“Camelot Is Dead”: The Newark Riots and the Closing of St. Benedict' Prep, 1967–1972
“Camelot Is Dead”: The Newark Riots and the Closing of St. Benedict' Prep, 1967–1972
This chapter provides an account of the Newark riots that took place on July 4 1967 and July 12 1967, and the closing of St. Benedict's. In 1967, several neighborhood men tried to break in to the Masonic temple across the street. Eight nights later, several monks again stood on the rooftop, where they saw the first of six nights of looting and rioting, some of it just outside St. Benedict's doors. Abbot Martin Burne was an optimist who helped the Newark monastery achieve its independence for the second time in 1968. However after the election of Abbot Ambrose, it became clear that the issue of the school, and the issue of race, split the community in two. The divide was so wide, and disagreement so deep, that the monastic family became virtually dysfunctional by 1971. A year later, St. Benedict's closed.
Keywords: Newark riots, Abbot Martin Burne, Abbot Ambrose, closing, looting, 1967 riots
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