In July of 1967, Newark, New Jersey experienced several days of rioting. Like most urban riots in the mid to late 1960’s, Newark’s riots were described as "race riots," primarily due to the fact that the majority of the rioters were African-American and the issues that were discussed in conjunction with the riots were intertwined with race.These riots are a defining moment in the history of Newark. In addition to providing the impetus for intense reforms, they also established a sort of historical ground zero. Most new development now carries with it a reference point: "25 years since the riots" or "a block from riot torn Springfield Avenue." July 13 to July 17, 1967 has become the cognitive low-point in the history of Newark. The riots left more than the built environment in ruins; psychological, political, economic, social, and cultural processes and institutions were so irreparably ‘altered’ that I will also consider them as ruins. Every aspect of the riots can be considered from the architectural point of view. To do so reveals aspects of political actions that are excluded by other forms of analysis (sociological, economic, historical, etc.) Simultaneously, it reveals aspects of architecture that are obscured by traditional forms of architectural analysis.
So how do I write about riots? As I begin to even approach the subject it explodes backward and forward in time, in to the consciences of people and out to remote parts of the world. One urge would be to synthesize all of these divergent ideas into a coherent narrative in order to show the historical inevitability of the riots. The methodology of this thesis attempts to resist that urge by fractionating "the riots" into recurring themes and probing those pieces.
I use six newspapers as primary sources: the Newark Evening News; The New York Times; The Washington Post; the Los Angeles Times (from a city where major race riots had occurred in Watts in 1965); The Detroit News (from a city where major race riots happened a week after Newark’s); and The Times (in London, for a perspective from outside of the United States).
By closely reading these texts, I will try to demonstrate that the riots did not simply happen in the streets. The rioting only began as such when a series of institutions defined certain actions as a "riot" and launched a complex struggle over the definition of space. It is in this sense that the riots were architectural from the beginning.
Read the essay (pdf)
