A Mayor for All the People : Kenneth Gibson's Newark

Holmes, Robert C. (EDT)/ Roper, Richard W. (EDT)/ Coleman, Bonnie (FRW)

Rutgers University Press（2019/11発売）

• 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版／ページ数 354 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9780813598765
• DDC分類 974.9043092

Full Description

 2021 winner of Edited Works category: New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance

In 1970, Kenneth Gibson was elected as Newark, New Jersey's first African-American mayor, a position he held for an impressive sixteen years. Yet even as Gibson served as a trailblazer for black politicians, he presided over a troubled time in the city's history, as Newark's industries declined and its crime and unemployment rates soared.
 
This book offers a balanced assessment of Gibson's leadership and his legacy, from the perspectives of the people most deeply immersed in 1970s and 1980s Newark politics: city employees, politicians, activists, journalists, educators, and even fellow big-city mayors like David Dinkins. The contributors include many of Gibson's harshest critics, as well as some of his closest supporters, friends, and family members—culminating in an exclusive interview with Gibson himself, reflecting on his time in office.
 
Together, these accounts provide readers with a compelling inside look at a city in crisis, a city that had been rocked by riots three years before Gibson took office and one that Harper's magazine named "America's worst city" at the start of his second term. At its heart, it raises a question that is still relevant today: how should we evaluate a leader who faced major structural and economic challenges, but never delivered all the hope and change he promised voters?
 

Contents

Foreword by U.S. Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman
Preface by Robert C. Holmes
 
Introduction: How Should We Measure the Historical Significance of the Kenneth Gibson Era in Newark?
Robert C. Holmes
1          On Being First
Mayor David Norman Dinkins
Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver
Mayor Patricia Sheehan
2          Navigating Racial Politics
Fred Means
Barbara Kukla
Martin Bierbaum
Mayor Sharpe James
State Senator Ronald Rice
Fran Adubato
Sheldon Bross, Esq.
Elizabeth "Liz" Del Tufo
Robert "Bob" Pickett
Marie Villani
Steve Adubato, Jr.
Harold Hodes
William Payne
Grizel Ubarry
Rev. DeForest Soaries
Junius Williams, Esq.
Charles I. Auffant, Esq.
3          Friends and Family
Elton Hill
Harold Gibson
Camille Savocca Gibson
4          Trying to Make City Government Work
Rev. James A. Scott
Diane Johnson
James "Jack" Krauskopf
Dennis Cherot
Phillip Elberg, Esq.
Robert C. Holmes, Esq.
Richard W. Roper
Jerome Harris
Thomas Massaro
Lawrence "Larry" Hamm
Vicki Donaldson
Hubert Williams, Esq.
Alan Zalkind
Roger Lowenstein, Esq.
5          An In-Depth Look inside City Government: Mayor Gibson's Right-Hand Man
David Dennison
6          Working with the Anchor Institutions
Al Koeppe
Vincente Perez
Richard Cammarieri
Monsignor William Linder
Saul Fenster
Zachary "Zach" Yamba
Gene Vincenti
Frank Askin, Esq.
George Hampton
7          Forces beyond a Mayor's Control
Brendan "Dan" O'Flaherty
Jon Dubin, Esq.
8          Mayor Gibson Reflects
Conclusion: Gibson's Legacy—The Man, the Time, and the Place, 1970-1986
Richard W. Roper
 
Afterword by Robert S. Holmes and William M. Tiersten
Notes on Contributors
Index