Eagleton: A Mayor for All the People: Kenneth Gibson’s Newark
A Mayor for All the People: Kenneth Gibson’s Newark
New Brunswick, N.J. — The Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University—New Brunswick is hosting a book launch event for A Mayor for All the People: Kenneth Gibson’s Newark with editors Robert C. Holmes and Richard Roper.
A Mayor for All the People: Kenneth Gibson’s Newark
The Albert W. Lewitt Endowed Lecture
WHEN: Wednesday, November 14th at 5:45PM – Book Talk, Reception to Follow
WHERE: Eagleton Institute of Politics, 191 Ryders Lane, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
WHAT: A discussion about The Mayor for All the People: Kenneth Gibson’s Newark. In 1970, Kenneth Gibson was elected as Newark, New Jersey’s first African-American mayor, a position he held for an impressive sixteen years. Yet even as Gibson served as a trailblazer for black politicians, he presided over a troubled time in the city’s history, as Newark’s industries declined and its crime and unemployment rates soared. This book, published by Rutgers University Press, offers a balanced assessment of Gibson’s leadership and his legacy, from the perspectives of the people most deeply immersed in 1970s and 1980s Newark politics.
WHO:
Robert C. Holmes is a clinical professor of law at Rutgers University. He served in the Gibson administration as executive director of the Newark Housing Development and Rehabilitation Corporation, then was later named executive director of the Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corporation. He has also served as assistant commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs and as a partner in the law firm Wilentz Goldman and Spitzer.
Richard W. Roper is a visiting associate at the Eagleton Institute of Politics and a policy consultant whose many positions in local, state, regional, and federal government agencies also included stints as director of the Program for New Jersey Affairs and assistant dean of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He later served as planning department director at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and as a senior fellow at the Rockefeller Institute of Government at the state University of New York.
