The PBS documentary  on the Riots is being shown at different locations around the country with the filmmakers in attendance.  I attended one such showing and spoke with  the filmmakers.  When I pointed out that there was no mention of the Fire Department's role, they acknowledged they had not spoken with any firefighters.  Afterwards they thanked me for my contribution to the afternoon's discussion and left with a copy of A View from the Firehouse, so they could learn what our guys had done.  Why do we have to work this hard just to get our guys credit for all they did?


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I attended the opening reception of the exhibit about the Riots at the New Jersey Historical Society.  The exhibit is professionally done and does try to include diverse points of view.  That being said, the NFD is not really mentioned.  I spoke with a woman from the company that produced the final audio/visual presentation and mentioned some points that I thought could use improvement.

The work and sacrifices of our guys are only mentioned implicitly.  One police officer who was interviewed spoke of his city burning, but not of the men who were fighting the fires.  Captain Moran is listed as having died from "suspected sniper fire" while responding to a "false alarm."  There is also a one sentence quote from his son Michael.

On one of the final panels of the exhibit, Kenneth Gibson is given credit for being a calming influence after the funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr., helping prevent of a repeat of what happened the previous July. There is no mention of the "burnings" that followed.

All in all the exhibit is worth seeing if you want to get a feel for what happened to Newark in July, 1967.  There is an attempt to include as many points of view as possible, although the slant of the presentation is more toward the "rebellion" view than the "riot" view.  The only point of view not included is that of the firefighter.


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Check out a program that is on the C-Span website.  The subject is the re-issuing of the book No Cause for Indictment by Ron Porambo.  This is the only book about the Riots that even mentions the NFD.  I was the first person from the floor to speak, trying to get some credit for our guys.