For six days in July of 1967 the deadliest racial disturbance in recent New Jersey history broke out in Newark when John Smith, a black cab driver was arrested and beaten for a minor traffic violation. Twenty-six people were killed, 725 were wounded, and the New Jersey National Guard occupied black neighborhoods with tanks and checkpoints while crowds rampaged and destroyed white-owned businesses.
In 2003, husband and wife film makers Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno and Jerome Bongiorno, in preparation for the full length narrative feature they are creating for Spike Lee, set out to make a short research film about the 1967 Newark riots. When they started interviewing key players and eyewitnesses -- from police officials, Newark residents, a core of historical experts on the city, and urban commentators -- they realized they had uncovered an account of the riots that had not been reported in newspapers or recorded in textbooks.
