Protest to Power: Lessons From the Making of Newark's First Black Mayor, Ken Gibson
What made 73% of Newark’s registered voters turn out in 1970 to elect the first Black mayor of any major northeastern US city, and how do those lessons translate to the quest for power today? How does that election 50 years ago help us explain the uprisings in cities all over the world? How do we attract youth in the quest for power through the vote as well as through protest?
RiseUpNewark.com, the City of Newark, and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center will examine this question through “The Gibson Virtual Teach-In,” in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Mayor Kenneth Gibson’s election for a timely, thought-provoking and engaging discussion.
Panelists include Junius Williams, Newark Historian, Elise Boddie, Professor at Rutgers Law School, Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka and the Reverend Jesse Jackson, among others.