1969 Newark Love Festival
The Love Festival was an early victory for the Greater Newark Urban Coalition and a classic battle between Heningburg and Addonizio. The plan was for residents to gather at Weequahic Park for a day of food, music and family. 

“Addonizio denied city support for the event, which meant he would not provide the coalition with police support. Instead, (we) went to an organization in New York for cops and also to the Black Panthers and Young Lords.  The two extremist groups were asked to patrol the parking lots to ensure that nobody broke into the cars. (I) met with the groups before the event asking them to place their guns on the table. They did not only comply with that request, but every car was safe during the festival.In fact, the whole day was a success. Newspapers reported that more than 60,000 participated that day and no negative incident was on record. The Love Fest demonstrates the success of people getting together.”    - Gus Heningburg 

Photographs from the Gus Heningburg Collection at the Newark Public Library