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11 New-Ark and the Emergence of Pragmatic Nationalism H A D B A R A K A N OT been involved in any other political struggle, his activities in Newark alone would have solidified his status as one of the best-known black activist intellectuals of the Black Power era. His involvement in community organizing was critical to the election of Kenneth Gibson as Newark’s first black mayor. Gibson’s election was considered a momentous national event because it was one of the first successful efforts at electing a black mayor in a large city. During the late 1960s, the mainstream national media marketed the elections of black mayors as proof of American democratic possibility and racial progress. Often, these new black mayors were depicted as the culmination of the Civil Rights movement. In black America, the ecstatic public responses to the elections of Richard Hatcher in Gary, Indiana; Carl Stokes in Cleveland, Ohio; and Kenneth Gibson in Newark were overblown. In most instances, the elections of these figures were merely indications of the changing demographics of urban centers. The euphoria also concealed the fact that the newly elected black mayors were usually inheriting financially destitute cities. Nevertheless, given the history and breadth of the white racist dominance over Newark city politics, Gibson’s election was an outstanding achievement. In Newark, a succession of white ethnic mayoral regimes had utterly ignored the needs of its black residents. Unlike Chicago, where black voters had a long tradition of electoral activism, the hegemonic machine in Newark neither needed nor courted the black vote.1 As a result, blacks in Newark over time had become “beaten down” into a fatalistic acceptance of the racist status quo. Coming only three years after the colossal riot of 1967, Gibson’s victory in Newark became a symbol of change in black America. Black power rhetoric was becoming a reality. In Afro-American intellectual circles during the Black Power era, blacks in Newark had a political notoriety unrivaled by that of blacks in other cities. After all, Newark was the home of Amiri Baraka, the former LeRoi Jones and the preeminent black writer of the Black Power era. Angry but deliberate, 348 Baraka successfully channeled his justifiable rage by becoming the mastermind behind the 1970 black takeover of Newark. The city was an example of black possibility, a model that inspired activists in other cities. It had metaphorically become the New-Ark, the vessel for the regeneration of black America. Newark’s rebellion, a metaphorical and literal “fire next time” gave birth to Imamu Baraka, our modern-day Noah. Despite the romanticism and exaggeration often associated with this narrative of Baraka’s political journey, his activities in Newark between 1967 and 1974 were marked by a quality of political engagement that has rarely been rivaled in the twentieth century by traditional American intellectuals. It was unremarkable for poets to write poems and essays about political issues. But joining picket lines was rare. It was exceptional for an American poet to be arrested and imprisoned as a political prisoner. It was unheard of for an established poet/playwright of Baraka’s stature to take the lead in formulating political actions (e.g., establishing picket lines, leading boycotts, disrupting school board meetings, organizing electoral candidates, trying to build needed public housing) while continuing to write. Baraka, the writer who was politically engaged, became indistinguishable from Baraka, the political activist who wrote. Baraka became the model of the revolutionary black man. Baraka’s political activism in Newark becomes even more astounding when compared with the political activism of other, well-known twentiethcentury American literary figures (e.g., James Baldwin, James Farrell, Randolph Bourne, Adrienne Rich, Alice Walker, Lilian Smith, Charles White), most of whom used their artistic talent in their political pursuit. Conversely, Baraka put his efforts to work in a nonliterary political realm. In this sense, Baraka’s political activism is more reminiscent of the site changes of people like Joel Spingarn, a literary scholar who became head of the NAACP, Professor Alpheus Hunton of the Committee on African Affairs, or the many-talented W. E. B. Du Bois. Unlike these others, though, only Baraka chose to shuttle between a solitary literary existence and popular immersion in the sloppiness of mass politics. BLACK NEWARK:A COMMUNITY IN TROUBLE Like many northern industrial centers, Newark’s black population dramatically increased during the United States’ involvement in the two world wars. In the case of Newark, the greatest...

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