Monday, October 10 at 7pm, Pat Prescott, host of Favorite Things, will host a live-stream discussion based on the latest PBS series from Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., called Making Black America.
the united stateswas looking for model communitieshere, in america that they couldpresent as models of democracy to therest of the world. so they came to teaneck. (music) reporter: this is teaneck,our hometown. these pictures have been shownthroughout the world to demonstrate,to people everywhere, a fine example of americandemocracy in action, (music) gervonn: my grandfather ownedhis own business, in jersey city, and i previouslyhave been in new york, butwanted something more suburban,and teaneck, even in the late50s was a safe place where blackfamilies could buy homes. walter fields: the factthat this became a place where black middle class couldcome and live, that was a big deal because we sawa version of blackness that we didn t necessarilyknow existed at the time. reporter: teaneck gainednational prominence in the 60s
of- of information. people wanted to know exactly, you know, what was going on? and i don t thinkthey were getting it. paul ostrow: we can t lookaway from the fact that people were upset and angry and that might have been festering. mike kelly: this wasa town that built itself as a modelamerican community. and yet underneathall of that, you had a segmentof the town that felt angry. walter fields: we never wantto talk about the ugliness, that is rightbelow the surface. reporter: as angryresidents, i hear, say the shootingis another example of rising tensions betweenblack youth in teaneck and the police. all it will takeis one incident and it s like opening pandora s box, reporter: some peoplejeered a police officer as he droveaway in his car. alison: people were outraged, we live in teaneck.
i was with the police chief. and we were insidethe council chambers of teaneck and things started to get raucous outside. (protestors chanting justice now, justice now.) for some reason ididn t feel right. i started to walkaway and as i walked away i heard a lot ofshouting and screaming. (crowd shouting) steven: people were leaving, and all of a sudden policecame out with shields. natacha: and i waslike telling them, we have a permit to march downthe street to where phillip was killed and the policewouldn t let us go. walter fields:police from almost every community in bergen county arrived in riot gear, and when i saw that, i knew that there was goingto be a problem because the kids as expected, we re very emotional, many of phil sfriends were there.