What do you think?
Rate this book
American History and Culture Series
Newark: A History of Race, Rights, and Riots in America
Newark’s volatile past is infamous. The city has become synonymous with the Black Power movement and urban crisis. Its history reveals a vibrant and contentious political culture punctuated by traditional civic pride and an understudied tradition of protest in the black community. Newark charts this important city's place in the nation, from its founding in 1666 by a dissident Puritan as a refuge from intolerance, through the days of Jim Crow and World War II civil rights activism, to the height of postwar integration and the election of its first black mayor.
In this broad and balanced history of Newark, Kevin Mumford applies the concept of the public sphere to the problem of race relations, demonstrating how political ideas and print culture were instrumental in shaping African American consciousness. He draws on both public and personal archives, interpreting official documents - such as newspapers, commission testimony, and government records—alongside interviews, political flyers, meeting minutes, and rare photos.
From the migration out of the South to the rise of public housing and ethnic conflict, Newark explains the impact of African Americans on the reconstruction of American cities in the twentieth century.
In this broad and balanced history of Newark, Kevin Mumford applies the concept of the public sphere to the problem of race relations, demonstrating how political ideas and print culture were instrumental in shaping African American consciousness. He draws on both public and personal archives, interpreting official documents - such as newspapers, commission testimony, and government records—alongside interviews, political flyers, meeting minutes, and rare photos.
From the migration out of the South to the rise of public housing and ethnic conflict, Newark explains the impact of African Americans on the reconstruction of American cities in the twentieth century.
- GenresNonfictionRace
320 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2007
8 people are currently reading
105 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 26, 2019
Kevin Mumford’s Newark: A History of Race, Rights, and Riots in America is the most recent attempt to reconcile Newark’s urban crisis. For Mumford, “Newark’s tale of race, rights, and rioting [is] worth telling, but something larger [is] there. The adversity that the newcomers faced and the struggle for a place spoke volumes to the whole of American experience.” Mumford believes that Wilson and Sugrue’s “urban crisis” thesis—which focuses on the “culpability of white politicians and economic forces” beginning and ending with Black migration from the South—statistically victimizes Newark’s blacks:
I disagree with major scholars such as Nicholas Lemann, Thomas Sugrue, and Robert Self, who have set out to explicate a historical moment they identify as “the urban crisis”—a phrase familiar to many readers of social science and general nonfiction on social problems—which they have defined as white flight from neighborhoods, transfers of capital into the suburbs, and the failure of public housing
As he succinctly puts it, “the urban crisis school recapitulates the old argument that having blacks in the city essentially signified disorganization and failure.” Further, Mumford asserts that such scholarship on the “black underclass” thesis was motivated by a “liberal” desire to stimulate spending to revitalize urban landscapes. In the historical analysis of Newark, Mumford finds “persistent, if continually changing networks of civic leaders and everyday folks utilizing—and in the process forming—an urban democracy.”
Mumford is offering “fresh analysis of this urban growth and economic change by exploring the politics of ethnic settlement and cultural recognition alongside a new framework for understanding mobilization for protest and modes of civic resolution.” He carefully recounts the struggles between “shifting majorities and minorities” in attempt to construct a critical reconstruction of the national past by concentrating on postwar Newark, New Jersey. In doing so, Mumford builds on scholars such as Robin Kelley, Matthew Countryman, Joe Trotter, and Martha Biondi, who he credits with showing how local communities demonstrated “remarkable resiliency, creativity, and productivity that challenged power relations” in the early history of civil rights organization against Jim Crow. These minorities believed in “rights and fair play, individualism and opportunity, and a share of the American Dream.” However, white backlashes and racially fueled disillusionment turns many to embrace nationalism and separatism. Here Mumford builds on Michael Dawson, who posits that “disillusioned liberals mobilize through newspapers, civic organizations, civil rights groups, and legal actions.” For Mumford, this mobilization of a disillusioned, victimized, ghettoized polity engage in “direct action protest” as means of demanding or challenging municipal government to provide better services, benefits, and political representation.
Mumford’s mobilization narrative is reminiscent of that described by Annelise Orleck in Storming Caesar’s Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War on Poverty. What makes Orleck’s description of community leaders like Ruby Duncan (Operation Life) so significant is how they represent black lead, self-advocating, and democratic action in response to the seemingly countless social dilemmas of the 1960s. It is most important to note that these forces are much more than what might be typically called “grass-roots” movements. As the term ‘grass-roots’ suggests the presence of large swaths of grass—something particular to our image of suburban or rural, not urban, America—it is inappropriate to file these urban phenomenon away under a preexisting political category. The urban, and often poor, environs lacks grass—the manicured lawn that signifies that status of American middle class—and thus these black urban movements could be more appropriately called “brick and pavement movements.”
I disagree with major scholars such as Nicholas Lemann, Thomas Sugrue, and Robert Self, who have set out to explicate a historical moment they identify as “the urban crisis”—a phrase familiar to many readers of social science and general nonfiction on social problems—which they have defined as white flight from neighborhoods, transfers of capital into the suburbs, and the failure of public housing
As he succinctly puts it, “the urban crisis school recapitulates the old argument that having blacks in the city essentially signified disorganization and failure.” Further, Mumford asserts that such scholarship on the “black underclass” thesis was motivated by a “liberal” desire to stimulate spending to revitalize urban landscapes. In the historical analysis of Newark, Mumford finds “persistent, if continually changing networks of civic leaders and everyday folks utilizing—and in the process forming—an urban democracy.”
Mumford is offering “fresh analysis of this urban growth and economic change by exploring the politics of ethnic settlement and cultural recognition alongside a new framework for understanding mobilization for protest and modes of civic resolution.” He carefully recounts the struggles between “shifting majorities and minorities” in attempt to construct a critical reconstruction of the national past by concentrating on postwar Newark, New Jersey. In doing so, Mumford builds on scholars such as Robin Kelley, Matthew Countryman, Joe Trotter, and Martha Biondi, who he credits with showing how local communities demonstrated “remarkable resiliency, creativity, and productivity that challenged power relations” in the early history of civil rights organization against Jim Crow. These minorities believed in “rights and fair play, individualism and opportunity, and a share of the American Dream.” However, white backlashes and racially fueled disillusionment turns many to embrace nationalism and separatism. Here Mumford builds on Michael Dawson, who posits that “disillusioned liberals mobilize through newspapers, civic organizations, civil rights groups, and legal actions.” For Mumford, this mobilization of a disillusioned, victimized, ghettoized polity engage in “direct action protest” as means of demanding or challenging municipal government to provide better services, benefits, and political representation.
Mumford’s mobilization narrative is reminiscent of that described by Annelise Orleck in Storming Caesar’s Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War on Poverty. What makes Orleck’s description of community leaders like Ruby Duncan (Operation Life) so significant is how they represent black lead, self-advocating, and democratic action in response to the seemingly countless social dilemmas of the 1960s. It is most important to note that these forces are much more than what might be typically called “grass-roots” movements. As the term ‘grass-roots’ suggests the presence of large swaths of grass—something particular to our image of suburban or rural, not urban, America—it is inappropriate to file these urban phenomenon away under a preexisting political category. The urban, and often poor, environs lacks grass—the manicured lawn that signifies that status of American middle class—and thus these black urban movements could be more appropriately called “brick and pavement movements.”
February 14, 2021
I want to be fair to Mumford -- this is not a bad book, just a mistitled one. If you're interested in how the political positioning of civil rights groups in Newark confirms and departs from general historical understandings of black political movements 1950-70, this is your book. But if you pick up this volume hoping that Newark will shed light into the vexing history of Newark's rise and decline, you'll almost certainly walk away disappointed. To be fair, Mumford lays out a detailed chronology of events on either side of the '67 riots, filling in some detail on CORE's activities and Tom Hayden's early organizing efforts in Clinton Hill that don't make the standard capsule histories that appear in the newspaper. But Newark stumbles badly in its treatment of the city's 40 years of slow decline following the riots. Newark, the city, becomes something of a bit player in a text far more concerned with Amiri Baraka and the intellectual foundations of black nationalism. Perhaps the most famous quote ever uttered about the city - Mayor Gibson's "Wherever American cities are going, Newark will get there first" - doesn't even make an appearance in Mumford's treatment of Gibson's tenure, which devotes the majority of its attention to the nuances of Gibson's and Baraka's takes on Black Power. Frankly, the half dozen sentences in Gibson's current Wikipedia's entry do a much better job of probing the deeper causes of Newark's challenges than anything in Mumford's chapter. Covering a city where "every mayor since 1962 (except the current one, Cory Booker) has been indicted for crimes committed while in office", Newark, the book, lacks even an index entry for corruption.
I'd be more inclined to be more charitable if Mumford's book didn't bill itself as, ah, "Newark." Newark is an iconic city in American history, and its struggles (education, housing, rust-belt style physical decline, deindustrialization, community control, corruption) could be the terrain for an epic work that engages many of the big themes of American history, 1950-present. This is not that book.
I'd be more inclined to be more charitable if Mumford's book didn't bill itself as, ah, "Newark." Newark is an iconic city in American history, and its struggles (education, housing, rust-belt style physical decline, deindustrialization, community control, corruption) could be the terrain for an epic work that engages many of the big themes of American history, 1950-present. This is not that book.
May 15, 2009
The city of Newark's story is, in a few ways, not unlike that of many post-Reconstruction, pre-Civil Rights movement Northeastern United States cities. Though not rife with bigotry as the South, such municipalities were not especially hospitable to African-Americans. What makes this New Jersey metropolis unique is the fact Black residents chose to become an electoral powerhouse in the spirit of ethnic minorities which had done the same thing before them. Though the explosive rebellions are the backdrop for this book, African-American political activism, the knotty alliances it created, and the aftermath of those efforts in a post-Civil Rights era are at the core of this book.
Mumford helps you understand the city of Newark and its tradition of African-American civic involvement by detailing the role of those most would consider militants in leading insurrectionist as well as mainstream efforts. Inevitably, the Newark clashes of old take center stage. But, more importantly, Mumford is intent on telling readers what happened before the uprisings, and after.
The author pens a colorful read, whose personalities leap off the page. Whether it's the poet turned radical messiah Amiri Baraka, white establishment types or the tangles for leadership of a burgeoning voting bloc, Mumford's book is an astute, opinionated primer on a slice on Newark's political pedigree. From the city's early days, where African-Americans fought for recognition and dignity, to their ascension to elected office in the midst of the Black Power movement, and then through countless though crucial fragments as new power brokers emerged amid old differences in vision, tactics and goals, this tome is spellbinding, and worth your attention.
Mumford helps you understand the city of Newark and its tradition of African-American civic involvement by detailing the role of those most would consider militants in leading insurrectionist as well as mainstream efforts. Inevitably, the Newark clashes of old take center stage. But, more importantly, Mumford is intent on telling readers what happened before the uprisings, and after.
The author pens a colorful read, whose personalities leap off the page. Whether it's the poet turned radical messiah Amiri Baraka, white establishment types or the tangles for leadership of a burgeoning voting bloc, Mumford's book is an astute, opinionated primer on a slice on Newark's political pedigree. From the city's early days, where African-Americans fought for recognition and dignity, to their ascension to elected office in the midst of the Black Power movement, and then through countless though crucial fragments as new power brokers emerged amid old differences in vision, tactics and goals, this tome is spellbinding, and worth your attention.
October 27, 2012
I'll agree with a previous reviewer who pointed out the slightly misleading title of this book - but this shouldn't detract from what is a remarkably well-researched presentation of a key moment in the history of an important city.
Mumford's focus on the creation and evolution of a black public sphere in mid 20th century Newark is cohesive and persuasive. The cast of characters he introduces consistently recur throughout his (largely chronological) narrative, which allows him to subtly illuminate many of his broader theoretical arguments.
There is some powerful and illuminating scholarship in evidence; Mumford's argument for the dialogic relationship between black and white nationalist movements in post-riot Newark is particularly brilliant. A dash of political theory is gently interwoven throughout, which in turn helps develop the profoundly humanist position of Mumford himself.
The book does suffer from an occassional lapse into a convoluted and confusing style, and could benefit from more explicit signposting. The absences and omissions in this book are largely justified by its theoretical and narrative scope, but Mumford could have made such boundaries clearer. Still, this is a lucid and gripping read - even if it may lure readers in under false pretences.
Mumford's focus on the creation and evolution of a black public sphere in mid 20th century Newark is cohesive and persuasive. The cast of characters he introduces consistently recur throughout his (largely chronological) narrative, which allows him to subtly illuminate many of his broader theoretical arguments.
There is some powerful and illuminating scholarship in evidence; Mumford's argument for the dialogic relationship between black and white nationalist movements in post-riot Newark is particularly brilliant. A dash of political theory is gently interwoven throughout, which in turn helps develop the profoundly humanist position of Mumford himself.
The book does suffer from an occassional lapse into a convoluted and confusing style, and could benefit from more explicit signposting. The absences and omissions in this book are largely justified by its theoretical and narrative scope, but Mumford could have made such boundaries clearer. Still, this is a lucid and gripping read - even if it may lure readers in under false pretences.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews