shotgun struck in the midst of several persons sitting on the front porch of a house a 46 year old man was killed a 9 year old boy was critically injured because of the efforts of neighborhood anti-poverty workers who circulated through the area and the later appearance of Mayor Allen no further violence ensued when H. Rapp Brown who had returned to the city that afternoon went to other negro areas in an attempt to initiate a demonstration against the shooting of the negroes on the porch he met with no response within the next few days a petition was drawn up by state senator Leroy Johnson and other moderate negro leaders demanding that Stokely Carmichael get out of the community and allow the people to handle their own affairs it was signed by more than 1,000 persons in the Dixie Hills area end of section 9 recording by Colleen McMahon section 10 of the Kerner commission report this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Eric Evans Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania report of the national advisory commission on civil disorders Kerner commission report chapter 1 profiles of disorder Newark the last outburst in Atlanta occurred on Tuesday night, June 20 that same night in Newark, New Jersey a tumultuous meeting of the planning board took place until 4 a.m. speaker after speaker David Groghetto arose to denounce the city's intent to turn over 150 acres in the heart of the Central Ward as a site for the state's new medical and dental college the growing opposition to the city administration by vocal black residents had paralyzed both the planning board and the board of education tension had been rising so steadily throughout the northern New Jersey area that in the first week of June Colonel David Kelly had met with municipal police chiefs to draw up plans for state police support of city police wherever a riot developed nowhere was the tension greater than in Newark founded in 1666 the city, part of the greater New York city port complex, arises from the salt marshes of the Passaic River although in 1967 Newark's population of 400,000 still ranked at 30th among American municipalities for the past 20 years the white middle class had been deserting the city for the suburbs in the late 1950s the desertions had become a route between 1960 and 1967 the city lost a net total of more than 70,000 white residents replacing them in vast areas of dilapidated housing where living conditions according to a prominent member of the county bar association were so bad that people would be kinder to their pets were Negro migrants, Cubans and Puerto Ricans in six years the city switched from 65% white to 52% Negro and 10% Puerto Rican and Cuban the white population nevertheless retained political control of the city on both the city council and the board of education seven of nine members were white in other keyboards the disparity was equal or greater in the central ward where the medical college controversy raged the Negro constituents and their white councilmen found themselves on opposite sides of almost every crucial issue the municipal administration lacked the ability to respond quickly enough to navigate the swiftly changing currents even had it had great astuteness it would have lacked the financial resources to affect significantly the course of events in 1962 seven term congressman Hugh Adonisio had forged an Italian Negro coalition to overthrow long time Irish control of the city hall a liberal in congress, Adonisio when he became mayor had opened his door to all people Negroes who had been excluded from the previous administration were brought into the government the police department was integrated nevertheless progress was slow as the Negro population increased more and more of the politically oriented found the progress inadequate the Negro Italian coalition began to develop strains over the issue of the police the police were largely Italian the persons they arrested were largely Negro community leaders agreed that as in many police forces there was a small minority of officers who abused their responsibility this gave credibility to the cries of brutality voiced periodically by ghetto Negroes in 1965 Mayor Adonisio acknowledging that there was a small group of misguided individuals in the department declared that it is vital to establish once and for all in the minds of the public the charges of alleged police brutality will be thoroughly investigated and the appropriate legal or punitive action be taken if the charges are found to be substantiated pulled one way by the Negro citizens who wanted a police review board and the other by the police the mayor decided to transfer the control and investigation of complaints of police brutality out of the hands of both the police and the public and into the hands of an agency that all can support the Federal Bureau of Investigation and to send a copy of any charge of police brutality directly to the prosecutor's office however the FBI could act only if there had been a violation of a person's federal civil rights no complaint was ever heard of again nor was there much redress for other complaints the city had no money with which to redress them the city had already reached its legal bonding limit yet expenditures continued to outstrip income health and welfare costs per capita were 20 times as great as for some of the surrounding communities cramped by its small land area of 23.6 square miles one third of which was taken up by Newark Airport in unusable marshland and surrounded by independent jurisdictions the city had nowhere to expand taxable property was contracting as land cleared for urban renewal lay fallow year after year property taxes had been increased perhaps to the point of diminishing return by the fall of 1967 they were to reach $661.70 on a $10,000 house double that of suburban communities as a result people were refusing either to own or to renovate property in the city 74% of white and 87% of Negro families lived in rental housing whoever was able to move to the suburbs moved many of these persons as downtown areas were cleared and new office buildings were constructed continued to work in the city among them were a large population of the people from whom a city normally draws its civic leaders but who after moving out were disinvolving themselves in the communities problems during the daytime Newark more than double its population and was therefore forced to provide services for a large number of people who contributed nothing to property taxes the city's per capita outlay for police fire protection and other municipal services continued to increase by 1967 it was twice that of the surrounding area consequently there was less money than education Newark's per capita outlay on schools was considerably less than that of surrounding communities yet within the city's school system were 78,000 children 14,000 more than 10 years earlier 20,000 pupils were on double sessions the dropout rate was estimated to be as high as 33% of 13,600 Negroes between the ages of 16 and 19 more than 6,000 in 1960 over half of the adult Negro population had less than an 8th grade education the typical ghetto cycle of high unemployment family breakup and crime was present in all its elements approximately 12% of Negroes were without jobs an estimated 40% of Negro children lived in broken homes although Newark maintained proportionately the largest police force of any major city crime rate was among the highest in the nation in narcotics violations it ranked fifth nationally almost 80% of the crimes were committed within two miles of the core of the city where the central ward is located a majority of the criminals were Negro most of the victims likewise were Negro the mafia was reputed to control much of the organized crime under such conditions a major segment of the Negro population became increasingly militant largely excluded from positions of traditional political power Negroes tutored by a handful of militant social activists who had moved into the city in the early 1960s made use of the anti-poverty program in which poor people were guaranteed representation as a political springboard this led to friction between the United Community Corporation the agency that administered the anti-poverty program and the city administration when it became known that the secretary of the board of education intended to retire the militants proposed for the position the city's budget director a Negro with a master's degree in accounting the mayor however had already nominated a white man since the white man had only a high school education and at least 70% of the children in the school system were Negro the issue of who was to obtain the secretary's ship an important and powerful position quickly became a focal issue joined with the issue of the 150 acre medical school site the area of which had been expanded to triple the original request an expansion regarded by the militants as an effort to dilute black political power by moving out Negro residents the board of education battle resulted in a confrontation between the mayor and the militants both sides refused to alter their positions into this impasse stepped a Washington Negro named Albert Roy Osborn at 42 year old former Wig salesman who called himself Colonel Hassan Jeru Ahmed and more a black beret he presided over a mythical black man's volunteer army of liberation articulate and magnetic the self commissioned colonel proved to be a one man show he brought Negro residents flocking to board of education and planning board meetings the colonel spoke in violent terms and backed his words with violent action at one meeting he tore the tape the official stenographic recorder it became more and more evident to the militants that though they might not be able to prevail they could prevent the normal transaction of business filibustering began a Negro former state assemblyman held the floor for more than four hours one meeting of the board of education began at 5 p.m. and did not adjourn until 3 23 a.m. throughout the months of May and June speaker after speaker warned that if the mayor persisted in naming a white man a secretary to the board of education and in moving ahead with plans for the medical school site violence would ensue the city administration played down the threats on June 27 when a new secretary to the board of education was to be named the state police set up a command post in the Newark Armory the militants led by the local core congress of racial equality chapter disrupted and took over the board of education meeting the outcome was a stalemate the incumbent secretary decided to stay on another year no one was satisfied at the beginning of July there were 24,000 unemployed Negroes within the city limits their ranks were swelled by an estimated 20,000 teenagers many of whom was school out in the summer recreation program curtailed due to a lack of funds had no place to go on July 8 Newark and East Orange police attempted a group of black Muslims in the melee that followed several police officers and Muslims suffered injuries necessitating medical treatment the resulting charges and counter charges heightened the tension between police and Negroes early on the evening of July 12 a cab driver named John Smith began according to police reports tailgating a Newark police car Smith was an unlikely candidate to set a riot in motion 40 years old a Georgian by birth he attended college for a year before entering the army in 1950 in 1953 he had been honorably discharged with the rank of corporal a chess playing trumpet player he had worked as a musician and a factory hand before in 1963 becoming a cab driver as a cab driver he appeared to be a hazard within a relatively short period of time he had 8 or 9 accidents his license was revoked when with a woman passenger in his cab the police used in violation of that revocation from the high rise towers of the Reverend William P. Hayes housing project the residents can look down on the orange-red brick facade of the 4th precinct police station and observe every movement shortly after 9.30pm people saw Smith who either refused or was unable to walk being dragged out of a police car and into the front door of the station within a few minutes at least two civil officers received calls from a hysterical woman declaring a cab driver was being beaten by the police when one of the persons at the station notified the cab company of Smith's arrest cab drivers all over the city began learning of it over their cab radios a crowd formed on the grounds of the housing project crossed the narrow street from the station as more and more people arrived the description of the beating purportedly administered to Smith became more and more exaggerated points of police malpractice that over the years had been submitted for investigation but had never been heard of again several Negro community leaders telephoned by a civil rights worker and informed of the deteriorating situation rushed to the scene by 10.15pm the atmosphere had become so potentially explosive that Kenneth Milke or the state police inspector on the night watch was called he arrived at approximately 10.30pm met by a delegation of civil rights leaders and militants who requested the right to see and interview Smith and inspector Melky or a seated to their request when the delegation was taken to Smith Melky or agreed with their observations that as a result of injuries Smith had suffered he needed to be examined by a doctor arrangements were made to have a police car transport him to the hospital both within and outside the police station the atmosphere was electric with hostility carloads police officers arriving for the 10.45pm change of shifts were subjected to a gauntlet of catcalls taunts and curses joined by Oliver Lofton administrative director of the Newark legal services project the Negro community leaders inside the station requested an interview with inspector Melky or as they were talking to the inspector about initiating an investigation to determine how Smith had been injured the crowd outside became more and more unruly to the Negro spokesman went outside to attempt to pacify the people there was little reaction to the spokesman's appeal that the people go home the second of the two had just finished speaking from atop a car when several Molotov cocktails smashed against the wall of the police station with the call of fire most of those inside the station police officers and civilians alike rushed out of the front door the Molotov cocktails had splattered to the ground the fire was quickly extinguished and inspector Melky or had a squad of men form a line across the front of the station the police officers and the Negroes on the other side of the street exchanged volleys of profanity three of the community leaders Timothy still of the United Community Corporation Robert Curvin of core and Lofton requested they be given another opportunity to disperse the crowd inspector Melky or agreed to let them try provided a bullhorn it was apparent that the several hundred persons who had gathered in the street and on the grounds of the housing project were not going to disperse therefore it was decided to attempt to channel the energies of the people into a nonviolent protest while Lofton promised the crowd that a full investigation would be made of the Smith incident the other Negro leaders urged those on the scene to form a line of march toward the city hall some persons joined the line of march others milled about in the narrow street from the dark grounds of the housing project came a barrage of rocks some of them fell among the crowd others hit persons in the line of march many smashed the windows of the police station the rock throwing it was believed was the work of youngsters approximately 2,500 children lived in the housing project almost at the same time an old car was set a fire in the parking lot the line of march began to disintegrate the police their heads protected by world war one type helmets sallied forth to disperse the crowd a fire engine arriving on the scene was pelted with rocks as police drove people away from the station they scattered in all directions a few minutes later a nearby liquor store was broken into some persons seeing a caravan of cabs appear at city hall to protest Smith's arrest interpreted this as evidence that the disturbance had been organized and generated rumors to that effect however only a few stores were looted within a short period of time the disorder ran its course the next afternoon Thursday by 13 the mayor described it as an isolated incident at a meeting with Negro leaders to discuss measures to defuse the situation he agreed to appoint the first Negro captain and announced that he would set up a panel of citizens to investigate the Smith arrest to one civil rights leader this sounded like the playback of a record and he walked out other observers reported that the mayor seemed unaware of the seriousness of the tensions the police were not unknown to the mayor Dominic Spina the director of police had extended shifts from 8 hours to 12 and was in the process of mobilizing half the strength of the department for that evening the night before Spina had arrived at the 4th precinct police station at approximately midnight and had witnessed the latter half of the disturbance earlier in the evening he had held the regular weekly open house in his office this was intended to give any person who wanted to talk to him an opportunity to do so not a single person had shown up as director of police Spina had initiated many new programs police precinct councils composed of the police precinct captain and business and civic leaders who would meet once a month to discuss mutual problems killing your crime fighters a Boy Scout Explorer program for each precinct mandatory human relations training for every officer a citizens observer program which permitted citizens to ride in police cars and observe activities in the stations a police cadet program and others many of the programs initially had been received enthusiastically but as was the case with the open house interest had fallen off in general the programs failed to reach the hard court unemployed the disaffected the school dropouts of whom Spina estimated there are 10,000 in Essex County to constitute a major portion of the police problem reports and rumors including one that Smith had died circulated through the Negro community tensions continued to rise nowhere was the tension crater than at the spirit house the gathering place for black nationalists black power advocates and militants of every hue black Muslims orthodox Muslims and members of the united afro-american association a new and growing organization that follows in general the teachings of the late Malcolm X came regularly to mingle and exchange views anti-white playwright LaRoy Jones held workshops the two police Negro clashes coming one on top of the other coupled with the unresolved political issues had created a state of crisis on Thursday inflammatory leaflets were circulated in the neighborhoods of the fourth precinct a police brutality protest rally was announced for early evening in front of the fourth precinct station several television stations and newspapers sent news teams to interview people cameras were set up a crowd gathered a picket line was formed to march in front of the police station between 7 and 7 30 p.m. James Thret executive director of the newer Human Rights Commission arrived to announce to the people the decision of the mayor to form a citizens group to investigate the Smith incident and to elevated Negro to the rank of captain the response from the loosely milling mass of people was derisive one youngster shouted black power rocks were thrown at Thret a Negro the barrage of missiles that followed placed the police station under siege after the barrage had continued for some minutes police came out to disperse the crowd according to witnesses there was little restraint of language or action by either side a number of police officers and Negroes were injured as on the night before once the people had been dispersed reports of looting began to come in soon the glow of the first fire was seen without enough men to establish control the police set up a perimeter around a two mile stretch of Springfield Avenue one of the principal business districts were bands of youths roamed up and down smashing windows grocery and liquor stores clothing and furniture stores drug stores and cleaners appliance stores and pawn shops were the principal targets periodically police officers would appear and fire their weapons over the heads of looters and rioters laden with stolen goods people began returning to the housing projects near midnight activity appeared to taper off the mayor told reporters the city had turned the corner as news of the disturbances had spread however people had flocked into the streets as they saw stores being broken into with impunity many bowed to temptation and joined the looting without the necessary personnel to make mass arrests police were shooting into the air to clear stores a Negro boy was wounded by a 22 caliber bullet said to have been fired by a white man riding in a car guns were reported stolen from a Sears Robux store looting, fires and gunshots were reported from a widening area between 2 and 2 30 a.m. on Friday July 14 the mayor decided to request Governor Richard J. Hughes to dispatch the state police and national guard troops the first elements of the state police arrived with a sizable contingent before dawn during the morning the governor and the mayor together with the police and national guard officers made a reconnaissance of the area the police escort guarding the officials arrested looters as they went by early afternoon the national guard had set up 137 roadblocks and state police and riot teams were beginning to achieve control a brand of anti-riot operations was taken over by the governor who decreed a hard line in putting down the riot as a result of technical difficulties such as the fact that the city and state police did not operate on the same radio wavelengths the three way command structure city police, state police and national guard worked poorly at 3 30 p.m. that afternoon the family of Mrs. D. J. was standing near the upstairs window of their apartment watching looters run in and out of the furniture store on Springfield Avenue three carloads of police rounded the corner as the police yelled at the looters they began running the police officers opened fire a bullet smashed the kitchen window in Mrs. D. J.'s apartment a moment later she heard a cry from the bedroom her three year old daughter Debbie came running into the room blood was streaming down the left side of her face the bullet hit into her eye the child spent the next two months in the hospital she lost the side of her left eye and the hearing in her left ear simultaneously on the street below Horace W. Morris an associate director of the Washington Urban League who had been visiting relatives in Newark was about to enter a car for the drive to Newark airport with him were his two brothers and his 73 year old stepfather Isaac Harrison about 60 persons had been on the street watching the looting as the police arrived three of the looters cut directly in front of the group of spectators the police fired at the looters bullets plowed into the spectators everyone began running as Harrison followed by the family headed toward the apartment building in which he lived a bullet kicked his legs out from under him Horace Morris lifted him to his feet again he fell Mr. Morris' brother Virgil attempted to pick the old man up as he was doing so he was hitting the left leg and right forearm and his other brother managed to drag the two wounded men into the vestibule of the building jammed with 60 to 70 frightened angry negroes bullets continued to spatter against the walls of the buildings finally as the firing died down Morris who stepfather died that evening yelled to a sergeant that innocent people were being shot tell the black bastards to stop shooting at us sergeant according to Morris replied they don't have guns no one is shooting at you Morris said you shut up there's a sniper on the roof the sergeant yelled short time later at approximately 5 p.m. in the same vicinity a police detective was killed by a small caliber bullet the origin of the shot could not be determined later during the riot a fireman was killed by a 30 caliber bullet snipers were blamed for the deaths of both at 5 30 p.m. on Beacon street WF told J.S. whose 1959 Pontiac he had taken to the station for inspection that his front brake needed fixing J.S. who had just returned from work went to the car which was parked in the street jacked up the front end took the wheel off and got into the car the street was quiet more than a dozen persons were sitting on porches walking about or shopping none heard any shots suddenly several state troopers appeared at the corner of Springfield and Beacon J.S. was startled by a shot clanging into the side of the garbage can next to his car as he looked up he saw a state trooper with his rifle pointed at him the next shot struck him in the right side at almost the same instant KG standing on a porch was struck in the right eye by a bullet both he and J.S. were critically injured at 8 p.m. Mrs. L.M. bundled her husband her husband's brother and her four sons into the family car at dinner on the return trip her husband who was driving panicked as he approached a National Guard road block he slowed the car then quickly swerved around a shot rang out when the family reached home everyone began piling out of the car 10-year-old Eddie failed to move shot through the head he was dead although by nightfall most of the looting and burning had ended reports of sniper fire increased the fire was, according to New Jersey National Guard reports, deliberately or otherwise inaccurate Major General James F. Cantwell, chief of staff of the New Jersey National Guard testified before an armed services subcommittee of the House of Representatives that there was too much firing initially against snipers because of confusion when we were finally called on for help and are thinking of it as a military action as a matter of fact director of police Spina told the commission on the field avenue area it was so bad that in my opinion guardsmen were firing upon police and police were firing back at them I really don't believe there was as much sniping as we thought we have since compiled statistics indicating that there were 79 specified instances of sniping several problems contributed to the misconceptions regarding snipers the fact that one shot might be reported half a dozen times by half a dozen different persons as it carromed and reverberated a mile or more through the city the fact that the national guard troops lacked riot training they were said a police official young and very scared and had had little contact with Negroes within the guard itself contact with Negroes had certainly been limited although in 1949 out of a force of 12,529 men there had been 1,183 Negroes following the integration of the guard in the 1950s the number had declined until by July of 1967 there were 303 Negroes in a force of 17,529 men on Saturday July 15 Spina received a report of snipers in a housing project when he arrived he saw approximately 100 national guardsmen and police officers crouching behind vehicles hiding in corners and lying on the ground around the edge of the courtyard since everything appeared quiet and it was broad daylight Spina walked directly down the middle of the street nothing happened as he came to the last building of the complex he heard a shot all around him the troopers jumped believing themselves to be under sniper fire a moment later a young guardsman ran from behind a building the director of police went over and asked him if he had fired the shot the soldier said yes he had fired a window that his orders were to keep everyone away from windows Spina said he told the soldier do you know what you just did you've now created a state of hysteria every guardsman up and down the street and every state police officer and every city policeman that is present thinks that somebody just fired a shot and then it was probably a sniper a short time later more gunshots were heard investigating Spina came upon a Puerto Rican sitting on a wall in reply to a question as to whether he knew where the firing is coming from the man said that's no firing that's fireworks if you look up to the fourth floor you'll see the people who were throwing down these cherry bombs by this time four truckloads of national guardsmen had arrived and troopers and policemen were again crouched everywhere looking for a sniper the director of police remained at the scene for three hours and the only shot fired was the one by the guardsman nevertheless at 6 o'clock that evening two columns of national guardsmen and state troopers were directing mass fire at the Hayes housing project in response to what they believed were snipers on the 10th floor the mother of several children fell a bullet through her neck across the street a number of persons standing in an apartment window were watching the firing directed at the housing project suddenly several troopers world and began firing in the general direction of the spectators mrs. haddie gainer a grandmother sank to the floor a block away rebecca brown's two year old daughter was standing at the window mrs. brown rushed to drag her to safety as mrs. brown was momentarily framed in the window a bullet spun into her back all three women died a number of eyewitnesses at varying times and places reported seeing bottles thrown from upper story windows as these would land at the feet of an officer he would turn a fire there upon other officers and guardsmen up and down the street would join in in order to protect his property bw w the owner of a chinese laundry had placed a sign saying soul brother in his window between one and one 30 a.m. on sunday july 16 he his mother wife and brother were watching television in the back room the neighborhood had been quiet suddenly bw w heard the sound of jeeps then shots going to an upstairs window he was able to look out into the street there he observed several jeeps from which soldiers and state troopers were firing into stores that had soul brother signs in the windows during the course of three nights according to dozens of eyewitness reports law enforcement officers shot into and smashed windows of businesses that contained signs indicating they were negro owned at 11 p.m. on sunday july 16 mrs. lucille pew looked out of the window to see if the streets were clear she then asked her 11 year old son michael to take the garbage out as he reached the street and was illuminated by a streetlight a shot rang out he died by monday afternoon july 17 state police and national guard forces were withdrawn that evening a catholic priest saw two negro men walking down the street they were carrying a case of soda and two bags of groceries police officers pulled up beside them two white officers got out of the car accusing the negro men of looting the officers made them put the groceries on the sidewalk then kicked the bags open scattering their contents all over the street telling the men get out of here the officers drove off the catholic priest went across the street to help gather up the groceries one of the men turned to him i've just been back from vietnam two days he said and this is what i get i feel like going home getting a rifle and shooting the cops of the 250 fire alarms many had been false and 13 were considered by the city to have been serious of the 10,251,000 in damage total 4 fifths was due to stock loss damage to buildings and fixtures was less than 2 million dollars 23 persons were killed a white detective a white fireman and 21 negroes one was 73 year old 6 were women 2 were children end of section 10 section 11 of the kerner commission report this is LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Eric Evans Pittsburgh PA reported the national advisory commission on civil disorders Kerner commission report chapter 1 profiles of disorder northern New Jersey reports of looting, sniping fire and death in Newark well of a web of tension over other negro enclaves in northern New Jersey wherever negro ghettos existed Elizabeth, Englewood Jersey City, Plainfield New Brunswick people had friends and relatives living in Newark everywhere the telephone provided a distinct link to the scenes of violence the telephone messages frequently were at variance with reports transmitted by the mass media as reports of the excessive use of firearms in Newark grew so did fear and anger in the negro ghettos conversely rumors amplified by radio television and the newspapers especially with regard to gorilla bands roaming the streets created a sense of danger of terror within the white communities to Mayor Patricia Q. Sheehan of New Brunswick it seemed almost as if there was a fever in the air she went on to say rumors were coming in from all sides on July 17th negroes were calling to warn of possible disturbances whites were calling shop owners were calling most of the people were concerned about a possible bloodbath her opinion was we are talking ourselves into it everywhere there was the same inequality with regard to education job opportunities income and housing everywhere partly because the negro population was younger than the white negroes were underrepresented on the local government in six New Jersey communities with sizable negro populations of a total of 50 councilmen six were negro in a half dozen school systems in which negro children comprised as much as half of the school population a total of 42 members on boards of education seven were negro in each of the ghettos the negro felt himself surrounded by an intransigent wall of whites in four suburban cities Bloomfield, Harrison, Irvington and Maplewood forming an arc about Newark out of a total population of more than 150,000 only 1,000 were negroes in the six cities surrounding Plainfield out of a population of more than 75,000 only 1,500 were negro three northern New Jersey communities Jersey City, Patterson and Elizabeth had had disorders in previous years the first two in 1964 Elizabeth in both 1964 and 1965 in general these seemed to have developed from resentment against the police the most serious outbreak had occurred in Jersey City after police had arrested a woman and a rumor circulated that the woman had been beaten as early as May 1967 the authorities in Jersey City and Elizabeth had started receiving warnings of trouble in the summer ahead following the Newark outbreak rumors and reports as in New Brunswick became rampant the police relying on past experiences were in no mood to take chances in both Jersey City and Elizabeth patrols were augmented and the departments were placed in a state of alert the view from Jersey City is that of the New York skyline except for a few imposing buildings such as the high rise New Jersey Medical Center much of the city is a collection of factories and deteriorating houses cut up by ribbons of super highways and railroads as one of the principal freight terminals for New York City Jersey City's decline has paralleled that of the railroads as railroad lands deteriorated in value and urban renewal lands were taken off the tax rolls assessed valuation plummeted from 464 million in 1964 to 667 million in 1967 the tax rate according to Mayor Thomas J. Whalen has reached the point of diminishing returns urban renewal projects which were intended to clear slums to replace them with low cost housing in fact resulted in a reduction of 2000 housing units on one area designated for urban renewal six years before no work had been done and it remained as blighted in 1967 1961 ramshackle houses deteriorated no repairs were made yet people continued to inhabit them planners make plans and then simply tell people what they're going to do Negroes complained in their growing opposition to such projects wooden sewers serve residents of some sections of the city collapsing brick sewers and other sections back up the sewage the population clamors for better education but the school system has reached its bonding capacity by 1975 it is estimated that there will be a net deficit of 10 elementary schools and one high school recently the mayor proposed to the Ford Foundation that it take over the operation of the entire educational system the offer was declined many whites send their children to parochial schools possibly as a result white residents have been slower to move to the suburbs than in other cities the exodus however is accelerating in the next 10 years the Negro population has almost doubled and now comprises an estimated 20% of the total the little Negro political leadership that exists is fragmented and indecisive the county in which Jersey City is located is run by an old line political machine that has given Negroes little opportunity for participation although the amount of schooling whites and Negroes have had is almost equal in 1960 the median family income of whites was $1500 more than that of Negroes the police department like Newark's one of the largest in the nation for a city of its size has a reputation for toughness a successful white executive recalled that in his childhood we were accustomed to the special service division of the police department if we were caught hanging around we were picked up by the police taken to a nearby precinct and beaten with a rubber hose a city official questioned about Negro representation on the 825 man police force replied that it was 34 times greater than 20 years ago 20 years ago it had consisted of one man during the four days of the Newark riot when Jersey City was flooded with tales of all description Mayor Whalen announced that if there were any disturbances he would meet force with force the ghetto area was saturated with police officers on Monday and Tuesday July 17 and 18 when crowds gathered and a few rocks were thrown mass arrests were made only one store was broken into and pilferage was limited to items such as candy and chewing gum one man died he was a Negro passenger in a cab into which a Negro boy threw a Molotov cocktail in Elizabeth as in Jersey City police had beefed up their patrols on the very presence of so many officers contributed to their rising tensions residents of the 12 block by 3 block ghetto jammed between the New Jersey turnpike and the waterfront expressed the opinion that we are being punished but we haven't done anything the community another said later felt it was in a concentration camp use from the two high density housing projects concentrated in the area were walking around saying where next we might as well go between 10 and 10 30 p.m. Monday July 17 a window was broken in a drugstore across the street from a housing project a business man commented in the port its business is usual when one store window is broken each week what is normal becomes abnormal at a time like this when the window was broken three extra police cars were sent to the area shortly after 11 p.m. the field supervisor dispatched three more cars and observing the crowd gathering at the housing project requested an additional 30 patrolmen the department activated its emergency recall plan since there were almost no recreational facilities on any summer night scores of use may be found congregating on the streets near the housing projects as more and more police cars patrolled the streets rocks and bottles were thrown at them store windows were broken fires were set in trash cans and in the middle of the street an expectation of impending violence gripped the crowd arriving on the scene Human Rights Commission Executive Director Hugh Barber requested that in order to relieve tension the extra police be withdrawn from the immediate vicinity of the crowd the officer in command agreed to pull back the patrols workers from the anti-poverty agency and the Human Relations Commission began circulating through the area attempting to get kids off the street many of the residents had relatives and friends in Newark based on what had happened there they feared that if the disturbance were not curbed it would turn into a bloodbath the peacemakers were making little headway when a chicken fluttered out of the shattered window of a poultry market one youth tried to throw gasoline on it and set it on fire as the gasoline sloshed onto the pavement the chicken leaped the flames merely singed its feathers a gangling six foot youth attempted to stomp the chicken the bird which had appeared dead reacted violently as it fluttered and darted out of his way the youth screamed slipped and tumbled against a tree the stark comedy reduced the tension people laughed soon some began to drift home a short time later a Molotov cocktail was thrown against the front of a tavern fire engines met with no opposition as they extinguished the flames before they could do much damage the chief of police ordered the area cleared as the officers moved in the persons who remained on the street scattered within 15 minutes the neighborhood was deserted both municipal authorities and Negro leaders feared that if the disorder followed the pattern of other disturbances there would be an intensification of action by use the next day therefore the next evening police patrolled the 36 square blocks with more than 100 men some of them stationed on rooftops tension mounted as residents viewed the helmeted officers armed with shotguns and rifles early in the evening the mayor agreed to meet with a delegation of 13 community leaders when they entered his office the chief of police was already present the mayor read him in order that if he were faced with sniping or flagrant looting his men were to shoot to kill force will be met with superior force an officer's deviation from this order the mayor said would be considered dereliction of duty some of the members of the delegation believed that the mayor had staged the reading of this order for their benefit and were not pleased by his action they proposed a peacekeeper task force the mayor agreed to let them try 100 stickers with the word peacekeeper were printed one of those who agreed to be a peacekeeper was Hesham Jabbar who officiated at Malcolm X's funeral two pilgrimages to Mecca is a leader of a small sect of Orthodox Muslims a teacher of Arabic and the Quran at the spirit house in Newark he is a militant who impressed the mayor with his sense of responsibility although Jabbar believed that certain people were sucking the lifeblood out of the community count the number of taverns and bars in the Elizabeth port area and compare them with a number of recreation facilities he had witnessed the carnage in Newark and believed it could serve no purpose to have a riot two dozen of his followers in red fesses took to the streets to urge order he himself traveled about in the car with a bullhorn as the peacekeepers began to make their influence felt the police withdrew from the area there was no further trouble nevertheless many white citizens reacted unfavorably to the fact that police had permitted Negro community leaders to aid in the dispersal of the crowd on the first night the police were called yellow and accused of allowing the looting and damaging of stores in Englewood a bedroom community of 28,000 astride the palisades opposite New York police had been expecting a riot by some of the city's 7,000 Negro residents since two weeks before Newark as part of this expectation they had tested tear gas guns on the police firing range situated in the middle of the Negro residential area the wind had blown the tear gas into surrounding houses the occupants had been enraged a continuing flow of rumors and anonymous tips to police a riot in preparation had specified July 19 and July 28 however the week following the Newark outbreak the rumors began mentioning Friday July 21 as the date and it was on that day the chief of police became sufficiently concerned to alert the mayor order mobilization of the police department and request police assistance from Bergen County and nearby communities the 160 officers who responded brought the total force in Englewood that evening to 220 men at approximately 9pm a rock was thrown through a market in the lower class Negro area resulting in the setting off of a burglar alarm at police headquarters two police cars responded they were hit by rocks the tactical force of officers that had been assembled was rushed to the scene a small number of persons estimated in the official police report to be no more than 15 or 20 were standing in the street when police formed a skirmish line the loiterers, mostly youths retreated into a large nearby park as the police remained in the vicinity people attracted by the presence of the officers began drifting out of the park angry verbal exchanges took place between the residents and the police the Negroes demanded to see the mayor the mayor arrived the residents complained about the presence of so many police officers other grievances many of the minor began to be aired according to the mayor he became involved in a shouting match and started shortly thereafter the police too left they returned after receiving a report that two markets had been hit by Molotov cocktails arriving they discovered firemen fighting two small fires on the outside of the markets the police ordered the people on the street to disperse and return to their homes a rock knocked out a street light darkness blanketed the area from behind hedges and other places of concealment a variety of missiles were thrown at the police the officer in charge was cut severely when a bottle broke the windshield of a car a fire department lighting unit was brought to the scene to illuminate the area except for some desultory rock throwing the neighborhood was quiet for the rest of the night the only other disturbance occurred when a small band of youths made a foray into the city's principal business district two blocks away although a few windows were broken there was no looting police quickly sealed off the area the same pattern of disorders continued for the next three nights a relatively large number of police responding to the breaking of windows or the setting of a fire would come upon a small number of persons in the street fires repeatedly were set at or near the same two stores in tavern on one occasion two Negro youths threw Molotov cocktails at police officers and the officers responded with gunfire although sounds resembling gunshots were heard sporadically throughout the area no bullets or expended shells were found Lieutenant William Clark who as the Bergen County police department civil disorders expert was on the scene reported that teenagers as a harassing tactic had exploded cherry bombs and firecrackers over a widely scattered area another view is that there may have been shots but that they were fired into the air nevertheless the press reported that snipers set up a three-way crossfire at William & Jay streets in the heart of the fourth ward Negro ghetto and pinned down 100 policemen reporters and a photographer for more than an hour these reports were very definitely exaggerated and overplayed according to deputy chief William F. Harrington of the Englewood police department what police termed a disturbance appeared in press reports as a riot and was way out of proportion in terms of the severity of the situation I feel strongly that chief said that the news media actually inflamed the situation day by day end of section 11