A building preserving a pivotal moment in our history is in the plans to be demolished. The Cathedral House in Newark, NJ was the site of the very first National Conference on Black Power in 1967 following the city’s unrest. The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) plans to demolish the building for extra space needed for center operations, according to Jersey Digs.
In July of 1967, our leaders of the Black liberation movement including Amiri Baraka, Rev. Dr. Nathan Wright Jr. and Jalil Al-Amin met at the Cathedral House in downtown Newark to discuss the issues hurting Black Americans. The meeting was just a few days after the Newark riots, to which some attendees arrived with bruises and injuries from altercations with police. Racial tensions were rising across the country but boiled over in Newark when a group of white NJ cops senselessly beat a Black jazz musician.
Per the African American Registry, the meeting included 1,000 delegates representing 286 organizations who worked to develop resolutions to empower Black folks politically and economically.
Now, the building where it all happened will soon be gone.
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“Our first, second, third, fourth, and fifth choice was not to take this building down,” said Tim Lizura, senior vice president of real estate and capital projects for NJPAC. “Without being able to load 600 shows, in and out, a year, we wouldn’t be able to operate — and without being able to operate then the rest of this development is not going to be successful.”
A principal for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which partnered with NJPAC to design the redevelopment, noted that Newark over the years has lost many of its side streets as institutions formed superblocks. As a result, street life and connectivity have suffered, according to Yasmine Kologlu, design principal at SOM.
“Newark was once a finely knitted tapestry of streets that defined a tightly connected community,” Kologlu said. “Today, we have an opportunity to reconnect the urban fabric and create an active community, a connected neighborhood, again.”
Even over the past few years, the preservation of the building was met with some trivia. Artist Paula Scher had repainted the building’s red-brick to a white-ish grey color, transforming it into a mural. However, architectural historian Emily Everett found the new designs to be “unsympathetic” and “problematic” to the preservation of the building’s history, per Jersey Digs.
The commission voted 3-2 to the demolition of the site and NJPAC was urged from all sides to consider honoring the Cathedral House as a part of their plans
“It’s heartbreaking to just see our historical preservation go by the wayside when smart people can preserve it and do exactly what we have taken an oath to do,” said Frederica Bey, a commissioner who voted no to the plan, via Jersey Digs.