Newark, …, once had been a thriving industry city. But after World War II, it bled industry, middle class residents, and retailing to its suburbs, leaving behind a majority black population, much of it poor. The 1967 riot devastated a city already in crisis. – Pg. 304
As the population of many cities declined after the Second World War, Newark presented the struggles that black citizens in such cities faced. With much of the city’s business infrastructure gone leaving little funding for the city, and riots such as those in 1967 degrading the state of the city, the black population was left with little support from their local government. This is unlike its neighbor New York City, where there was local support such as housing for the lower class black community. The city simply turns into a region for organized crime, run down infrastructure, and in general a place that cannot sustain civility within the community. Freeman likely thought it to be important to show his readers how the mass loss of business and population in a city can have a huge impact on its residents.