I'm from Asbury Park and was surrounded, on several fronts, by the riots. I'd like to address some misconceptions and errors from Commentators. 1) in 1970, I was one of the 200+ out of 700 African Americans who received a job that year. It was with the Social Security Administration when it was located across the street from the Bus Station. 2) in 1970, there were only 3 Black people employed on the board walk and, yes, they imported all white HS and College students for all the other jobs. I'll explain how I know this later. 3) the west side dept. store on Springwood Ave. was named Fishers, Levines was the Department Store on Cookman Ave. 4) the riot started at approx. 12:30 on July 4 and it originated from African Americans coming from the boardwalk, where they probably noticed that everyone employed on Boardwalk was White. These people were probably joined in the middle(Springwood and Atkins) by people from the dance at the Westside Community Center. This corner was the epicenter of the riot for at least the 1st 24 hours. 5) the riots were not started by outside agitators and outside agitators were not allowed in Asbury Park. From my window directly across the street from the bus station, I watched police, what would be called profiling now, stop and make most Black People get back on the bus and leave town. I can't speak for the train station, but I'm pretty sure the same was true there. 6) on July 5, I went to work assuming the riot was over, but it continued and moved across the tracks. The 4 African Americans at SSA were told to leave work early and be careful. I took a circuitous route, down the beach up to Sunset. To my shock, I saw tanks on the beach. So that person that called it bull$hit that someone saw tanks in Asbury Park, guess what? You were wrong. I've only heard of one other person who saw those tanks -there wasn't a soul on the beach. This other person explained it as a military training exercise. That was 20 years after the fact and I didn't believe him. 7) there was a lot of racial tension in AP and APHS. I was just told, 45 years later, there was a mini riot in the Spring when several White boys were beat up. Apparently, why fewer White Kids at APHS the following year. Interestingly enough, this was the first time I'd heard about this mini riot. 8) the riot did not result in more African American employees (well, one more). Once again, I was lucky enough to get a job in one of the gift shops (I took the place of my sister-in-law, her sister worked at the other gift shop-both owned by the same family). There was a chemistry major who developed the best tasting waffle ice cream recipe I've ever tasted and there was a young man who worked in the Arcade. Even after the riots, the majority I.e. All but 4 people were imported from North Jersey or New York year after year after year. Most of the White employees were well-to-do students whose parents rented them apts. in AP for the Summer. 7) Heat,unemployment, poverty and frustration caused that riot. And I know most people think the riot killed AP, but the beachfront was still alive and active for at least 5 years after the riot(I know because I worked on the boardwalk those years) If it killed AP, it killed it very slowly indeed. There's more, but I've bored you enough. Like someone said, it's like it happened yesterday. And with my luck, I moved to L.A. and had the misfortune of having to experience the Rodney King riot, this time from a distance.
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I'm from Asbury Park and was surrounded, on several fronts, by the riots. I'd like to address some misconceptions and errors from Commentators. 1) in 1970, I was one of the 200+ out of 700 African Americans who received a job that year. It was with the Social Security Administration when it was located across the street from the Bus Station. 2) in 1970, there were only 3 Black people employed on the board walk and, yes, they imported all white HS and College students for all the other jobs. I'll explain how I know this later. 3) the west side dept. store on Springwood Ave. was named Fishers, Levines was the Department Store on Cookman Ave. 4) the riot started at approx. 12:30 on July 4 and it originated from African Americans coming from the boardwalk, where they probably noticed that everyone employed on Boardwalk was White. These people were probably joined in the middle(Springwood and Atkins) by people from the dance at the Westside Community Center. This corner was the epicenter of the riot for at least the 1st 24 hours. 5) the riots were not started by outside agitators and outside agitators were not allowed in Asbury Park. From my window directly across the street from the bus station, I watched police, what would be called profiling now, stop and make most Black People get back on the bus and leave town. I can't speak for the train station, but I'm pretty sure the same was true there. 6) on July 5, I went to work assuming the riot was over, but it continued and moved across the tracks. The 4 African Americans at SSA were told to leave work early and be careful. I took a circuitous route, down the beach up to Sunset. To my shock, I saw tanks on the beach. So that person that called it bull$hit that someone saw tanks in Asbury Park, guess what? You were wrong. I've only heard of one other person who saw those tanks -there wasn't a soul on the beach. This other person explained it as a military training exercise. That was 20 years after the fact and I didn't believe him. 7) there was a lot of racial tension in AP and APHS. I was just told, 45 years later, there was a mini riot in the Spring when several White boys were beat up. Apparently, why fewer White Kids at APHS the following year. Interestingly enough, this was the first time I'd heard about this mini riot. 8) the riot did not result in more African American employees (well, one more). Once again, I was lucky enough to get a job in one of the gift shops (I took the place of my sister-in-law, her sister worked at the other gift shop-both owned by the same family). There was a chemistry major who developed the best tasting waffle ice cream recipe I've ever tasted and there was a young man who worked in the Arcade. Even after the riots, the majority I.e. All but 4 people were imported from North Jersey or New York year after year after year. Most of the White employees were well-to-do students whose parents rented them apts. in AP for the Summer. 7) Heat,unemployment, poverty and frustration caused that riot. And I know most people think the riot killed AP, but the beachfront was still alive and active for at least 5 years after the riot(I know because I worked on the boardwalk those years) If it killed AP, it killed it very slowly indeed. There's more, but I've bored you enough. Like someone said, it's like it happened yesterday. And with my luck, I moved to L.A. and had the misfortune of having to experience the Rodney King riot, this time from a distance.
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