Englewood Pastor Notes DC and LA African American Cultural Centers' Remembering Newark's 1967 Rebellion and Its Aftermath at 50/Part 1
Rev. Joel Washington (Khunanpu Sangoma)
Published: August 25, 2017
1. Two important sites this summer of the many remembrances of Newark, NJ'S 1967 Rebellion and its aftermath were the new Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC/the BLACKSONIAN) and the Us/African American Cultural Center in Los Angeles, Dr. Maulana Karenga, Executive Director, as well as Professor & Chair of Africana Studies, CSULB.
2. Our notes begin with reporting the following Newark residents' voices from the BLACKSONIAN panels on the 1967 Rebellion: Lawrence Hamm, People's Organization for Progress; Attorney Junious Williams, Rutgers University Leadership Institute; Linda Caldwell-Epps, 1804 Consultants; and Mark Krasovic, Rutgers University Price Institute.
3. Mr. Hamm contextualized Newark's 1967 Rebllion with "rightlyfully, the popular narrative emphasizes the Civil Rights Movement that was primarily Southern which produced Dr. King." However, he went on to note, the Black Power Revolt in the urban centers outside the South was of equal importance because it reflected "Black people's legitimate demand, over centuries, for self-determination."
4. Mr. Hamm noted that 1967-to-1968 alone saw 400 African American urban rebellions while the decade between 1960 and 1971 saw about 1,000 Black rebellions. He concluded that "the conditions that produced said rebellions still exist of which Ferguson and Baltimore are but two examples."
5. Attorney Williams sought to distinguish between the established order's dismissive discription of the 1960s rebellion's as "urban riots" and the Black activist community's using instead the categories "rebellion and revolt."
6. Ms. Epps debunked the narrative, reported in the press, of deadly sniper fire eminating from the City's Black coommunity. She shared that only just recently she has learned that in 1967 the preferred weapon of choice in Newark's Black neighborhoods was the knife. Accordingly, there were very few guns owned in the community. Thus, she observed, the media story that Newark's Black community was a heven for snipers has turned out to be historically false.
7. Mr. Krasovic added that because of required spent ammunition inventories on the part of the National Guard and the State Police, it was officially determined that about 10, 000 rounds of ammunition were fired into Newark's Black community by the Guard while the State Troopers fired about 3000 rounds. Interestingly, he said, no record was kept on the amount of ammunition fired by the Newark Police during the rebellion.
To be continued.
For more information on Reformation Church Chicago's African American Cultural Center and its Online Lift Every Voice Journal please go to: https://afroculturalcenter.wordpress.com or https://lifteveryvoicesite.wordpress.com
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