Former Newark Mayor Ken Gibson, whose 1970 win made him the first black chief executive of a major Northeastern city, died Friday at the age of 86. Gibson, who served until his 1986 re-election defeat, also was the first black president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Gibson unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 1966 and took third place with 17 percent of the vote, which was seen at the time as a surprisingly strong showing. However, things had changed quite a bit in the city when Gibson was next on the ballot for years later. Newark had been badly hurt by riots in 1967, and as the NJ Advance Media’s obituary recounts, “Even more white voters were leaving Newark and certain influential whites realized the city needed a black leader.” Gibson unseated two-term Mayor Hugh Addonizio 56-44.
Gibson was seen as a national spokesperson for America’s cities, and he appeared on the covers of Time and Newsweek. (Newsweek’s cover asked its audience, “The Black Mayors: How are they doing?”) The mayor became famous for saying, “Wherever the central cities are going, Newark is going to get there first,” a quote Gibson freely admits he borrowed from a spokesperson. At home, Gibson was credited with helping fix the city’s finances and improving its people’s health.
However, Gibson’s fortunes weren’t so good at the ballot box. The mayor ran for governor of New Jersey in 1981 and took third place in the primary with 15 percent of the vote; the winner of that contest, Rep. Jim Florio, narrowly lost the general election to GOP Gov. Tom Kean before finally winning in 1989. The following year, Gibson was indicted for allegedly handing out a contract for a no-show job, but he was acquitted and won his fourth term as mayor 53-47.
Gibson ran for governor again in 1985 and took a close third place with 26 percent of the vote; the winner, state Rep. Peter Shapiro, lost the general to Kean in a landslide. Gibson sought re-election again in 1986, but he found himself in a challenging race.
According to a 2007 article for City Journal by Steven Malanga, the city’s unemployment rate had risen by about 50 percent since Gibson took office as the population continued to drop, and Newark “had no movie theaters and only one supermarket left, and only two-thirds of its high school students were earning diplomas.” City Councilor Sharpe James ran against Gibson, declaring that Newark had become “fear city, dope city.” It didn’t help that both of Gibson’s parents had been mugged during his time as mayor. James won 56-40, and he would serve until 2006.
Gibson never sought elected office again. In 2002, he pled guilty to tax evasion, a scandal the NJ Advance Media obituary writes was “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.” Gibson ended up receiving three years of probation.
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