BT: THE LAST DAYS

Words by Carrie Stetler | Images by Akintola Hanif

Before and during the 2009 demolition of Baxter Terrace projects in Newark, NJ, photographer and HYCIDE editor-in-chief Akintola Hanif spent a year there documenting the lives of residents..

Baxter Terrace was the first housing project in Newark, built on Nesbitt and Orange Streets in 1941. It was named for James Baxter, principal of Newark’s first school for Black students during the Civil War. Until 1950, when Newark changed its policy, residents of Baxter Terrace and other city projects lived in “partial segregation,’’ with White and Black families dwelling in separate parts of the same development.

The Newark Housing Authority had high hopes for Baxter Terrace, where rent was under $25 a month. A 1947 study attributed lower rates of infant mortality, tuberculosis and delinquency to the “better housing’’ at Baxter Terrace. By the 1950s, however, conditions in the projects had deteriorated (although Baxter Terrace did manage to produce a chart-topping doo wop group, The Monotones, who sang the 1950's hit “Book of Love.’’) In 1953, a 24-year-old woman was found strangled in her apartment. In 1957, a 13-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by six boys. There were also gambling dens and an epidemic of robberies. By the 70s, Baxter Terrace was overrun with rats, despite an effort in 1939 to exterminate a half a million rodents who lived at the site before Baxter Terrace was built. Dead rats created a foul odor that permeated the grounds. Children played with the rats, while stray dogs and cats ran wild. The city of Newark razed the projects as part of a larger campaign to build better housing in 2009.

“People would like to place the blame on the residents but government didn’t maintain the upkeep of these communities. They allowed them to be havens for drugs and gangs. BT was a beautiful before the drugs came. A lot of good people came through Baxter Terrace,’’ says Yusef Ismail, who grew up in the projects and is executive director of Stop Shootin’ Inc, a Newark-based anti-violence organization. “Believe it or not, at one time, all of the people that lived there were like one big family. They looked out for each other. When I look at the buildings, I see my whole life. My friends, my family, my childhood. I see all the beautiful parts that everyone else can’t see. No matter how society looks at people like the residents of Baxter Terrace, we're all human beings. The government can tear down the buildings and displace them, but the same problems and mentality remain.''