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Not to the level of Newark or Detroit no, but I would'nt say nothing significant.

There was never any significant riots in Jersey City in those days. Whelan loved playing the tough guy and the race card. He painted his African-American opponent in the 1968 mayoral election, Julian Robinson, as a Black Panther !

Thankfully, karma intervened and Whelan was hauled off to jail on corruption charges with 7 other members of his administration.

As for St. Peters, the college was swept up in the anti war fervor of the day. All demonstrations were peaceful. I hope the Occupy Wall Street movement starts a similar movement in this country.

For you new comers who didn?t know. In August 1964 JC had race riots.

Check out the link below. It has pieces about New Jersey Civil Rights in the 60?s. Click on ?The 1964 Riots? it will bring you to a list of articles. Then click on the two about Jersey City August 4 and August 6. It has the original newspaper articles. Cool to read about old time JC!!

Any old-timers remember the riots? I remember the ?fathers? of our street getting together and forming plans in case the riots moved onto our street. I think the plan was to have cars block both entrances to the street. The men would have their hunting rifles and clubs at the ready! The houses on the block were also told to leave their garden hoses out incase any Malakoff cocktails were tossed onto our street. (smart idea since the street entrances would be blocked by cars so the fire trucks couldn?t get in..duh)The women would supply food, drink and first aid. Can?t make this stuff up! (as a little kid we were scared sh*t!) Here they come!!!!!

The 1964 riots caught JC off guard but as a recall the mayor was not going to let that happen again. In the 1967 Newark riots and the 1968 DC riots I think the mayor of JC gave the ?shoot to kill? order to the JC Police. Needless to say there were no riots in JC in 1967 or 1968. There was a confrontation in 1968 with the Jersey City Black Panther Party. As I recall some of the memebrs were arrested for unloading 36 rounds of ammunition from a machine gun into the Fifth Precinct. I do remember always driving by the BPP headquarters they had sandbags in their half opened windows. Supposedly for their machine guns in case they were attacked.

http://sites.bergen.org/ourstory/Reso ... l_rights/CR_News63_64.htm

Hey one more thing anyone remember the anti war protests at Saint Peter?s College? I remember the students walking on Kennedy (Hudson) Blvd. with signs..that?s all I remember. Can?t remember any violence.

Interesting in the 1964 riots piece there is a quote from then JC Mayor Whelan that sort of rings a bell with what today?s Occupy Wall Street protesters are saying about the rich of America. ?One percent of the city (or population) will not rule 99 percent of it?.


(all the above is from my memory ..old-timers ring in if you remember anything differently)