Book Description

"This dissertation is the first historical treatment of Weequahic, a residential section in the city of Newark. This study is a structural analysis and social history of urban decline. In the early 20th century, Weequahic was a middle class residential neighborhood composed of homes designed according to suburban standards, yet the appeal of the community was its proximity to industry and commerce in Newark. From the 1930s through the early 1960s, Weequahic was a predominantly Jewish enclave, but by 1965 the community was transitioning to a majority Black neighborhood. Weequahic, like Newark, was subject to decline wrought by deindustrialization. The urban crisis in Newark began as early as the 1920s when Newark's business leaders diverted municipal funds to commercial enterprises at the expense of the needs of Newark's citizens. Post-World War II federal development policies exacerbated urban decline as federal dollars subsidized the expansion of the suburbs; the clearance of slums for the chief purpose of commercial development; and the construction of highways that connected airports, seaports, and Newark's Central Business District to suburbia. These structural changes occurred at the same time thousands of African Americans migrated to the urban North during the Second Great Migration. The combined impact of the Housing Acts of 1949 and 1954, as well as the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 accelerated the departure of whites from the city, and stripped from Newark the economic and institutional supports that buoyed generations of white ethnics. The uprisings of 1967 led to the swift egress of Newark's remaining Jews to the suburbs, but Weequahic Jews began the trek to the suburbs as early as 1950. Newark's Black community emerged in a period of diminishing possibilities. While some members of the Jewish community labored with African Americans to halt neighborhood decline, Newark's civic leaders betrayed the community trust for personal monetary gain. The residents of Weequahic, and indeed Black residents of Newark, bore the cost of this collusion. Mount Zion analyzes the impact of federal housing and highway policy on the Weequahic section of Newark through an analysis of federal legislation, the oral histories of Weequahic residents, United States Census data, real estate advertisements, and the literary works of authors from Newark."--Page ii