Thomas R. Brooks

Breakdown in Newark

Carmine Casciano, a personable, young ark and a former mayoral aide, both to junior-high school teacher, acts as my guide Hugh J. Addonizio and later to Kenneth A. to Newark's "predominantly white" North Gibson. "You've got to remember," said Ward. He is a district leader and president of Malafronte, "that many whites want peace, the North Ward Young Democrats—im- and Imperiale means trouble." Imperiale lost mersed in the politics of his time and place. his 1970 bid for the mayoralty and, although We first pass through tree-lined streets, a he ran well ahead in his own ward, lost in neighborhood of substantial homes and June 1971 a sortie aimed at the North lawns, and this year's cars parked in the Ward's Democratic party leadership. (Im- driveways. "The strength of the Republican periale was a Republican, which may explain party is here in Forest Hills," Casciano tells the failure of his 1971 invasion. For other me. "The other parts of the Ward are Demo- reasons see Richard Krickus's article, p. cratic." But not altogether; as Casciano noses 107.) In the 1971 fall elections, Imperiale his car into a narrow, brick-paved street, he made a comeback, winning an assembly seat says, "Now we're in Imperiale City, basically in the state legislature, as an Independent. a Republican area." This is a neighbor- The ambulance he drives, as a service to his hood of short blocks, tiny plots, and small neighborhood and for part of his living, was frame houses—"$6,000–$7,000-a-year peo- parked outside the storefront that houses his ple." "Imperiale City" is named for State Karate Club and the headquarters of the Assemblyman Anthony Imperiale, elected in North Ward Citizens' Association. Imperi- November 1971 on an Independent ticket. ale's home, I am told by Casciano, is in the Imperiale first gained national attention by North Ward's black neighborhood. winning a seat on the Newark City Council There are some 100,000 residents in the in a white backlash that followed the 1967 North Ward, a broad rise of land west of the riots. He once described his followers as Passaic River and roughly four miles from "the-good guys," and likened Newark to "a downtown Newark. The population is an town of the old West. The good guys are estimated 70-75 percent white, with a siz- prepared to shoot to kill to keep the peace, able black and Spanish-speaking minority. if Negroes come to burn our homes." During Puerto Ricans are the largest single group the tense aftermath of the riot, Imperiale moving into the Ward but, I am told, "a lot sat at one end of a "hot line" while Imamu of the home-buying is done by Cubans." Baraka (Leroi Jones) sat at the other—and "We're basically Italian with a few Irish neither had reconciliation in mind. Imperi- and mixed," Casciano explains as we drive ale's is a politics of resentment; his presence through a neighborhood of the comfortably on the City Council served to inflame the well-off—of "judges, lawyers, doctors, pro- passions of Newark, not to calm them. I dis- fessionals"—and on to another with mod- cussed Imperiale with Don Malafronte, one est, asphalt-sided, single-family houses—of of the most knowledgeable men about New- "mostly factory workers." There is a "proj-

128 ect," with its load of welfare cases; the it's a different story in the North Ward, too, privately owned Colonnades where "the and there white Newark is hardly Business minimum rent is in the $200-a-month Newark. Another photograph showed fire- bracket"; and Academy Spires, "all black, gutted tenements along Springfield Avenue, and most of them vote Democratic." We pass assumed to be "remnants of the 1967 riots." a modest, modem structure, the Church of The caption identified this as Black Newark the Immaculate Conception, called "the little with "the highest crime rate in the nation. Italian Church"; further on, we see Our Lady ."etc.) of Good Council, larger and older, and "the Black Newark, in truth, is a world of great Irish Church." The Catholic high school lets variety. To give but one illustration: the out as we drive by, and a quick look at young parents, most non-Catholic and nearly all faces confirms Casciano's observation, "it's black, of the children at St. Charles Bor- mostly white." Barringer, a prestigious public romeo parochial school, in the predom- high school located in the North Ward, is inantly black South Ward, last summer "mixed," and a local junior high seems so, raised $4,000 at a card party, $20-a-week too. There are not as many For Sale signs at school parking lot barbecues, and $111,- as I was led to expect by newspaper and 000 from a drive to keep the school from downtown accounts. "People want to sell," closing for financial reasons.' Casciano tells me, "but they can't get a de- cent price." We do see some signs and he Newark, with 375,000 souls, is the first points to one, "If you see that sign [put up American city, after Washington, D.C., to by the firm Jordan-Barish], you know they attain a black majority. The Census Bureau want to sell to blacks." There are American gave the city's black population in 1970 as flags out in front of the houses, and flag de- 54.2 percent; Harry L. Wheeler, Newark's cals decorate automobile windows. There director of manpower, estimates that 62 per- also are some Italian flags and decals. "That's cent of Newark is black and 11 percent of new." Spanish background, leaving 27-35 percent When I ask about reactions to Gibson's of the city white. Though a recent study notes election, Casciano says, "People were fright- that immigrants from Europe, "mainly Por- ened, afraid that all whites would suffer. tuguese and some Italian" still come to the During the school strike, it seemed as if their city, there's scarcely a trace left of the 1938 fears were coming true. Things are really Newark, with its 23,400 Irish, 36,900 Ger- polarized now. The way it's around here," mans, 35,600 Poles, 65,000 Jews, and 85,- he added, "Republican and Democrat don't mean much any more; now it's Italian and 1 These pictures are much more apposite than the black." There's a "White Newark" and a Times captions allow. Two years ago I was walk- ing through the blocks off Springfield Avenue, "Black Newark"—the pressure of polariza- heart of the 1967 riot scene. I asked my com- tion showed in the captions of two photo- panion, George Fontaine—director of the Newark graphs illustrating Fred J. Cook's article on office of the Workers Defense League–A. Philip Randolph Joint Apprenticeship Program—if a Newark and Mayor Gibson in the July 25, near-block-long, gutted row of brick houses had 1971 New York Times Magazine. One photo been burned out in the riot. Fontaine smiled and showed Broad Street with the new, gleaming told me, "No, it wasn't the riot, just a fire." Some dwellings were burned in 1967, mostly incidental Prudential Insurance Company headquarters to the destruction of business establishments. in the background. The caption quoted Those vacated buildings one sees in profusion throughout the heart of the Central Ward were Cook: "Bamberger's still there; Ohrbach's emptied by fire. As Fontaine put it, "Fire insur- still there. Business Newark does $3.5 billion ance gets canceled and that's it, baby." Pruden- worth of retail trade annually.... But to the tial as the major insurance company in Newark, therefore, bears some responsibility for boarded- west and south it is a different story." Well, up housing.

BREAKDOWN IN NEWARK 129 300 Italians. With the exception of the Ital- white households in Newark in 1966 was ians, the remaining whites in the city are by $6,752. Roughly 75 percent of white fami- and large elderly. Their children and grand- lies in the city earned under $10,000 a year. children presumably live in the middle- and Thirteen percent of its white families are be- working-class suburbs outside Newark. 2 No low the poverty line ($3,000 a year). A ma- one, as far as I know, has recorded the eth- jority of white males (61.7 percent) work in nic migration out of Newark nor located ex- the city, while nearly 40 percent travel out- actly those who stayed, but a report of the side to jobs. Of the female residents, 78.2 Newark office of the American Jewish Com- percent work in Newark and 21.8 percent mittee estimates that "approximately 6,000 outside the city. Jews are left" in the city. The majority live Nearly half of the whites (44.5 percent), in the South Ward (Weequahic Section) and according to the Rutgers' study, have al- the balance in the West Ward (Ivy Hill sec- ways resided in Newark, while 19.5 percent tion). come from other New Jersey points, and 16 The city's predominant remaining white percent from New York, Pennsylvania, or group is Italian American. In Beyond the New England, and 15.6 percent are immi- Melting Pot, their study of New York grants. The study estimated that there are City, Nathan Glazer and Patrick Moynihan 92 white males for every 100 white females found that Italian neighborhoods were more in the population. Slightly over one-quarter likely to have a range of generations living of Newark's whites are 55 years of age or in the same brownstone or city block than older; about 37 percent are in the age bracket old Irish, Jewish, or other ethnic neighbor- 25-54, roughly 13 percent 16-24 years old, hoods. Street Corner Society, W. F. Whyte's and 22 percent 15 or under. earlier study, remarked on the propensity of Half the white males over 25 have not some Italians to become Republicans in re- completed high school, but 25.2 percent of action to the Irish domination of city politics. employed white males over 16 have "some In the North Ward, as in other Italian college or more." Of the men, 46.1 percent neighborhoods in American cities, Italian are blue-collar workers-19.6 percent crafts- backyards are often devoted to a small patch men, foremen, etc.; 17.8 percent are opera- of tomatoes, peppers, perhaps a few zucchini, tives and the like, and 8.7 percent are non- and a grape arbor. There are some 60-odd farm laborers. Most working women-62.5 clubs, where the men eat, drink, and watch percent—are white-collar and 41 percent of sports on TV; but none I visited had expresso these clerical—with 5.8 percent in sales, 7.3 machines, which still dominate similar clubs percent working as managers, officials, and in the Little Italys of Boston and New York. proprietors; 8.4 percent are professional, As I described earlier, the North Ward is technical, and kindred workers. White male made up of a series of neighborhoods con- workers (43.4 percent) are more evenly dis- sisting largely of one- or two-family homes, tributed among the white-collar occupations, presumably owner-occupied. Yet, Newark is with 16.3 percent working as managers, etc., not a city of homeowners; 74 percent of it's white and 87 percent of it's black families live in rental housing. The median income of told me, "Once they get to the doctor/lawyer class, they usually move out." Newark, incidentally, is losing population: in 1950 it stood at 438,776; in 1960 at 405,220; in 1970 at 375,00. 2 Blacks, too, move out as their incomes rise. Non- 8 These and subsequent data are from Jack Cher- white families with annual incomes of $3,000 or nick, Bernard P. Indik, and George Sternlieb, less constitute 27 percent of nonwhite families in "Newark, New Jersey: Population and Labor Newark, but only 13 percent in suburban East Force, Spring 1967," a report, published by the Orange. The black head of Newark's Urban Coali- Rutgers Institute of Management and Labor Rela- tion lives in Maplewood. As a black Newarkian tions.

130 THOMAS R. BROOKS 11.6 percent as professionals and techni- H ow does one record the urban litany? cians, 9.6 percent as clerical workers, and Steve Adubato (see Krickus, p. 107), former 5.9 percent in sales. Of Newark's working teacher, now chairman of the North Ward white females and white males 9 and 11 per- Democratic party, and chairman of Rutgers cent, respectively, are in service occupations. (Newark) Project Dislocated Ethnic Groups, Many of Newark's white workers are brought together in April 1971 at St. Paul's found in durable-goods manufacturing (19.6 Centenary Methodist Church five young percent) and in the wholesale-retail trades women to discuss the aftermath of the New- (16 percent). More women than men are in ark teachers' strike for a TV special. After- the professions (18.1 percent female against wards, they kept on talking as the tech- 12.7 percent male), and more women than nicians packed up. It was a reporter's men are in finance, real estate, and insurance nightmare—snatches of conversation in this (14.8 percent female as against 6.2 percent corner and a good quote heard from the males). Under 10 percent of all white work- other side of the room. Steve Adubato told ers in Newark are in construction (5.6 per- the women, "We're the new niggers in our cent), transportation, communications, pub- society," and the TV interviewer's face lic utilities (8 percent), and government (7 clearly showed that he wished he'd caught percent). The unemployment rate in New- that for his show. ark, as of April 1971, was 14.2 percent, Listening to this group, you get a sense with 23,300 jobless out of a work force of of what was bothering these white parents. 163,800. Newark is not an affluent city, white (They were not all Italian as it happens.) or black.4 Its white residents are far from "Our kids are not getting to college." "We're wealthy, and they do not control the business hurting. If there's one language teacher, he establishment. goes to the other side of town." "My kid The current discovery of ethnic America can't walk around [the junior high school] is something of a fad, as was that of black with 750 in his pocket." "No white kids America, and it equally obscures the class fight back." "The things I've taught my chil- character of our society. What trade union dren are being torn apart down there [at leaders have been saying all along—"you Barringer High School]." "Poor education can't ignore blue- and white-collar workers" is pushing a lot of people out of the city." —now runs the risk of becoming an aca- "There are 42 children in my son's fourth- demic cliche—"you can't ignore the ethnics" grade class." "We've been all year without —often without sufficient recognition of class a remedial reading teacher." "Newark just differences. got the new math last year." Adubato says his boy left the public junior-high to attend a Catholic school because there were no 4 Black Newark is poorer. According to Manpower Director Harry L. Wheeler, the black male un- sports; but getting held up for loose change employment rate of those over 16 and under 26 is was a factor, too. "At Broadway," says Adu- 24-27 percent while among the Spanish—speaking bato, he was a water boy." This, he ex- it approaches 34 percent. Thirty percent of New- ark's population receives some form of welfare plained, is because "the black kids are two assistance. In describing white Newark I have tried years older to begin with." to keep black/white comparisons to a minimum. One crucial statistic, however, should be kept in An exchange: The wife of a fireman com- mind: for households headed by a white male, the plains, "When the engines get there [to a median income, in 1966 was $7,579 and for black fire in the Central Ward], people start shov- males it was $6,892. But black female-headed households had a median income of $3,242 as com- ing and pushing the firemen." "How many pared with $5,926 for white female-headed house- times has this happened?" asks one woman. holds. What this means shows up in the difference Another states: "I don't understand why between the black household median income of $3,580 and that of whites at $7,000 a year. colored people call firemen. If they want their

BREAKDOWN IN NEWARK 131 places burned down, let 'em burn." "Look, black youth, conservatively dressed and well- there's crazy people all over." mannered, comes up the street, and someone Another exchange: "Leroi Jones is teach- giggles, "Here comes the next president of ing them to stick with their own people." the club." More remarks in this vein, sotto "Imperiale is just as bad. He's doing the voce, as the youngster passes by. I don't same thing." "My girlfriend can't sell her know if he heard but he walks straight on house fast enough," says a self-possessed and keeps looking straight ahead. Someone matron. "There was a house for sale right mentions that "Eddie Hotdog's brother got next door," a buxom brunette breaks in, shot in the hand by a cop (I never did get and I got at least five phone calls from Jor- the details straight), and this reminds a po- dan-Barish asking, `Aren't you selling your liceman of a shooting the previous night. "I house?"' "Could people be using their got no respect for them," he tells us, "with all name to start trouble?" someone asks. that talk about blacks and Puerto Ricans. A woman in a purple dress announces, This kid [a mugger shot by a patrolman] is "My house is not up for sale." We all turn, bleeding in the street while we wait for the and she continues, "We got a call, `Aren't ambulance. The crowd gets nasty, you know, you afraid of blacks next door?' I said, `No, muttering about `pigs' and `racist cops.' Then it doesn't scare me at all.' Puerto Ricans did someone takes a closer look and when they buy that house, and you know something? see he's not black, they all melt away." Ag- They're the nicest neighbors I ever had. You gressive crime is much on people's minds. can't tell what people are going to be like." Horrific rumors circulate widely, with ap- As we break up, the wife of the fireman parent spontaneity and almost instantane- says, "What makes you think I'm blaming ously. them? I don't think it's their fault," Another young man explains how he has to pick up his mother every night, who works Adubato and I go off for a round of beer. downtown for an insurance company and is "I want to show you the clubs," he tells me. afraid of having her handbag snatched or "They're a feature of our life." At one, I'm worse. His father drives a garbage truck, and introduced to an "old guy," a Sicilian who he has an uncle in the fire department. He's tells me, "I hate 'em." 32, been out of work for three months, and is We end up at "Klub Rainier," just off waiting "to get on the fire department." He Bloomfield Avenue, and find it unlocked and also wants to get married, which gives bite empty. "No paese here," Adubato says. The to his grievance. He has passed the fire ex- members are younger men, Adubato's gen- amination and is on the list. "They're hold- eration. We have a bottle of Manhattan ing up the list," he tells me, "because of the Special, a coffee soda Adubato wants me PRs and the colored. They keep giving the to try. It's all that he says it is: good. We exam and they can't pass." It never enters linger outside, and various members of the his head that the holdup might be financial. club drift up. The guys who belong, I am "They always need firemen, don't they?" told, are policemen, schoolteachers, factory The North Ward feels cut-off from the city, workers, and "one guy who lives here." He even though many of its residents hold city is, I gather, the house hippie, and they are jobs. It is a feeling of some standing. I ex- quite proud of him. I'm introduced to Steve aggerate, but not by much, when I say that George, Adubato's cousin. Adubato laughs, there are moments, especially talking to older "That's how I got elected. I've got a lot of people, when it is not clear whether "them," cousins." directed at City Hall, means the blacks or Mostly, we talk about the great meal Steve the Irish. Steve Adubato's great-uncle is still George is going to prepare for Friday. A something of a hero in the North Ward as

THOMAS R. BROOKS 132 the first Italian to get on the police force back in the center city. The white demand for around World War I. He was killed collaring more police veers on a call for control of a prohibition-era hood in a New York City "them"; therefore, blacks who otherwise fleabag. The first Italian was elected, along would join in such a call hold back. So we with four Irish Americans, to the (then five- end up with immobilization where we need man) City Council in 1941. It was Ralph resolute action for the sake of everyone's Villani, who is currently a councilman-at- peace and comfort. large. He subsequently served as mayor from The young, too, are at the center, not as 1949 to 1953, and the Italians have played a cause but a reason, of the battle for control a key role in city politics ever since. Yet, I of the schools and, ultimately, of the city it- heard grumblings about the Irish domination self. The 11-week school strike limns New- of the police and fire departments. And Adu- ark's tragic predicament. The strike was not bato, in one breath, told me, "I'm like Im- of the teachers' making. Money was not an periale, the Church is something we don't issue in the bargaining that preceded the knock, but the Irish run the whole show." 6 strike. The Newark Local of the American Unhappily, "them" increasingly means the Federation of Teachers was forced out on blacks. Paradoxically, despite those sociolo- strike because the Board of Education re- gists who see the conflict between the almost- fused to renew two key contract provisions, haves (or have-nots) and the most recent which should have been normal procedure. haves as the most severe, the upwardly mo- These provisions were to provide binding ar- bile blacks of Newark and the recently ar- bitration of unresolved grievances, and the rived whites have much in common—the teachers' relief from such nonprofessional same need for more police protection, for chores as patrolling of hallways and cafete- better schools, and other demands—enough rias. The four blacks and one Puerto Rican to cement a coalition. Adubato is accom- majority on the Board, as against the four plishing just this, admittedly on a small scale, whites, held that the teachers' unwillingness in his North Ward alliance of Italian Ameri- to perform these tasks was "insensitive to the cans and middle-class blacks. needs of black children." a What put the teachers' backs up was an incident in Novem- ber, when a black parents' group forced the 'To the tensions of race one must add summary transfer of three white teachers who those of class and age. In 1967, according to had refused extra-professional chores not the Rutgers study, 46.7 percent of Newark's covered under the terms of the then existing blacks were 15 years of age and under as contract. The arbitration clause, black mili- against only 23.3 percent of whites. That's tants charged, gave union leaders too much a sizable bulge of young blacks coming up power in setting school policy.? "The union through the school system and operating out must protect its members from the indis- on the streets. As this group moves into its late criminate dictates of the so-called com- teens and early twenties, it faces a high rate munity," said Carol Graves, president of the of unemployment (37.8 percent for those be- tween 16 and 19) and a high rate of crime. A quarter of the city's whites are 55 and 6 The union demand for more aides to relieve over, a group that looms large among vic- teachers of nonprofessional tasks would provide more time for educating the young. Moreover, hall- tims. This creates continuing, crucial tension way and cafeteria patrol often places the teacher in a disciplinary role with bad carryovers to the class- 5 From a more analytical source I gather that this room. Yet, freeing the teacher of this burden re- may be why the Church has not played a more quires more aides—which cost money. positive role in Newark. It has, after all, black and 7 There's some irony here, for in classic worker white adherents and could conceivably cement militancy, binding arbitration is often rejected be- bands of brotherhood in a city torn by racism. cause it gives too much authority to an outsider.

BREAKDOWN IN NEWARK 133 local union, who served 41 days of a six- old Negro spiritual, `Free at last, praise God month jail sentence for strike activities. Almighty, free at last."' Jacob opposed the "Without binding arbitration, a contract with settlement, and he attempted to blow up an this board is just a worthless piece of paper." incident where a handful of black parents The strike was marked by sporadic vio- sought to prevent the return of white teach- lence from the start. On the first day, 15 ers in several schools into a breakdown of teachers were assaulted by a band of black tenuously established relations. By the end youths. Teachers' car windows were smashed of the school year, an uneasy peace settled and car tires slashed. Several members of the over Newark. School Board were threatened, and shots Clearly, there is missing in Newark that were fired into the home of one member. old political device, the balanced ticket. The strike ended in mid-April on the basis Mayor Gibson has said that he is the mayor of a compromise fashioned by Mayor Gibson. of all the people, and he has made white ap- The settlement called for "no reprisals"; for pointments—but he has very few Italians on the reinstatement of 347 teachers who had his staff. And there are none in two of been suspended by the Board of Education the City's key antipoverty agencies, the toward the end of the strike; it stipulated that United Community Corporation and the elementary-school teachers were to escort stu- Model Cities program. dents to the school front door, and that The Mayor has no real political links with junior-high teachers were to monitor corri- the minority white community, nor, despite dors between classes. A three-man panel—a gestures in that direction, with the emerging, professional arbitrator, a teacher, and a prin- smaller minority of the city's Spanish-speak- cipal—were to arbitrate grievances. The ing citizens. One would have expected, for Local was fined a crippling $270,000 by the example, in view of Steve Adubato's suc- courts, to be paid by a 10 percent deduction cessful insurgency against the Addonizio from salaries. 8 machine, some overtures from City Hall. But The strike was widely misinterpreted as this has not happened as far as I can deter- solely a black/white confrontation. It was mine. Mayor Gibson unfortunately also has that, of course; but it was also an attack by not developed a working organization. This black nationalists and black wheelers and makes governing the city difficult, and ex- dealers against black integrationists and mod- plains why it took the Mayor so long to re- erates. Black militants split on the issue; i.e., solve the school strike. the Panthers supported the union. The AFT Current conventional wisdom dictates the is one of the few truly integrated organiza- condemnation of Mayor Hugh J. Addonizio tions of any power or significance in Newark, as a racist, old-line, machine politician. And and some black extremists were out to prove it is true, in the end the sticky fingers of that reason and racial integration cannot corruption got him. But that is not the whole work. One of their tactics was a crude at- story. Back in 1962, Addonizio, ex-quarter- tempt to drive white teachers out of the sys- back and World-War-II hero, and six-time tem. White teachers, it was said, did not live liberal congressman, pulled together a coali- in Newark (which is not true—for perhaps tion of dissident Democrats, liberals, labor even more white teachers do than black people, blacks, and Italians to wrest City Hall teachers). Board President Jesse L. Jacob from another ward-heeling machine. For a prolonged the strike—"If this be the year of time, Addonizio was a good mayor as mayors attrition, then let it be. In the words of the go. Newark has the largest per capita public housing program in the country. It is fifth in the nation in the amount of federal funds re- s This last point is still tied up in the courts on ap- peal. ceived for urban renewal purposes. Addoni-

134 THOMAS R. BROOKS zio saw to it that new campuses were built in the run-off, Gibson held an estimated 15 for the Newark College of Engineering percent of the white vote. Imperiale's North (Mayor Gibson is a graduate), for Rutgers Ward vote clearly went to Addonizio, but in Newark, and for the Essex County Com- Gibson raised his vote there from 4,265 in munity College. A new medical center has the first, to 7,405 in the second election. In been built. This is a record that most mayors the first election, with a smaller turnout, Gib- would be proud of. son received 37,859 votes, to Addonizio's Addonizio also integrated city depart- 18,212, and Imperiale's 13,978, most of ments. He had the support of Irvine Turner, which (7,656) came from the North Ward. a black city councilman of the Central Ward, Much has been written about Gibson as the elected in 1953, and a power in his own right. black saviour of Newark, but the City Coun- Calvin West, an Addonizio–Turner protege, cil is more representative of Newark than was the first black elected on a city-wide Mayor Gibson. The Gibson slate carried basis, becoming a city council member in along only two of his six running mates. New- 1966. West went down with Addonizio in the ark has what the textbooks call a strong 1970 election; so did Turner. The latter was mayor/council government; the Council, defeated by the Rev. Dennis Westbrooks, the however, controls the purse. It consists of youngest city councilman at age 31. West- nine members, four elected at-large, and five brooks, a native of Homestead, Pennsylvania, in the wards. Three of the council members won his reputation as a militant and a sub- at large are Italian and one is black. Of the stantial bloc of votes as director of a ward councilmen, three are Italian and two community action program at the Scudder are black. Six of these were newly elected, Houses, a public housing project, where he including the three black members. Thirty- led a sucessful rent strike. He had the support two-year-old City Council President Louis B. of the Leroi Jones-organized Black and Turco is a holdover from the old days and Puerto Rican Convention; so did Mayor Gib- an Addonizio supporter. He is the leader of son and Coordinator for the United Com- a liberal-labor coalition, which includes Joel munity Corporation Earl Harris, who un- R. Jacobson of the United Automobile Work- seated West. ers, battling the entrenched Essex County Addonizio might have won again if it had Democratic machine. not been for his arrest and subsequent con- City Council elections are nonpartisan, but viction on charges involving corruption. We understandably the Democrats are the power. think of Newark as dominantly black. But, Nonetheless, the Council is torn along racial in terms of eligible voters, the city is much lines, a rift exacerbated by Mayor Gibson's more evenly divided: 47 percent of the vote acceptance—he had little choice—of a tax is white, 45 percent black. In the first elec- package approved by a Republican governor toral round of 1970, chiefly because of the and a Republican-dominated state legislature. corruption issue, Gibson carried all but the The black council members sided with the North Ward, leading a slate of six candi- Mayor; the whites fought the adoption of a dates. (Imperiale carried the North Ward but tax package that included a regressive 1 per- trailed third to Addonizio's second.) In the cent sales tax to be added to the State's 5 run-off election, Gibson concentrated on the percent. In the face of a $50-million budget black wards, South and Central, and on rally- gap a compromise was worked out, but not ing the black vote. Addonizio concentrated without bitterness. 9 on the white voters, and so he lost whatever The May night I visited the City Council support he might have had among black voters—and so Gibson was the winner: 9 Yet, the three black members of the City Council refused in November 1971 to support Mayor Gib- 55,097 to 43,086. Despite the polarization son's request for two new municipal executive posts

BREAKDOWN IN NEWARK 135 was the occasion of a racial fallout over the for an instant the black Newark of Imamu proposed renaming of Belmont Avenue as Baraka faced the Newark of the North Ward, Malcolm X Boulevard. I was intrigued by the and I shuddered. apparent unanimity of the Council on a range of financial and substantive matters. Hardly a dissenting vote or voice was raised over et whatever hope there is for a reju- quite sizable expenditures of money and such Y venated Newark lies somewhere in its con- questions as an anti-block-busting ordinance. fused politics. It was expected in 1968 that Then, the blow-up over the proposed new the city would give George Wallace 15-20 Malcolm X Boulevard. There were hidden percent of its vote. He got slightly under 10 eddies, even among the black councilmen. percent even though his chief supporter, Westbrooks, who wears a mod dashiki to Anthony Imperiale, won a council seat that council meetings, was an enthusiast, but the year with his votes being three times the other two councilmen seemed to be less so. Wallace total. Humphrey carried the city and One even suggested that it was important to the North Ward, though his North Ward find out the sentiments of those who lived on total was not greater than the combined or owned businesses on the Avenue (or new Nixon-Wallace vote there. In 1972, Wallace boulevard), a proposition greeted with scorn may do much better in the North Ward, as by a sizable group of young black citizens Assemblyman Imperiale's November 1971 who were present. The white councilmen, election suggests. 1° But meanwhile Steve with the exception of Villani, obviously Adubato's group has secured its hold over wanted a way out that would save face all the Democratic party in the Ward. They are around. When the Council majority adopted now engaged in building their base, after a motion asking the clerk to prepare a report having opened the North Ward Educational on the feasibility of the name change, it was and Cultural Center with financial aid from roundly booed and the youths shouted, Rutgers and the National Center for Urban "We're going to change it ourselves." Ethnic Affairs in 1971. "We are going to In the course of all this, the Council got get colleges and corporations to give us into one of those parliamentary hassles that special help the way they do for disadvan- is the despair of even the most initiated. I taged blacks," Adubato says. He also plans was struck by the ire the young militants to pressure Mayor Gibson into appointing vented against the council clerk—a white, more Italians in city jobs, especially in the elderly, gray-haired, and parliamentarian anti-poverty agencies. gentleman; they seemed to feel that he was "The North Ward is restless, Adubato the enemy. And those young militants— argues, "because there is no delivery system followers of Leroi Jones—obviously believed for whites. Blacks have got all these special that their mere presence and superior num- programs to help them get to college, or to ber in the gallery entitled them to a victory rehabilitate their houses and help them find on the issue. The system, to them so clearly represented by the elderly clerk, of course does not work that way nor should it. But 10 Each assembly district in New Jersey elects two assemblymen. Imperiale led a field of seven candi- and turned down two of his appointments to the dates in District 11-B, which consists of Newark's Newark Parking Authority. The latter were whites North and West Wards. He won as an Independent who lived outside Newark, which perhaps explains with 13,750 votes. Frank Megaro, the city council- the black councilmen's opposition. Four white man from the North Ward and a Democrat, won councilmen, incidentally, backed the mayor on the the other seat with 12,604 votes. The losing Demo- new appointments and the creation of the new crat came in third with 11,018 votes—as against posts. This suggests that when it comes to govern- 8,247 and 7,375 votes for the Republican con- ing a city, politicians, black or white, do not al- testants. Two other Independents polled roughly ways act along racial lines. 3,000 each.

136 THOMAS R. BROOKS jobs. We white ethnics don't get any of these more alarming is the erosion of black/white things." And, reminiscent of Imamu Baraka, relations within the Democratic party, which "All we want is equity." He complains that is, after all, an important integrated insti- when white liberals talk about the "priority tution. The blacks of Newark want a black issues"—housing, unemployment, tax inequi- congressman, and there is pressure from ties, and education—"they automatically black activists and politicians elsewhere who focus on blacks. Liberals have programmed want to build up the number of blacks in a black agenda and have not directed them- the U.S. Congress. To get the necessary re- selves to low-income, first- and second-gen- districting, the interested black groups are eration white Americans. Any new agenda perfectly willing to work with the Republi- must include both groups. We've got to build cans, who are eager for redistricting, which a coalition whose objective is to build would also probably guarantee a Republican change." victory in the Essex County suburbs. At The goodly number of teachers in Adu- present, the two congressional districts--each bato's group first gained political experience consisting of suburban and city areas—return in the American Federation of Teachers' to Congress, with unfailing regularity, two Newark Local. Yet unions otherwise do not liberals who are both Italian and prolabor. play much of a role in North Ward politics. I don't think I need spell out further the No one union dominates or looms large on kind of struggle that appears to be in the off- the scene as, say, the UAW does in Detroit. ing. The Italians of Newark are likely to be In the Newark area, local unions are or- again castigated as racists, blue-collar Wall- ganized into a county council rather than into aceites, hard hats, and ethnics. There is talk a city council as in New York and other ma- in the North Ward of separation from New- jor cities. This bespeaks, it seems, a weakness ark, of a petition to recall the present form of within the city. A number of the larger unions government for an at-large councilmanic sys- in Newark—the International Ladies' Gar- tem on the theory and possibility that this will ment Workers' Union and the International guarantee a white majority at City Hall at Union of Electrical Workers, to name two— least for a time, and Steve Adubato talks of have large black memberships in the city and a tax boycott. "We're looking for an answer comparatively few whites. My guess is that that will work," he says. Newark's property they are not in a position to bridge racial tax is the second highest among the country's hostilities in Newark, no matter how well major cities and such a boycott aimed at they may do so in the plant. eliciting better services from the city might Surprisingly, Adubato has remained aloof be popular though unworkable. I take it as from the Turco/Jacobson alliance, reflecting evidence of desperation. Newark is two cities, perhaps a temporary expediency. What is and neither one is a happy one.

BREAKDOWN IN NEWARK 137