Trailblazing mayor dies
Newark’s first black mayor, Kenneth Gibson, elected in wake of racial tensions and the city’s explosive riots, has died. He was 86.
Gibson was also the first black person to serve as mayor of a major Northeast city after he beat out incumbent Mayor Hugh Addonizio in 1970. His election came just three years after the Newark race riots swept through the city during the “Long Hot Summer of 1967.”
“1970 was a year of transition and difficult times. He paved the way for every major African American elected official in this state and many places around the country,” Newark Mayor Ras Baraka wrote in a Facebook tribute Friday night.
“He said wherever the country goes, Newark will get there first. He understood our place in history. And still decades later, as many of us still try to figure out the origin of our problems and wallow in self-hatred blaming each other Ken started believing in us years ago. His sacrifice was great. He made himself a target so that we have the right to see this city in our own image.”
Gibson, an Alabama native, made his way to New Jersey to attend the Newark College of Engineering — now the New Jersey Institute of Technology — and went on to work as an engineering aide for the state Highway Department, according to NJ.com
His first mayoral bid in 1966 catapulted him to the local spotlight — while he failed to unseat Addonizio, he shocked the community by finishing with a whopping 15,000 votes.
Gibson was successful in his second campaign and was voted in as mayor in 1970. He was reelected again in 1974 and ran unopposed in 1978. In 1981, the New Jersey politician expanded his focus and sought the democratic nomination for governor, which he lost to to James Florio.
He ran again in 1985, but failed for a second time to secure the nomination.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy in a statement praised Gibson for restoring “stability, promise and pride to a city that needed all three” following the Newark riots.
“An engineer by training, Mayor Gibson focused on issues of equality fair housing, and public health,” Murphy said, adding that the current lieutenant governor, Sheila Oliver, started her career with his administration as Director of the Office of Youth and Special Projects.
“The striving Newark of today first began to take shape under Mayor Gibson, and the city’s future successes will, in no small part, find their foundation in his work. Our prayers go out to his wife, Camille, and the entire Gibson family.”