Lawrence Hamm was just a child when the city he called home erupted in the Newark Rebellion of 1967.
He recalled him and his mother taking shelter in his grandparents’ house, witnessing the National Guard rolling into their community with rifles and tanks. They were unable to leave the house for several days. Broken glass covered the streets, and the smell of burning buildings filled the air.
“We literally watched it every night from our second floor porch,” said Hamm in an interview with New Jersey Urban News. I’ll never forget seeing the soldiers marching up 16th Avenue.”…