Mar 27, 2014 - Sale 2342

Sale 2342 - Lot 568A

Price Realized: $ 750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(RELIGION.) BAKER, GEORGE "FATHER DIVINE." PEACE, RIGHTEOUS GOVERNMENT. NEWARK, N.J. Home-made painted canvas banner, 52 x 27 inches on two wooden poles, 44 inches long. Newark, 1967
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In 1967 unrest in Newark's ghetto came to a head when two white policemen, John DeSimone and Vito Pontrelli, arrested a black cabdriver, John Weerd Smith, for improperly passing them on 15th Avenue. Smith was taken to the 4th Police Precinct, which was across the street from Hayes Homes, a large public housing project. Residents of Hayes Homes saw an incapacitated Smith being dragged into the precinct, and a rumor was started that he had been killed while in police custody. This set off several days of deadly confrontation. The followers of "Father Divine" tried to defuse the situation by appealing to the community with signs such as this. Obviously to no avail.