The Visible Man

It is a measure of America's racial agony that when a black man became mayor of Newark last week, his ascent to political power seemed to many a threat to the system rather than a confirmation of it.

Nothing, really, had changed. A boy born in poverty to hard-working parents had pushed himself through twelve long years of night school to earn a college degree. The long suppressed ethnic group to which he belonged grew in number and in influence. He saw the political process as the correct, the constructive avenue for expressing his people's hopes and dissipating their fears.

If he had been Irish in Boston in the 1930s, or Italian in Buffalo in the 1960s, Kenneth Gibson's victory last week would have been both unremarked and unremarkable. But Gibson is, in Novelist Ralph Ellison's phrase, an invisible man--possessing a black skin that blinds many whites to the humanity within.

Gibson is visible now, having confirmed for himself, his people and his city that the system works. In a runoff election with Mayor Hugh Addonizio --himself the political product of Newark's now diminishing Italian voting bloc--Gibson took a surprising 56% of the vote in what had been considered a close race. He won by 55,097 to 43,086, getting 95% of the black vote and almost 20% of the white vote. Among the whites who supported him were hundreds in Italian residential districts and thousands in areas where voters had supported a white candidate, John Caufield, in the first round of voting last month. Former City Fire Director Caufield had thrown his support to Gibson, and despite harassment to himself and his family, had campaigned for him. Caufield may wind up in a city hall job.

The aftermath of the vote was reassuringly normal. Young blacks snake-danced happily in Newark's streets, where, in the 1967 riots, young blacks had lain dead. Inside, a mostly black, mostly middle-class crowd partied for hours. His celebrators stopped cheering long enough for Gibson to tell them that, as he had said throughout his campaign, he would now turn to reconciliation and the desperately needed improvement of Newark's municipal services. "When Robert Treat founded the city of Newark over 300 years ago," Gibson said, "I am sure he never and you never realized that some day Newark would have soul."

Just Frightened. Addonizio headquarters were understandably dispirited, but the defeated incumbent issued a calm and constructive concession statement. He congratulated Gibson on his "splendid victory," called on the city to support him, and offered his own help in the transfer of power. Two days after the election, the two men had a cordial meeting.

There was lingering bitterness too. Before Addonizio's statement, militant anti-blacks who had placed their hopes on him attacked newsmen covering his headquarters. No one was seriously hurt, but cameras were smashed and TV cables ripped out. For some white voters, Gibson's triumph was a nightmare. Said one white man: "Harry Belafonte came in last week, and then there are those young Jewish lawyers from Paterson coming up here. It's all outsiders and Communists." Outside a polling place, Mrs. Josephine Heinze demanded: "Are we prejudiced because we voted for Addonizio?" Her daughter replied for both of them. Said Mrs. Nancy Natale: "No. we're just frightened." A black youth taunted a group of white policemen with "You're all going to be fired now." The cop's response to a reporter: "Let them have their fun now. Just come back in a year and see what it will be like."

But racial fears could not balance Addonizio's debits in the polling booth. Chief among them appeared to be the extortion charges for which he is now on trial. Three city councilmen indicted with him were also defeated at the polls last week. Gibson, who takes office July 1 and has not yet made his key appointments, will have to work with a council composed of six whites and three blacks, five elected from opposition seats.

Mono Lisa. It is a certainty of American demography that just as Gibson is not the first black mayor of a large city, he will not be the last. In Cleveland, Carl Stokes became mayor with the help of 19% of the white vote; in Gary, Ind., Richard Hatcher won with 12% of the white voters on his side. Like Gibson, they are the products of poverty, determination and faith in the political process. In the future, there will be more Ken Gibsons, if present trends continue: the rise of black population in central cities and the white flight to the suburbs. Among the cities with a black population approaching 50% are Detroit, Baltimore, St. Louis and New Orleans.

One leading Newark politician may have come closer to the truth than he realized in a half-jocular summary of the meaning of Gibson's election. "Gibson is like the Mona Lisa," he said. "You don't really know what he can do or what he will do. Probably after the first week, LeRoi Jones [the militant black writer who supported Gibson] will want to assassinate him. After the second week, Gibson will lose his moderate support. Eventually, he will just be another mayor in trouble." And, he might have added, black officeholders will some day provide the final evidence of the system at work: they will make mistakes and black voters will turn them out of office.

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