Plainfield burning: Black rebellion in the suburban north

Journal of Urban History

Volumn 33, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 568-601

  Sugrue, Thomas J ^a   Goodman, Andrew P ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA   (United States)

Author keywords

1960s; African Americans; Riots; Suburbs

Indexed keywords

AFRICAN AMERICAN; ETHNIC CONFLICT; RACE; URBAN HISTORY; VIOLENCE;

NEW JERSEY; NORTH AMERICA; UNITED STATES;

EID: 34247495256     PISSN: 00961442     EISSN: 15526771     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0096144207299182     Document Type: Article

References (159)

1. "Each Summer More Dangerous," Plainfield Courier-News, July 13, 1967, 18.
2. Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (New York: Bantam Books, 1968), 19-25, 76-77, hereafter referred to as Report-NACCD.
3. For a list of places of riot outbreaks in 1967, see Report-NACCD, 323-24. Population figures from 1970 are from the U.S. Census Bureau, 1970 Census of Population, vol. I, parts 1-50: Characteristics of the Population (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce, 1973), hereafter referred to as 1970 Census.
4. Alison Isenberg, Downtown America: A History of the Place and the People Who Made It (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), 394, n. 60, has critically observed that there are "few historical studies of the riots" and that "scholarship on the riots remains close to where it was in the early 1970s, locked into the questions of that era." The few recent histories of 1960s uprisings include Sidney Fine, Violence in the Model City (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1988); Gerald Horne, The Fire Next Time: The Watts Uprising and the 1960s (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995); Isenberg, Downtown America, 229-51; Peter B. Levy, Civil War on Race Street: The Civil Rights Movement in Cambridge, Maryland (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2003); and Max Herman, Fighting in the Streets: Ethnic Succession and Urban Unrest in Twentieth-Century America (New York: Peter Lang, 2005).
5. For a summary of the Plainfield riot, see Report-NACCD, 75-82.
6. "Plainfield: City of Homes," New York Times, August 26, 1894; and League of Women Voters, This Is Plainfield (Plainfield, NJ: League of Women Voters, 1982).
7. E.H. Maurice, "The Plainfield Area: A Survey for the Plainfield Trust State National Bank," May 15, 1963, 16, in Plainfield History Collection, Plainfield Public Library, NJ.
8. Office of the Assistant Deputy Director for Research, Analysis of Plainfield, New Jersey, Disturbance (October 29, 1967), from Civil Rights during the Johnson Administration: A Collection from the Holdings of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin, Texas, microfilm, ed. Stephen Lawson (Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1984-87), part V: Records of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, hereafter referred to as Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 7, Frame 00229; Peter Wosh, "From 'Colored Mission' to Community Institution: St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Plainfield, 1903-1991," in Leonard L. Bethel and Frederick A. Johnson, eds., Plainfield's African-American: From Northern Slavery to Church Freedom (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1998), 81-82; American Jewish Congress, Commission on Community Interrelations, Northtown Survey on Human Relations (1947), 72-74: Copy in Plainfield History Collection, Plainfield Public Library; and Housing Authority of Plainfield, "Report on Housing," January 21, 1952, 11, copy in Plainfield History Collection, Plainfield Public Library.
9. "Plainfield Beset by Contradiction," New York Times, July 20, 1967, 10.
10. Survey of Negro Life in New Jersey, Report XX: Plainfield (Interracial Committee, Department of Institutions and Agencies, New Jersey Conference of Social Work, August 1932), in Plainfield History Collection, Plainfield Public Library.
11. "Plainfield Beset by Contradiction"; Northtown Survey on Human Relations offers a useful overview of race relations at midcentury. Some useful information on Plainfield's black history (most of it in the form of congregational histories) can be found in Bethel and Johnson, eds., Plainfield's African-American. For an overview of black suburbanization, see Andrew Wiese, Places of Their Own: African American Suburbanization in the Twentieth Century (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004).
12. 1970 Census, 32-53.
13. 1970 Census, 32-12; and Maurice, "The Plainfield Area," 2, 6.
14. National Recreation Association, "A Survey of Recreational Needs in the 'West End' of Plainfield, New Jersey," May 1960, 6, 15, Plainfield History Collection, Plainfield Public Library.
15. "Plainfield Riot Scenarios," Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 22, Frame 00570; and Commission interview with John Harvard, Director, Community Action Plainfield, conducted by Steve Kurzman and Steve Weiner, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00092.
16. Northtown Survey on Human Relations, 72-74.
17. Plainfield Home Standards Committee, "Housing Facilities for Low Income Groups," 9, in Plainfield History Collection, Plainfield Public Library.
18. League of Women Voters of Plainfield, "What Are the Facts on Housing in Plainfield?" March 1958, 1, copy in Plainfield History Collection, Plainfield Public Library.
19. Memorandum from Research Department to Stephen Kurzman regarding Plainfield, New Jersey, FRR, October 24, 1967, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 22, Frame 00519; and Report-NACCD, 75. 20. "Plainfield Riot Scenarios," Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 22, Frame 00570; and 1970 Census, 32-491.
20. Letter to Victory H. Palmieri, Deputy Executive Director, from Roye L. Lowry, Research Staff, regarding Plainfield, New Jersey, and its Riot Area, September 6, 1967, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00246.
21. Ibid.
22. Memo on FRR, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 22, Frame 00571.
23. "1st Tenants Chosen for Project," Plainfield Courier-News, October 8, 1954, 1.
24. Housing Authority of Plainfield, "Annual Report," December 31, 1960, 5, Plainfield History Collection, Plainfield Public Library; on racial segregation and redevelopment plans in other small New Jersey cities, see Lizabeth Cohen, A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America (New York: Knopf, 2003), 213-17; on public housing more generally, see John F. Bauman, Roger Biles, and Kristin Szylvian, eds., From Tenements to the Taylor Homes: In Search of an Urban Housing Policy in Twentieth-Century America (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000).
25. "Opposes Subsidized Housing," Plainfield Courier-News, April 25, 1951.
26. "What Are the Facts on Housing in Plainfield?" 2.
27. " Housing Facilities for Low Income Groups," 2; and untitled article, Plainfield Courier-News, July 14, 1967, 4.
28. "Appeals for Home," Plainfield Courier-News, October 11, 1954, 26.
29. "What Are the Facts on Housing in Plainfield?" 4; "Annual Report," 1960, 4; and "1st Tenants Chosen for Project," 1.
30. "City Mending Its Social Fabric," Plainfield Courier-News, July 20, 1997; "When Racial Tension Boiled in the Summer of '67," Plainfield Courier News, July 20 and 24, 1997.
31. Memo on FRR, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 22, Frame 00571.
32. Lowry to Palmieri, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00246.
33. Lowry to Palmieri, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00245.
34. 1970 Census, 32-471 and 32-505.
35. Ibid., 32-505; and "Demand Construction Jobs in Plainfield," New York Amsterdam News, July 1, 1967, 32.
36. "White Man Is Called Master of Tricknology by Militant," Plainfield Courier-News, July 15, 1967, 3.
37. Letter from Victor W. Liotta, Director of Welfare, Union County, to Plainfield Mayor George Hetfield, October 18, 1967, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 27, Frame 00307.
38. "Summary of Findings on the Plainfield, N.J., 1967 Riot Area," Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00247.
39. "A Survey of Recreational Needs in the 'West End' of Plainfield, New Jersey," 18.
40. Northtown Survey on Human Relations, 55.
41. Max Wolff, A Study of Racial Imbalance in the Plainfield Public Schools: The Facts, Effects, and Remedies, Prepared for the Lay Advisory Committee to the Plainfield, NJ Board of Education, June 15, 1962, Plainfield History Collection, Plainfield Public Library.
42. "A Survey of Recreational Needs in the 'West End' of Plainfield, New Jersey," 1.
43. "Transcript of Interviews," Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 0027; and Report-NACCD, 76.
44. Annie McWilliams, interview by Andrew P. Goodman, April 9, 2005.
45. Commission interview with James Brown, Plainfield resident, conducted by Steve Kurzman and Steve Weiner, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00125.
46. Elliot Liebow, " Observations on Plainfield Trip," Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00361. Liebow, a leading urban ethnographer and one of the many prominent social scientists who consulted for the Kerner Commission, had recently published Tally's Corner: A Study of Negro Streetcorner Men (Boston: Little, Brown, 1967).
47. Memo on FRR, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 22, Frame 00596.
48. "Annual Report," 1960, 8.
49. Commission interview with Captain George Campbell and Lieutenant Daniel Hennessey, Plainfield Police Department, conducted by Steve Kurzman and Steve Weiner, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00145.
50. Office of the Assistant Deputy Director for Research, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 7, Frame 00230.
51. Office of the Assistant Deputy Director for Research, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 7, Frame 00229.
52. Report-NACCD, 41.
53. Address of Mayor George Hetfield to the Common Council of the City of Plainfield, January 7, 1967, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00334.
54. "Transcript of Interviews in the Negro Community on September 5 and 6, 1967," conducted by N. Jones and L. Satterfield, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00267.
55. "Where Do We Go from Here? Newark's Question," New York Amsterdam News, August 5, 1967, 25.
56. Office of the Assistant Deputy Director for Research, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 7, Frames 00229-00230; George Sternlieb and W. Patrick Beaton, The Zone of Emergence: A Case Study of Plainfield, New Jersey (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1972), 3; and Report-NACCD, 75-76.
57. "'End Hate'-Lattimore," Plainfield Courier-News, July 21, 1967, 11; and "Transcript of Interviews," Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00282.
58. Human Relations Commission of Plainfield, New Jersey, First Annual Report, 1963-1964, 3, 7, in Plainfield History Collection, Plainfield Public Library.
59. Office of the Assistant Deputy Director for Research, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 7, Frame 00232.
60. "Team Evaluation of Plainfield," from "Steve" to "David," Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 18, Frame 00512; and Ronald Zweig, Paul G. Tuerff, William Diggs Latouche, and John E. Angell, "Complaints and Human Relations: A System for Plainfield," May 1970, in Plainfield History Collection, Plainfield Public Library.
61. "Plainfield Negroes Protest Photographing of Pickets," New York Times, October 28, 1963, 15; generally, see June Shagaloff, "NAACP Memorandum: Public School Desegregation in the North and West," January 1963, Schomburg Clippings Files, 004-102, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, New York.
62. Wolff, Study of Racial Imbalance; Decision of the New Jersey Board of Education in Booker v. Plainfield Board of Education, February 5, 1964, copy in Plainfield History Collection, Plainfield Public Library.
63. Memo on FRR, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 22, Frame 00571.
64. Judkins interview, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00419.
65. Commission interview with Dr. Noble Hiebert, superintendent, Plainfield Schools, conducted by Steve Kurzman and Steve Weiner, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00172.
66. Commission interview with Alfred Schmidt, Director, Plainfield Building Commission, conducted by Steve Kurzman and Steve Weiner, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00110; and "Transcript of Interviews," Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00272.
67. "Teen 'Grievance' Session Brought Pledge of Action," 10.
68. "Transcript of Interviews," Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00264.
69. Commission interview with John Everington, Director of Industrial Relations for City of Plainfield, conducted by Steve Kurzman and Steve Weiner, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00122.
70. Commission interview with Plainfield Councilman Everett Lattimore, conducted by Steve Kurzman and Steve Weiner, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00192.
71. "NAACP Complaint Results in Aid for Poverty Project," Plainfield Courier-News, April 1, 1966; and "Speed Poverty Program after NAACP Protest," Chicago Defender, April 16, 1966.
72. Commission interview with Plainfield Councilman Harvey Judkins, conducted by Steve Kurzman and Steve Weiner, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00417.
73. "TeamEvaluation of Plainfield," Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 18, Frame 00512.
74. "Johnson Orders Severe Cuts in Spending," Plainfield Courier-News, July 13, 1967, 20.
75. "Plainfield Beset by Contradiction."
76. Office of the Assistant Deputy Director for Research, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 7, Frames 00232, 00241
77. "Transcript of Interviews," Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00267.
78. Letter to the Common Council of the City of Plainfield, State of New Jersey, signed Marshall C. Brown, President, Plainfield Area Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, February 11, 1967, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 7, Frame 00256-59; and Office of the Assistant Deputy Director for Research, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 7, Frame 00231.
79. Untitled document, Kerner Commission document filing, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 9, Frame 00681.
80. Memo on FRR, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 22, Frame 00576; Commission interview with John Harvard, Director, Community Action Plainfield, conducted by Steve Kurzman and Steve Weiner, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00091.
81. "'Each Summer More Dangerous,'" 18.
82. Lattimore testimony, 1057; and Report-NACCD, 76, 78.
83. "Riot Revisited," Plainfield Courier-News, Centennial Edition, 1884-1984, D-11, in Vertical File-P-Riots, Plainfield History Collection, Plainfield Public Library.
84. "Police Reports," Plainfield Courier-News, July 6, 1967, 40.
85. "Riot Revisited," D-11.
86. Office of the Assistant Deputy Director for Research, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 7, Frame 00221.
87. Memorandum of Conversation with David Hardy, Kerner Commission filing, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 27, Frame 00193.
88. Office of the Assistant Deputy Director for Research, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 7, Frame 00222.
89. "What's Cause of Trouble? Mayor Will Name Probers," Newark Star-Ledger, July 14, 1967, 6; and Report-NACCD, 76-77.
90. "Police Battle Snipers," Newark Star-Ledger, July 15, 1967, 1; on looting, see Cohen, Consumers' Republic, 374-78.
91. "Newark Leaders Struggle to Halt Rioting," Chicago Daily-Defender, July 17, 1967, 3.
92. Office of the Assistant Deputy Director for Research, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 7, Frame 00223.
93. "Forbearance Cools Plainfield Unrest," Plainfield Courier-News, July 15, 1967, 1.
94. "Flurry Near Newark," New York Times, July 15, 1967, 10.
95. Commission interview with Edward Sacher, conducted by Steve Kurzman and Steve Weiner, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00179; Lattimore interview, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00213.
96. Commission interview with Mayor George Hetfield, conducted by Steve Kurzman and Steve Weiner, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00226.
97. "Teen 'Grievance' Session Brought Pledge of Action," Plainfield Courier-News, July 17, 1967, 10. 99. Office of the Assistant Deputy Director for Research, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 7, Frame 00224.
98. "Profile - Plainfield - Final, Section 6," Kerner Commission filing, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 27, Frame 00113.
99. Liebow, "Observations," Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00368.
100. Memorandum to M. C. Miskovsky from Kathy Alder regarding McClellan Hearings - Continuation of Hearings on Plainfield, December 6, 1967, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 9, Part 00677.
101. Liebow, "Observations," Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00369.
102. Susan L. M. Huck, "The Attack on Plainfield," Plainfield Committee to Support Your Local Police, The Review of the NEWS, February 26, 1969, 12-8, in Vertical File-P-Riots-Gleason Case, Plainfield History Collection, Plainfield Public Library.
103. Interview of three Plainfield policemen, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00114.
104. Judkins interview, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00179; and Lattimore interview, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00201.
105. Testimony of George Lattimore, Senate Permanent Subcommittee Hearings on Riots, Civil and Criminal Disorders, part 4, December 5-7, 1967, 1051-52.
106. Lattimore testimony, 1056.
107. "Riot-Area Spokesman Tells How Truce Was Negotiated," Plainfield Courier-News, July 18, 1967, 1.
108. Liebow, "Observations," Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00376.
109. Memorandum to M. C. Miskovsky from Kathy Alder regarding McClellan Hearings-Continuation of Hearings on Plainfield, December 7, 1967, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 9, Part 00675.
110. "Transcript of Interviews in the Negro Community on September 5 and 6, 1967," conducted by N. Jones and L. Satterfield, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00269.
111. "Plainfield Cop Killed; Guard, Troopers Move In," Newark Star-Ledger, July 17, 1967, 1; Testimony of Everett Lattimore, Senate Permanent Subcommittee Hearings on Riots, Civil and Criminal Disorders, part 4, December 5-7, 1967, 1062; and Testimony of George Lattimore, in ibid., 1066.
112. Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice, "Racial Disturbance: Plainfield, New Jersey, July 15-17, 1967, Racial Matters," July 19, 1967, Kerner Commission filing, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00446; and "Looting Negroes Attack Patrolman," New York Times, July 17, 1967.
113. Office of the Assistant Deputy Director for Research, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 7, Frame 00225; Report-NACCD, 80; Testimony of George Lattimore, Senate Permanent Subcommittee Hearings on Riots, Civil and Criminal Disorders, part 4, December 5-7, 1967, 1067-72; and Testimony of Calvin King, in ibid., 1076.
114. Hetfield interview, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00237.
115. Lattimore interview, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00202.
116. Liebow, "Observations," Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00372.
117. "Profile," Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 27, Frame 00121.
118. Office of the Assistant Deputy Director for Research, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 7, Frame 00228; and "Plainfield Weapons Search," Bay State Banner, July 27, 1967.
119. Report-NACCD, 75-82.
120. Office of the Assistant Deputy Director for Research, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 7, Frame 00249; and Supplemental Studies for the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1968), 237.
121. Office of the Assistant Deputy Director for Research, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 7, Frame 00242.
122. Robert S. Fogelson, Violence as Protest: A Study of Riots and Ghettos (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971).
123. "Behind the Angry Riots," Baltimore Afro-American, July 22, 1967, 2.
124. "Forbearance Cools Plainfield Unrest," 1.
125. Commission interview with Charles Miller, David Sullivan, and David Rothberg of the Human Relations Commission, conducted by Steve Kurzman and Steve Weiner, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00170.
126. Untitled article, Plainfield Courier-News, 14 July 1967, 4.
127. Commission interview of unknown Plainfield youth, conducted by Steve Kurzman and Steve Weiner, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00112.
128. Kerner Commission document filing, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 9, Frame 00688; and Edward Banfield, The Unheavenly City Revisited (Boston: Little, Brown, 1974), 211-33.
129. "Plainfield, New Jersey," Kerner Commission filing, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00256; see also Fred M. Vinson Jr. to Ramsay Clark, July 21, 1967, in University Publications of America, Civil Rights during the Johnson Administration, 1963-69, part 1, in The White House Central Files, Washington, DC, Reel 3.
130. Memo on FRR, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 22, Frame 00521. For excellent discussions of the politics of self-defense, see Timothy Tyson, Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999); and Lance Hill, The Deacons of Defense: Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004).
131. "Guns-or-Death Threat Laid to Plainfield Police," New York Times, July 19, 1967, 42.
132. Memo on FRR, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 22, Frame 00517.
133. Report-NAACD, 38.
134. "Guards Seal Off Jersey Riot Area," Chicago Daily Defender, July 18, 1967, 3. George Lattimore, like many, believed that sensationalistic news coverage of Newark's disturbance gave license to Plainfield's discontents. See Lattimore testimony, 1047.
135. Office of the Assistant Deputy Director for Research, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 7, Frames 00242-00243; and Report-NAACD, 69.
136. "King Assails Congress for 'Inviting' Violence," Chicago Daily Defender, July 27, 1967, 2.
137. Report-NAACD, 69.
138. Lattimore testimony, 1048.
139. Ibid., 1074.
140. Untitled article, Plainfield Courier-News, July 14, 1967, 4.
141. "Johnson Orders Severe Cuts in Spending," Plainfield Courier-News, July 13, 1967, 20.
142. Judkins interview, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 26, Frame 00175.
143. Office of the Assistant Deputy Director for Research, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 7, Frame 00243.
144. Office of the Assistant Deputy Director for Research, Kerner Commission microfilm, Reel 7, Frame 00253.
145. Memorandum for Mr. Victor R. King from Anne Louise Davis, Plainfield Board of Education, November 18, 1968, Vertical File, Plainfield History Collection; and "Plainfield Racial Strife: After the Violence, Discontent Lingered for Years," Plainfield Courier-News, Centennial Edition, 1884-1984, in Vertical File - P-Riots, Plainfield History Collection, Plainfield Public Library.
146. "CAP Is Arranging Bail Funds, Food," Plainfield Courier-News, July 18, 1967, 9.
147. "Poverty War Gains Reported," Plainfield Courier-News, November 3, 1970, 13.
148. Sternlieb and Beaton, Zone of Emergence, 103.
149. "Gov. Hughes, Other State Officials Sued," New Jersey Afro-American, July 19, 1967, 1; and "N.J. Pays for Riot Damages," Afro American, January 10, 1970, 3.
150. "Prosecutor to Ask Dismissal of Charge against Williams," Plainfield Courier-News, October 28, 1969, 7.
151. Ibid.
152. Sternlieb and Beaton, Zone of Emergence, 73. For examples of police-community tension, see Huck, "The Attack on Plainfield"; and "Plainfield NAACP Prexy Joins Fight to Free Angela; Defies Pro-Cop Group," Afro-American, December 5, 1970.
153. Sternlieb and Beaton, Zone of Emergence, 191.
154. "C of C Deplores Riot's Ill Effects," Plainfield Courier-News, July 21, 1967, 21.
155. "Riot Revisited," D-11; for a discussion of larger patterns of post-riot disinvestment see William J. Collins and Robert A. Margo, "The Economic Aftermath of the 1960s Riots in American Cities: Evidence from Property Values" (Working Paper 10493, April 2005, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA).
156. Ibid.; and John R. Logan, "The State of Public School Integration," http://www.s4.brown.edu/schoolsegregation/index.htm (accessed September 20, 2005).
157. Sternlieb and Beaton, Zone of Emergence, 197.
158. "Everett C. Lattimore... Elected First Black Mayor," Jet, December 10, 1981, 13.
159. For a suggestive starting point, see Brian Ward, ed., Media, Culture, and the Modern African American Freedom Struggle (Gainesville: University of Florida, 2001).