Soul Brother

I grew up in Essex county New Jersey. This area included socioeconomic and race extremes. From filthy rich to stinking poor. Whitey white to all shades of brown and black. Essex county included primarily “black” towns such as Newark, and “white” towns, like Short Hills, an exclusive area of Milburn. In NJ there was always a racial mix where ever you went. School, the movies, sports, just out and about. We all kind of had an identity. Yeah, there was prejudice and disparity, but somehow we got along, sometimes we did not. When you’re young it takes a while to learn how to hate a people as a group.

I was young and at scout camp when the riots in Newark hit in the sixties. Not unlike the BLM movement of today, it was a hot, hot summer. And the white police gone and went a little too far on a black man in Newark. On this particular day I was at camp, where the agenda was swimming, canoeing, crafts, and singing, the Newark girls were crying. They were about to board a bus to take them home. They were not crying because they were leaving the fun times at camp, they were crying cause at home, people were dying. There were race riots, looting, destruction of buildings, and massive fires. Not unlike what we’re seeing around the country today.

My father grew up in Newark, but like many, fled to the suburbs. We still had connections to Newark, an occasional service at St Nicholas, and, my uncle still worked there at a printing shop. I visited the shop a few times, it was my initiation to the world of printing, typesetting and graphic design. Many years later I was to learn that my uncle’s printing house, did not get destroyed in the Newark race riots. They had locals working for them. They hired a black man to work in the shop. Sometime during the riots, someone had painted the words “SOUL BROTHER” across the store front window. It didn’t get burned, did not get broken into, no widows smashed. The business survived.