Newark, New Jersey
The heroic 1967 rebellion of the Black community of Newark was remembered on July 12 with a rally, a march and a second rally organized by the People’s Organization for Progress. The two rallies took place at the site of a memorial with the names of those killed by the Newark Police, New Jersey State Police and New Jersey Army National Guard.
The connection between the rebellion in Newark and the current rebellion in Gaza was made by numerous speakers and the presence of Palestinian flags. Speakers ranged from revolutionary Black youth new to the struggle to actual participants in the rebellion 57 years ago.
POP Chairperson Lawrence Hamm was incredible in his description of the details of the rebellion and the historical setting and context in which it occurred, along with the many other rebellions in African American communities in New Jersey during that same period. They took place in Plainfield, Camden, Trenton, Jersey City, Patterson and Asbury Park, to name a few.
In that summer of 1967, Workers World Party and its youth organization, Youth Against War and Fascism, called a demonstration in the center of Newark in solidarity with the Black community of Newark, to show multinational solidarity with the people of that community. YAWF held similar demonstrations in the 1960s in solidarity with the rebellions in Watts, California, in 1965, in Detroit in 1967 and many others.
Never Forget the Newark Rebellion! All Power to the People!