|
Newark 1967 – Rebellion or Riot?
Tuesday, June 19 at 6:30 pm on NJN’s Another View
Trenton, NJ – On July 12, 1967, the city of Newark burst into flames. A pressure cooker of unemployment, poverty, inadequate housing, racial inequities, civil rights violations and police brutality, the city was a smoldering tinder box ready to burst – and burst it did. Five days later, 26 people were dead, more than 700 were injured, and over 1,500 were arrested. Anyone alive today who lived through those days of uncontrolled violence remembers it vividly. Some of those individuals recall those days and, on the 40th anniversary of the unrest, tell their stories in Another View’s Tender Territory. Tender Territory, Part I airs on NJN on Tuesday, June 19 at 6:30 pm with a rebroadcast on Friday, June 22 at 11:30 pm. Part II airs on NJN on Tuesday, July 10 at 6:30 pm and again on Friday, July 13 at 11:30 pm.
Throughout New Jersey in Plainfield and Camden and across the country in Detroit and other cities, similar violence broke out – the results of years of oppression of African-Americans in this country. NJN’s Another View revisits the days when Newark burned and explores the legacy left behind for the residents in Tender Territory, a two-part series. Part I explores the factors contributing to the outbreak of violence in Newark in 1967. Witnesses to the riots give first-hand accounts of the raging violence. Archival footage of street battles and burning buildings, tanks rolling down the streets and people running, provide a backdrop for the compelling stories of residents, business owners, historians, and a former National Guardsman, all who paint a vivid picture of Newark’s social explosion.
Part Two of Tender Territory explores the aftermath of the riots, sometimes referred to as the “rebellion,” and examines the progress Newark has made over the forty years since 1967. It takes a look at the challenges still facing Newark, its current social and political landscape, and the legacy of the riots – asking the question: could it happen again?
Tender Territory features interviews with experts and eye-witnesses, including Max Herman, assistant professor of Sociology at Rutgers University-Newark who has collected oral histories about the riots; Linda Caldwell Epps, president and CEO of the New Jersey Historical Society; Paul Zigot, former National Guardsman; Morris Spielberg, Newark business owner; Bill Clarke and Mary Brown, Newark residents; Larry Hamm, Newark activist; and Gus Henningburg, long-time activist and political consultant. Candace Kelley hosts Tender Territory; Linda Coles is executive producer; and Sia Nyorkor is coordinating producer. Find out more at Tender Territory.
In addition to Another View’s Tender Territory, NJN’s series on law and justice issues, Due Process, presents a special two-hour edition focusing on the 1967 civil unrest in Newark. This Due Process special airs on NJN Thursday, July 12 at 9 pm, and will be rebroadcast on Saturday, July 14 at 1 pm.
Other organizations in the state will be examining the Newark unrest including the New Jersey Historical Society, which is preparing to launch What’s Going On? Newark and the Legacy of the Sixties, a groundbreaking exhibition on urban rebellion in the 1960s and its impact on the people, landscape, institutions and economy of New Jersey. Scheduled to open on September 26, 2007, the exhibition will be on view at the Historical Society’s Newark headquarters through August 2008, before beginning a national tour. Featuring photographs, oral histories, artifacts, and period media that recreate Sixties culture, What’s Going On? will engage audiences of all ages. Watch the Historical Society’s web site at jerseyhistory.org for more information.
NJN is available on all New Jersey cable systems, satellite systems, and Time Warner Cable channel 750 in NYC.
NJN programs are also available via video streaming at njn.net after the original broadcast.
Additionally, NJN programming is repeated on NJN’s JerseyVision available on Comcast Digital Cable in New Jersey.
(Check http://www.njn.net/digital/schedule.html for detailed listings.)
NJN – Uniquely New Jersey
###
|
