Thursday, April 4, 2013

The Projects of the Past

 
Contributed by Dennis Reilly
 
Life in the Projects & the Newark Riots: Research Summary
When we hear the word “projects,” many of us think of dirty buildings, poor living conditions, gangs, and drugs. But what was life really like in the projects back in the 1940s and 1950s? Life may have been a lot different than one would expect. Children played and laughed on the street, families told stories on their porches, and “Old Newark”was filled with life, various shops, and countless restaurants. In 1950, the population of Newark reached 438,000 people. Eventually, white residents began to migrate away from the inner city and middle-class African Americans soon followed. People of color who held low-paying factory jobs were left in the inner cities and crime greatly increased. This led to the Newark Riots of 1967.

The Newark Riots was a six day period of looting, destruction, and rioting that took place between July 12, 1967 and July 17, 1967. The riots began when John DeSimone and Vito Pontrelli, two Newark policemen, arrested John Weerd Smith, an African American cabdriver. Smith had been beaten by police. Smith was taken to a hospital afterwards, but a rumor began that Smith was killed while in police custody. A large number of Newark residents burst out into riots, attacking police and destroying property. Machine guns and sniper rifles fired in the streets, buildings burned to the ground, and the National Guard attempted to stop and contain the terror that raged on throughout Newark by closing down bridges each night. The Newark Riots resulted in 26 people dead, 725 people injured, 1,500 people arrested, and $10 million in property damages.

Interview:
Below is an interview of my grandfather who experienced the riots of the 1960s in Newark and
was a resident of Newark for many years.  Click here: interview  or go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQeXlJVUJd4&feature=youtu.be
 
If You're Still Curious....
 
The day after I conducted the interview of my grandpa about his life growing up in the projects and the Newark riots, he called me on the phone saying that there were some really important parts about his life in the projects that he left out. Here is what he told me:
“Back in the day there was a big baseball field in the middle of the projects. We used to have organized baseball games once every month. At the time, the projects were racially segregated. This was before the sections were all integrated together once I got older. The projects were divided into four sections -- three sections of the projects were white, and then there was one section that was black. Everyone was allowed to play in the baseball games, but usually each section of the projects played against each other and never played on the same team.
“The most-traveled part of the projects was the center courtyard. That’s where everyone sold goods and there was always entertainment there. We saw some crazy things back then!!! There was an organ-grinder with a monkey that would come into the court every week to perform. The organ-grinder played music while his monkey ran around holding out his hat to collect money from everyone watching. You just don’t see things like that anymore!! We all loved the organ-grinder, and his monkey was adorable. We barely had anything but we always managed to save up change so we could give him a dime when he came by.
“There was also always the same man who came by with his cart on wheels selling knife-sharpeners, yelling “Sharpen your knives here!” every morning. Then there was a guy with a pony that would come around, dress you up in a cowboy outfit if you paid him, and then take your picture on the pony. Once a week, a man would come to the courtyard selling watermelons on a horse and buggy. The pastry man always came the day after the watermelon man. He would take your order for what sort of pastries you wanted one week and then you would receive your order from him in the courtyard when he came back the next week. Another man with a horse and buggy would come around each month and collect old clothing for dimes and quarters. That’s how we would make money off of our old clothes. We also used to have a milkman that would deliver milk to our doorsteps every day. The last guy that would always come to our courtyard was a man with no legs who would wheel all throughout the courtyard in his wheelchair singing into a megaphone for money. He was a decent singer, but it was just so crazy to see a man with no legs singing for money back then in your courtyard!
 
“We used to always come up with different ways of making money back then, too. Since we were kids, we didn’t perform in the street like those people, but we’d run around to all the different taverns, shining the shoes of the adults in the taverns for quarters. We made a lot of money shoe shining!! We also used to take the buses around to different parts of the city (back then, the buses were electric and ran on wires; they didn’t run on gas like they do now) and collect bottles that we could trade in for nickels and dimes. I hope that helped give you a better idea about what life was like back then!”

For More Information....
Bigart, Homer. "Newark Riot Deaths at 21 as Negro Sniping Widens." The New York Times On the Web. The New York Times, 16 July 1967. Web. 15 Feb. 2013.< http://partners.nytimes.com/library/national/race/071667race-ra.html>.

Geisheimer, Glenn G. "Welcome to Old Newark." About Old Newark. Old Newark Web Group, 2012. Web. 15 Feb. 2013.< http://www.virtualnewarknj.com/features/about.php>.

Liebman, Steve. "The Newark Riots Through the Eyes of a Child of Ironbound." NJ.com. The Star-Ledger, 12 July 2007. Web. 15 Feb. 2013.< http://blog.nj.com/ledgernewark/2007/07/the_newark_riots_through_the_e.html>.

New Jersey Historical Society. "The Real Estate Market's Early Start in Newark." Newark: History. N.p., 2009. Web. 15 Feb. 2013.< http://www.city-data.com/us-cities/The-Northeast/Newark-History.html>.

St. Martin, Victoria. "45 Years After Riots Tore At Heart of Newark, City Recalls 5 Days of Mayhem." NJ.com. The Star-Ledger, 15 July 2012. Web. 15 Feb. 2013.<http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/07/45_years_after_riots_tore_at_h.html>.

1 comment:

  1. Great story. Sounds like a real American classic story.

    ReplyDelete