Newark riots recall era echoed by Black Lives Matter

NEWARK, New Jersey – The recent protests sparked by the killings of unarmed black men by police in cities across the country echo the urban riots of the 1960s.

In 1967, Newark, New Jersey, became the center of black rage after a black cab driver was badly beaten by white officers.

The incident sparked four days of deadly violence and revealed a community roiled by oppressive treatment by city government and police.

Newark was a deadly entry in the long list of major urban areas that exploded over a five-year period. Days after Newark burned, Detroit followed. The disorders exposed — for the first time to much of white America — racial and economic disparities that went far beyond the familiar scenes of segregation in the South.