An Evening Walk

Above: aerial photograph of the South Ward and both sides of Essex and Union County borders, 1980. Shows the path of Route 78 through the residential sections of Newark as well as all of Weequahic Park. Source: Charles F. Cummings NJ Information Center, The Newark Public Library.

One of Philip Roth’s powerful scenes in the The Human Stain (2000) captures the loss of historic homes and neighborhoods, businesses and community life, as construction of Interstate 280 cut a destructive swath through East Orange in the 1960s.

We’re reminded of Roth’s details as we look forward to the upcoming Newark Public Library 2023 Philip Roth Lecture on November 2 when Dr. John Wesley Johnson, Jr., assistant professor at St. Peter’s University, will speak on “History, Memory, and the Weequahic Section of Newark.”

I-280 also uprooted neighborhoods in the Central and North Wards of Newark. Professor Johnson’s research focuses on the impact of a second highway, Interstate 78, cutting through a section of Newark’s Weequahic in the 1960s. Johnson in July published his paper “In the Way of Progress: How a Federal Highway and Political Fragmentation Blighted Neighborhoods” in New Jersey Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal.

Roth’s story of what happened in East Orange comes as narrator Nathan Zuckerman meets for the first time and talks with Ernestine Silk following the funeral of her brother, Coleman Silk. Ernestine conveys with touching detail the loss of everyday life as they knew it in East Orange from I- 280 coming through after construction of the Garden State Parkway had eliminated Jones Street, the center of the Black community. Ernestine continues:

“Then 280. A devastating intrusion. What that did to that community! Because the highway had to come through, the nice houses along Oraton Parkway, Elmwood Avenue, Maple Avenue, the state just bought them up and they disappeared overnight. I used to be able to do all my Christmas shopping on Main St. Well, Main Street and Central Avenue. Central Avenue was called the Fifth Avenue of the Oranges then. You know what we’ve got today? We’ve got a ShopRite. And we’ve got a Dunkin’ Donuts. And there was a Domino’s Pizza, but they closed. Now they’ve got another food place. And there’s a cleaners.

But you can’t compare quality. It’s not the same. In all honesty, I drive up the hill to West Orange to shop. But I didn’t then. There was no reason to. Every night when we went out to walk the dog, I’d go with my husband, unless the weather was real bad –walk to Central Avenue, which is two blocks, then down Central Avenue for four blocks, cross over, then window-shop back, and home. There was a B Altman. A Russek’s. There was a Black, Starr, and Gorham. There was a Bachrach, the photographer. A very nice men’s store, Minks, that was Jewish, that was over on Main Street. Two theaters. There was the Hollywood Theater on Central Avenue. There was the Palace Theater on Main Street. All of life was there in little East Orange…’’

The 2023 Philip Roth Lecture: History, Memory, and the Weequahic Section of Newark by Dr. John Wesley Johnson, Jr. Register here.

Thursday, November 2nd, 2023 | 6:00-8:00 PM Newark Public Library

James Brown African American Room, 2nd Floor. Doors open: 5:00 PM