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The Newark Experience

Federal Investigation: The Kerner Commission

United States. National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. Report
Washington, Government Printing Office, 1968.
Report of the Commission appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to investigate the riots that had occured in Newark and elsewhere in the U.S. Chapter one of what came to be known as the "Kerner Report" consists of "profiles of a selection of the disorders that took place during the summer of 1967. These profiles are designed to indicate how the disorders happened, who participated in them, and how local officials, police forces, and the National Guard responded." A pivotal report in the history of civil rights. Available? Other Edition
Supplemental Studies for the National Advisory Commission on Civil Rights. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1968.
Includes reports on Racial Attitudes in Fifteen American Cities by Angus Campbell and Howard Schuman; Between Black and White: The Faces of American Institutions in the Ghetto by Peter H. Rossi et al.; and Who Riots? A Study of Participation in the 1967 Riots by Robert M. Fogelson and Robert B. Hill. Available?
Racial Attitudes in Fifteen American Cities: 1968
Data files and documentation used in the study above. 2nd ICPSR version. Restricted Access
Newark Riots Papers, 1968
U.S. National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. Photocopies of presentments, reports, and affidavits related to deaths and police abuse that occurred during the civil disturbances in Newark from July 13 through July 18, 1967. The photocopies are of original material held at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, Austin, TX. Includes files on individual victims. Newark Public Library collection.
Records of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission)
"Records...include transcripts and background material of Commission meetings and Commission and staff subject [office] files. There are also photographs, audio recordings, media reports (newspaper, magazine, and other periodicals), government and non-government publications, and research studies. In addition, the collection contains correspondence, books, and many intermediate documents and working papers. Also included are a number of indexes, bibliographies and statistical analyses." Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas.
Records of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders [Microfilm]
Pt. 5 of Civil Rights During the Johnson Administration, 1963-1969 microfilm set. 28 reels that include much (although certainly not all) of what is available in the Johnson Library. Available?
A Guide to the Microfilm Edition Part V: Records of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission)
Finding aid for the microfilm set.
Records of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders [Embargoed Series]
Previously embargoed material includes confidential and secret reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, other Government agencies, and the Commission staff, as well as some sound recordings made in the field. Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas.

The Kerner Report: Looking Back

Quiet Riots: Race and Poverty in the United States
Fred R. Harris and Roger W. Wilkins. New York, Pantheon Books, 1988.
"The Kerner report twenty years later." Available?
The Kerner Commission: 40 Years Later
March 28, 2008.
Video and transcript. Includes an interview with Fred Harris, one of the last living members of the original Kerner Commission.
Separate and Unequal: The Kerner Commission and the Unraveling of American Liberalism
Steven M. Gillon. New York, NY, Basic Books, 2018.
A new history of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. Available?
Healing our Divided Society: Investing in America Fifty Years After the Kerner Report
Fred R. Harris and Alan Curtis, editors. Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 2018.
"Fred Harris, the last surviving member of the Kerner Commission, along with Eisenhower Foundation CEO Alan Curtis, re-examine fifty years later the work still necessary towards the goals set forth in The Kerner Report. " Available?

House Un-American Activities Committee

Subversive Influences in Riots, Looting, and Burning. Part.4: Newark, N.J [Begins on p. 51]
Congress. House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Washington, D.C., 1968
Available?

New Jersey: the Lilley Commission

Report for Action: An Investigation into the Causes and Events of the 1967 Newark Race Riots
New Jersey. Governor's Select Commission on Civil Disorder [Lilley Commission]. February, 1968. Available?
Governor's Select Commission on Civil Disorder Records (1967-1968)
New Jersey State Archives.
Report and Hearing Transcripts
Over a six month period the Lilley commission held 65 meetings and examined 106 witnesses. The Rutgers Law Library has digitized some 6,000 pages of hearing transcripts and associated reports.
Negro and White Attitudes Toward Problems and Progress in Race Relations: A Study Among Residents of Newark and Adjacent Communities, for the Governor's Select Commission to Study Civil Disorder
Princeton, N.J., Opinion Research Corporation, 1968. Available?

The Committee of Concern

Records of the Committee of Concern, 1965-1971, 1967-1968.
Newark, Rutgers-Newark Office of the Vice President. 3.75 cubic ft. (3 record cartons)
"The Committee of Concern was formed in 1967 in response to riots that took place in Newark, New Jersey. Its aim was to determine the causes for the riots and to formulate possible social and economic improvements. The records of the committee, maintained by Malcolm Talbott, co-chair of the committee and Vice President at Rutges-Newark, consists primarily of minutes of meetings, correspondence, reports, newspaper clippings, and related materials." Available?

New Jersey PBA

The Road to Anarchy. Finding of Riot Study Commission of the New Jersey State Patrolman's Benevolent Association, Inc. Jersey City, 1968
The New Jersey PBA's own study found the conclusions of both the Kerner Commission and the Lilley Commission to be "unsubstantiated, unfounded and unwarranted." Available?
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