The City of Newark will lay to rest former Mayor Kenneth A. Gibson on Thursday, April 4, with a lying in state from Noon to 6 p.m. at City Hall (located at 920 Broad Street), followed by funeral services at Newark Symphony Hall at 7 p.m. that same evening. Symphony Hall is located at 1020 Broad Street. The public will have an opportunity to pay their respects to Newark’s former mayor at both events.
Mayor Gibson was elected as Newark’s first African-American Mayor in 1970, among the first such mayors in a major Northeastern city. He led Newark’s efforts to overcome the damage inflicted upon the city by the racial and socio-economic divide that culminated in the 1967 Rebellion. Mayor Gibson served four terms, which made him Newark’s longest-serving mayor at the time, and is best known for his famous quote, “Wherever America’s cities are going, Newark will get there first.” He died last Friday, leaving behind a wife and four daughters.
Mayor Ras J. Baraka said in a statement, “It’s hard to put into words what Mayor Gibson means to Newark, and to our state. He ran against the establishment in 1970 as a reformer, fighting to make city government representative of the people of Newark. But even more than that, he took the mantle of a healer and a uniter who could bring our city back together. This was a time of transition, with the unrest of 1967 still fresh in peoples’ memories, and Ken Gibson was the right man at the right time to lead Newark forward.”
The lying-in-state and funeral will include full civic honors. Whigham Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.
