Primary Source Set: African Americans in Newark 1666-1970

Primary Source Set: African Americans in Newark 1666-1970

This guide links to a small number of items from our collections to get you started on research. To see many more items view the digital collection. You can also e-mail us or view our website for more information on non-digitized collections. Content note: some of the primary sources quoted include offensive racist language.

Overview: African Americans have been in Newark since its early days, document in the 18th and early 19th centuries (Documents A, B and C). In the early 20th century there was a small but strong community of African Americans who formed clubs and organizations (Documents D, E and F). Two migrations in the 1910s and 1940s brought a much larger African American population to Newark (Document G, Document I). Meanwhile, much was still segregated in Newark. African Americans had their own hospital Kinney, later Community Hospital (Document H) and African American doctors were only admitted to practice at City Hospital in 1946 (Documents I and K.) Though the Human Rights Commission began researching group relations and discrimination (Document M) tensions rose in the city, ultimately culminating in the 1967 riots (Document N, and further articles here). This was followed quickly by the Black Power Conference (Document O). Martin Luther King visited Newark to advocate for the Poor People’s Campaign just before his death in March 1968 (Document P). Activism and community organization led the election of Newark’s first Black Mayor Kenneth Gibson in 1970 (Document Q.) The final document gives an overview of these years in Newark for the Black community (Document R).