15th July. Saturday, had a lazy morning,
intended going to Newark for the afternoon,
but the riots broke out, and Newark
was sealed off. The shooting, fires and
looting was shocking. Barney not knowing
of the trouble went to call on his customers
and was extremely lucky to get back home
without any harm.
[The Newark riots of 1967 actually started on the night of July 13th, inflamed further by shootings on the 14th. By the end of the riots, 26 were dead (including one police officer and one firefighter) and over 700 injured. The riots have also appeared in a range of books, films and television programmes – as backdrop or as focus]