By Carla Astudillo | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
It's been 50 years since the city of Newark was rocked by riots. Historians say years of racial tensions due to redlining policies, police racial profiling and poverty that disproportionately affected the city's black residents preceded the unrest.
The riots, which resulted in the death of 26 people and caused $10 million in damage, changed the city in a myriad of ways that are still affecting a community that's working to revitalize itself.
Historical Census tract data from the National Historical Geographic Information System show the seismic shift in population and demographics that the city has undergone in the last 50 years. Below are maps that chronicle these changes in New Jersey's largest city since 1960.
Since 1960, Newark’s total residential population has plummeted from over 400,000 to about 277,000. Loss of population continued through the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s, but started to slow down by 2000. In 2010, Newark’s population grew slightly from what it was ten years prior. The decline in population is most noticeable in the Central Ward where the riots took place in 1967.
Most of that population loss came from Newark’s white residents moving out of the city. The exodus was already starting to take place by the year of the riots– the number of white residents living in Newark drastically declined by more than 21 percent from 1960 to 1970. During the 70’s and 80’s, the white population fled to North, West and East wards, but by 2000, the largest percentages of white residents were found in East and North wards. In 2010, however, the percentage of white residents went up slightly.
While Newark’s white population dramatically declined, the city’s black population expanded, especially in the Central, West and South wards. Since 1960, the black population has skyrocketed reaching a peak of 58.5 percent in 1990. It has slightly declined, however, since 2000.
Even though white flight was already taking shape by 1967, the dramatic shift in the demographics continued for decades after the riots. Like a puzzle, the racial makeup of Newark’s neighborhoods are explicitly linked– where Newark’s white residents leave, the city’s black residents take their place.
The other big demographic change is the dramatic increase in the Hispanic population. The percent of Hispanics living in Newark more than doubled from 1970 to 2010. These residents mostly settled in the North and East wards.
Note: In 1960, the Census counted Hispanics as residents with a Spanish or Puerto Rican surnames. That's why it's problematic to compare 1960's 2.4 percent Hispanic population to 1970's 12 percent.
The increase in the Hispanic population is also present in Newark’s rise in the foreign-born population. The percent of foreign-born resident has more than doubled since 1960. The most dramatic uptick happened between 1990 and 2000 when the foreign-born percentage went from 27.5 percent to about 44 percent. However, these maps also show the significant Portuguese population in the neighborhood of Ironbound, along with the Haitian and West Indian strongholds in Upper Vailsburg.
The city’s home vacancy rate has more than doubled since 1960. Vacancies were more concentrated in the Central ward from 1960 to 1990, and then spread out more evenly in 2000 and 2010. The effects of the housing bubble and the foreclosures that followed it in 2008 may be one reason that the vacancy rates dramatically increased from 2000 to 2010.
Newark’s unemployment rate has also more than doubled since 1960. While unemployment was mostly found in the Central ward in 1960 and 1970, it started to spread throughout the city in subsequent years. Like with the vacancy rate, the 2010 figures show the effects of the 2008 recession.
Note: These unemployment figures are from the Census which measures unemployment differently from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is the more official unemployment count of the two. That's why BLS unemployment figures are always lower than what the Census puts out. For example, BLS reports Newark's 2010 unemployment rate at about 15.1 percent. However, BLS does not report geographic data like the Census does.
The percentage of Newark’s residents who have at least a high school education has increased significantly since 1960. In 2010, about 42.8 percent of residents have at a minimum graduated from high school. While the Central ward neighborhoods lagged behind in the first thirty years, the percentage of high school graduates became more evenly spread starting at about the year 2000.
However, Newark’s poverty rate has remained stubbornly steady. The rate peaked in 1980 at 32.7 percent and then dipped into the twenties by 2010. Still, the city’s poverty rate is still twice as high as New Jersey’s. The neighborhoods most affected have been the Central and South Wards.
Note: No Census tract poverty rate was available for 1960.
When adjusted in 2016 dollars, the median household income in Newark has increased only slightly since 1980. Starting in 1990, there are certain neighborhoods like Upper Vailsburg in East ward that become relatively more affluent than their neighboring areas. However, Newark’s median household income is still only a little more than half of New Jersey’s median household income.
Unfortunately, there is no detailed, historical geographic data on crime rates. However, the FBI does provide numbers they received from the Newark Police Department since 1985 on city-wide crime rates. The data shows that since 1985, the violent crimes reported to Newark police peaked in 1995 and then dramatically dropped in subsequent years. Through the 2000’s, the violent crime rate has remained stagnant at about 1,000 crimes per 100,000 residents. Violent crime includes murder, nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. However, when you look at the murder crime rate alone, it has remained relatively consistent with a few ups and downs. In 1985, the murder rate in Newark was 37 per 100,000 residents while in 2010, it was 33.
(AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler, File)
Read more about the Newark Riots