Down And Out And No Place to Go

Newark, New Jersey. The name had a ring of hope to it. At least, that's what Cornell and Minnie Wolf thought 34 years ago when they boarded the "Southern Comfort Special" in Albany, Ga., bound for Newark and a better life. Cornell, a hulking, powerful man who never got past the third grade, had toiled on the "bossman's" plantation picking beans, peanuts and cotton from can't-see in the morning until can't-see at night. Like thousands of Southern blacks, he had heard stories about those high-paying Northern jobs, those red brick Northern houses, and at 22 decided to take his 19-year-old wife and their three children to the land where everything seemed possible.

He got work in a slaughterhouse, then switched to a job at a leather- processing factory. It was punishing work, and it meant a three-mile walk to and from the plant, but Cornell hardly missed a day. Though his family grew to include 13 children, he managed to keep them all clothed, warm and fed. They never took public aid. "You were ashamed to be on welfare then," recalls Minnie, who sometimes worked as a domestic. "There was a stigma attached to it." They lived in the central ward of Newark, among stable families headed by bus drivers, sanitation workers and teachers. If Cornell wasn't around when any of his seven boys and six girls needed disciplining, one of the neighbors would handle it. The community was one large extended family.

But today the Wolf family, like its adopted city, is in an advanced state of decline. Along with thousands of other families in dying inner cities, the Wolfs have become mired in a morass of welfare, crime and self-destruction. In a generation, they have descended from proud working class to demoralized underclass. Nine of the 13 children have never held a meaningful job, nor do they care to. Only one of the boys finished high school. Two of the girls became teenage mothers and live on welfare. One of the girls lived a fast life that came to a crashing end at 22.

The downward spiral of the Wolf family is linked to the disintegration of Newark's most impoverished neighborhoods. Twenty years ago the city had 9,000 businesses and more than 200,000 jobs; today it has less than half that many businesses and 120,000 jobs. The population, which was more than 80% white and totaled 430,000 in 1950, has shrunk to 330,000, 65% black. Although thousands of hardworking black families remain, nearly a third of the residents depend on public assistance. In some neighborhoods more than three-quarters of the families are on the dole, many for the third or fourth generation. Newark has few rivals in percentage of substandard housing and, though only the 48th largest U.S. city, ranks fourth in incidence of murders. In many ways, Newark has never really recovered from the 1967 riots.