The 1967 Newark riots were an episode of violent, armed conflict in the streets of Newark, New Jersey. Taking place over a four-day period (between July 12 and July 17, 1967), the Newark riots resulted in at least 26 deaths and hundreds more serious injuries. Serious property damage, including shattered storefronts and fires caused by arson, left much of the city's buildings damaged or destroyed. At the height of the conflict, the National Guard was called upon to occupy the city with tanks and other military equipment, leading to iconic media depictions that were considered particularly shocking when shared in the national press. In the aftermath of the riots, Newark was quite rapidly abandoned by many of its remaining middle-class and affluent residents, as well as much of its white working-class population. This accelerated flight led to a decades-long period of disinvestment and urban blight, including soaring crime rates and gang activity.
The Newark riots represented a flashpoint in a long-simmering conflict between elements of the city's then-growing African-American population, which had recently become a numerical majority, and its old political establishment, which remained dominated by members of non-African ethnic groups (especially Italian, Jewish, and Irish Americans) who had gained a political foothold in Newark during earlier generations. Endemic corruption in local government, combined with widespread racial prejudice, likely contributed to the city's failure, during the leadup to 1967, to include a more representative cross-section of the city's black population in its political power structure. Additionally, the Newark Riots were part of a larger national phenomenon, being among more than 150 race riots that occurred in the United States in the "Long Hot Summer of 1967". Some historians, focusing on the protest element of the conflict, have termed it the 1967 Newark Rebellion.
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