Douglas Eldridge Collection

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: MG Nwk Eldridge-(Main)

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of research or background files and general material relating to the United Community Corporation (UCC) and to the Newark riots of 1967.

Boxes 1 and 2, United Community Corporation: contain transcripts of testimony before the City Council's investigating committee; the committee's report; a minority report by Councilman Irvine I. Turner; the full UCC statement in response to the Council's critique; and UCC documents, including statements, by-laws, reports, minutes, correspondence, publications, program summaries, press releases, memos, photographs, and related newspaper clippings. Also included are handwritten notes, annotated proofs of articles, and published articles by Eldridge (1965-1969)

Box 3, contains material on the Newark Riots, including follow-up studies and reports (1967-1969) in 4 folders. The contents are as follows:

Box 3, Folder 1: "Team Report: Rebellion against 'Whitey'," written by a team of six United Press International reporters, Richard F. Fontana, Alex J. Michelini, Gordon Joseloff, Douglas Smart, Robert Sullivan and Joseph Dileo; and other magazine articles and newspaper clippings

Folder 2: "List of Fatalities during Civil Disturbance, July 21, 1967"; "Emergency Recommendation" by Newark Council of Business Associations," adopted by Executive Committee of the Committee of Concern at a meeting on August 8, 1967; "A Riot or 'Criminal Insurrection'" by Rev. T. M. Booth; "We residents of Newark, make the following immediate demands"; "We make the following long range demands upon city, state and federal officials"; "Free Our Black Brothers!"; "The Urban League of Essex County at a Special Meeting"; "Medical Emergency Service Unit"; "Letter to Dr. Frank Stanton, President (WCBS-TV)," by Essex Newark District Council of the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women; "Committee of Concern"; "Investigation of Allegations of Participation by Legal Service Systems in the Newark and Plainfield Riots," by the Committee on Law and Poverty of the New Jersey Bar Association; "The Legal Services Program's Role in the Riots"; "Save Our City"; "Black Survival Bulletin"; "Statement of the Committee of Concern"; "A Law Day Symposium: Riots and their Prevention," by Rutgers Young Americans for Freedom; and press releases, correspondence, memorandums, transcripts, etc.

Box 3, Folder 3: "Witnesses before Governor's Commission on Civil Disorder"; "Report for Action Conference, Mr. Lilley's Opening Remarks"; "Civil Disorders, U.S.A. Reports and Recommendations"; "Special Message on Capital Needs" by Governor Richard J. Hughes to the Legislature, 1968; "Public Policy Forum on Civil Disorders: Causes and Remedies, Rutgers -- The State University; Bureau of Government Research and University Extension Division"; "Resolutions Passed by the Black Caucus of the Public Policy Forum on Civil Disorders -- May 10, 1968"; "Statement of Sanford M. Jaffe"; "Statement Prepared by Gustav Heningburg, President of the Greater Newark Urban Coalition, for inclusion with release of 'One Year Later' Study on February 27, 1969"; "Excerpts from 'One Year Later' Study, 1969"; "Statement Prepared by Andrew Heiskell, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Urban America Inc., for delivery at release of 'One Year Later' Study at 10 A.M., February 27, 1969"; "Progress Report #3, The Kerner Report and AJC -- One Year Later, American Jewish Committee"; "Report for Action -- One Year Later" by Sanford M. Jaffe, Robert D. Lilley, Raymond A. Brown, Robert B. Meyner, Alfred E. Driscoll, Bishop John J. Dougherty, John J. Gibbons, Ben Z. Leuchters, Oliver Lofton, Bishop Prince A. Taylor, Jr., William A. Wachenfeld, Stephen Farber, and John Kolesar; "Statement by Mayor Hugh J. Addonizio, February 12, 1968"; "Commission Members"; "The Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders: An Analysis by Bayard Rustin," published by the A. Philip Randolph Institute; and press releases, etc.

Box 3, Folder 4: "Riot Commission names key staff"; "Police forces and black militants are arming for a second civil war"; "Preliminary Analysis of Statements Concerning Law Enforcement during Newark Riots"; "The Newark Legal Services Project: Reply to Presentment of Eighth Grand Jury (Essex County) 1967 Term"; Transcript of "Let's Find Out" broadcast on WCBS Radio, Sunday, July 16, 1967; Catastrophe Bulletin, August 9, 1967; "Heritage Foundation stresses need for black and white unity"; "Remarks of Roger W. Wilkins, Director, Community Relations Service, U.S. Department of Justice before the New York Conference on Community Values and Conflict, May 5, 1967"; "Reports Study on Riot-Prone American Cities" (Northwestern University Urban Journalism Center); copy of Congressional Record (July 19, 1967); "Law in Action" (March 1968); and "The Church and the Riots: Guidelines for Diocesan Strategy in Northern Urban Areas" (January 16, 1966). Also included are press releases from the NAACP, ACLU, State of New Jersey, American Jewish Committee, and other organizations.

Box 4 contains newspaper clippings relating to Newark Riots, in 4 large envelopes. One envelope contains clippings from the Newark Evening News. The other 3 envelopes contain clippings from the Star-Ledger, the New York Times, and many other newspapers from across the New Jersey-New York-Pennsylvania region. Notable are clippings from the New Jersey Afro-American, the Herald-Advocate, and the Springfield Avenue News. Also in Box 4 are 2 recruiting flyers for the New Jersey National Guard.

Dates

1965 - 1969

Creator

Eldridge, Douglas (Person)

Conditions Governing Use

Photocopying of materials is limited and no materials may be photocopied without permission from library staff. Researchers wishing to publish, reproduce, or reprint materials from this collection must obtain permission.

Biographical / Historical

Douglas (Doug) Eldridge was born on April 23, 1935 in Rochester, NY. Educated in the public and parochial schools of Rochester, he graduated from Colombia University (where he was editor-in-chief of the Columbia Daily Spectator) in January 1958 and went on to do graduate work in urban studies at City College, New York. He married his wife Marjorie in 1957 and the couple have two sons.

Eldridge moved to Newark in 1960 as a reporter for the Newark News, specializing in civil rights and urban affairs. Throughout the 1960s he covered municipal politics, the development of anti-poverty and urban renewal programs, watershed issues, police-community relations, civil rights and Black Power organizing, the 1967 riots and their aftermath, and a host of other important stories. In 1971, when a labor dispute broke out at the Newark News (resulting in a 6-month strike), he was unanimously elected as first chairman of the Newspaper Guild unit at the paper. After the demise of the News in 1972, he became assistant director of the Newark Public Information office in the administration of Mayor Kenneth A. Gibson. In 1982 he became Staff Analyst in the Office of the City Clerk, where he drafted and reviewed legislation and resolutions for the City Council, carried out research and prepared reports to the Council, and edited the annual publication, "Know Your City Government."

He has been a warden and lay reader at the House of Prayer Episcopal Church and a member of the Diocesan Council, a charter member and Executive Director of the Newark Preservation and Landmarks Committee, and a member of the Urban League of Essex County. He moved to East Orange in 1968.

As a Newark News reporter Eldridge came to specialize in issues relating to civil rights, urban renewal, and community activism, including anti-poverty programs. The first portion of the collection reflects his intensive work on the United Community Corporation (UCC), the agency that coordinated Newark's anti-poverty programs. The UCC was founded in 1964 to function as a private, non-profit Community Action Program Agency for Newark, under provisions of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. Some of the documents in the collection were generated as a result of a 1965 City Council investigation and report critical of the UCC, its President Dean Willard C. Heckel, and its Executive Director, Cyril D. Tyson. Among other allegations, Councilman Frank Addonizio charged that the UCC was dominated by "militant left-wing individuals." The UCC prepared and distributed a 78-page reply to the Council's report. The latter portion of the collection contains research materials on the Newark Riots of 1967.