Bud Lee was a young novice photographer for America’s Life Magazine, when he received an assignment that would change his life – and that of many others – forever.

His brief: to document a civic uprising taking place within the state of New Jersey, USA.

Little did he realise back then in 1967, the profound impact the images he captured would hold.

As he and fellow journalist Dale Wittner spent days pounding the city streets of Newark, the pair managed to lay bare the tense stand-off between the city’s Black community and an authoritarian police force.

However, it was their encounter with a man called Billy Furr, that would truly bring to light the horrors of that time, after he was gunned down in cold blood by two police officers.

12-year-old bystander, Joey Bass Jr. was also caught in the crossfire and left wounded and bleeding on the pavement – he became a tragic symbol of the innocent victims caught up in the five-day long violence, which ultimately saw the loss of 26 lives.

With Bud Lee’s poignant collection of photographs, recently published in the book ‘The War Is Here: Newark 1967’, many of the images continue to resonate today.

As his work shows, the undeniable parallels of 1967 Newark and the ongoing struggles in modern-day America remain, with gun violence and police brutality tragically still the pressing issues that grip the nation.

*Warning: distressing imagery

Writer and journalist Chris Campion, is the editor of The War Is Here: Newark 1967.

Source: Read Full Article