Ken Gibson, Newark’s first black mayor, elected in the wake of the city’s turbulent riots, died Friday.
He was 86.
Propelled to leadership after the Newark riots tore at the city in 1967, Gibson helped establish a foundation for black political power. He served as the city’s mayor from 1970 to 1986 and was the first black mayor of a major northeastern city.
“Mayor Ken Gibson was our beloved, unflappable, trailblazer hero who never sacrificed principles for political expediency. With that warm and friendly cheeky smile, Ken was a man’s man,” former Mayor Sharpe James, who succeeded Gibson, said Friday. “He wore Newark, honesty, integrity and courage on his sleeves. As my friend, confidant and mentor, Mary and I will miss him dearly.”
Gibson was married to his wife, Camille, for 15 years. He leaves behind four daughters and a brother. Gibson’s first wife, Muriel, a nurse, died in December of 1983.
“He always thought that if you could help somebody, then that’s what you should do,’’ Camille Gibson told NJ Advance Media. “That’s what he thought being the mayor was. He was very happy to do that.”
Elected in 1970, when Newark was still just three summers removed from its devastating 1967 riots, Gibson served for 16 years, during an era that was difficult not only for Newark, but for American cities in general.
And while he was sometimes faulted for lacking the dynamism of his successor in City Hall, Sharpe James, history later came to view Gibson as a competent and well-meaning civil servant who stabilized Newark’s finances, improved the health of its citizens and fought the good fight during difficult times.
“He gets a lot of credit for holding things together when things could have easily fallen apart,” the late Bob Curvin, who spearheaded Gibson’s 1970 campaign and later became the director of the Ford Foundation’s Urban Poverty Program, once said about Gibson.
He became a national spokesman for the plight of America’s cities, appearing on the cover of Time Magazine and becoming the first African-American elected president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in 1976.
Although the quote was not originally his — he freely admitted borrowing from former City Hall spokesman Donald Malafronte — Gibson became famous for saying, “Wherever the central cities are going, Newark is going to get there first,” which became a rallying cry for those who would fix the ailing city.
“Before the riots, we were just a bunch of black guys running around making trouble,” Gibson once said. “After the riots, it became fashionable (for whites) to be with us.”
By the time he departed City Hall in 1986, he was the longest-serving mayor in the city’s history.
“He cultivated a vision of what Newark needed during a difficult time,” the late Clement Price, a history professor at Rutgers-Newark once said of Gibson. “He stands among Newark’s most important mayors in the 20th century.”
Born in 1932, Gibson grew up in Enterprise, Alabama. He came to Newark with his family when he was eight years old. He lived in the Central Ward with his mother, a seamstress, and his father, a butcher. While attending Central High School, he picked up extra money playing a saxophone in a local band.
He later attended the Newark College of Engineering, now the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and worked as an engineering aide for the New Jersey State Highway Department. He then began working as an engineer for the Newark Housing Authority and began getting a taste for politics as the treasurer of the United Essex Civic Association.
He would quickly rise to local prominence, running his first mayoral campaign in 1966. He lost but finished with 15,000 votes — a total that stunned everyone, no one more so than Gibson. Then came the riots.
The election of a black mayor then seemed almost inevitable. Even more white voters were leaving Newark and certain influential whites realized the city needed a black leader.
“Ken Gibson is part of Newark’s history. He led the city during a difficult time, worked hard to find common ground among the city’s diverse population and his contributions laid the foundation for Newark’s recovery," Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. said in a statement. "Ken was a true Newarker who influenced me as a public servant and, most importantly, he was a friend.”
Former Newark Sharpe James joins former New York City mayor David Dinkins, former Newark mayor Ken Gibson and Senator Cory Booker before Ras Baraka is sworn in as Newark mayor during a ceremony at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. 7/1/14 John O'Boyle / The Star-Ledger SLSL
In the 1980s, Gibson’s political ambitions expanded statewide. He ran for the Democratic nomination for governor in 1981 and 1985, but lost both times.
Soon, he found himself in trouble.
In 2002, Gibson pleaded guilty to tax evasion based on charges that he bribed Irvington school officials to get a $5 million contract to manage the district’s $50 million school construction project. He was also accused of overbilling the district in the process. Gibson vigorously defended himself and was never convicted of a crime relating to his time in office.
He received three years of probation.
Speaking to NJ Advance Media in 2017 during the 50th anniversary of the Newark riots, Gibson said he was seeing the city’s reputation finally recover.
“The city’s rep really got to be bad because of the disturbances in ‘67," Gibson said. "Trying to overcome that is very difficult. It never goes completely away. It gets better, though,” he said from his home.
Mayor Ras Baraka said Gibson was helpful to him when he was first elected in 2014.
“He set the stage for every African American elected official in this state. We stand on his accomplishment and grow from his challenges,” Baraka said. “On behalf of the residents of this city, we say thank you Mayor Gibson for your years of sacrifice and service.”
His wife said he may be remembered as a historical figure but he was a sweet man at heart.
“I think he was probably the best, sweetest and nicest man that anybody could know and love. He was a good father, a good husband," she said. “I haven’t spent a day without that man in 40 years. I just don’t know how I am going to get through it, either.’’
NJ Advance Media staff writers Karen Yi and Barry Carter contributed to this report, which contains prior reporting from former Star-Ledger staff writers Jeffery C. Mays and Brad Parks.
Karen Yi may be reached at kyi@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @karen_yi or on Facebook. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.com’s newsletters.