The Divine One, Whitney, the Black Arts Movement and a city that elected its own leaders.
Newark's Voices
Sarah Vaughan was born in Newark to parents who had come up from Virginia, and grew up on Brunswick Street. She sang in the choir at New Mount Zion Baptist Church on Thomas Street, won Amateur Night at the Apollo singing Body and Soul and became known as The Divine One.
Whitney Houston was born in Newark on August 9, 1963, and grew up first on Wainwright Street. Her mother, Cissy Houston, was a Grammy-winning gospel and soul singer, and Whitney joined the choir at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark at the age of five.
A Growing City
From the 1950s to 1967 Newark's Black population grew from about 70,000 to 220,000, and most Black residents came to live in the city's South, Central and West Wards. In 1958 Louise Scott, who ran a beauty school, bought the Krueger mansion and ran her school from its first floor while she lived upstairs. The city later spent millions to make the Krueger-Scott Mansion a center for the Black contribution to Newark's growth, and since 2020 it has been turned into live and work spaces for local makers.
July 1967
In July 1967, after two police officers beat and arrested a Black cab driver, John William Smith, Newark erupted. At least 26 people died over the following days, and a state commission later named police misconduct and the political exclusion of Black residents among the causes.
The Black Arts Movement
Amiri Baraka was born in Newark and went to Barringer High School. In the 1960s he co-founded the Black Arts Movement, which shaped a generation of Black writers, and with his wife Amina he ran Spirit House in Newark, a playhouse and artists' residence.
City Hall
In 1970 Newark elected Kenneth A. Gibson, the first African American mayor of a major city in the Northeast, and he served for 16 years. In 2014 the city elected Ras Baraka, Amiri Baraka's son, as mayor.
Black Newark Today
Newark's Black community has shaped New Jersey's music, politics and arts for generations, and Black-owned restaurants, salons, shops and brands are part of everyday Newark.
Shop Black-owned businesses in Newark on CashBlack.
Photo Credits
The Krueger-Scott Mansion on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Photo: Jenn ModernWiki, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons Newark City Hall on Broad Street. Photo: Paul Sableman, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons