About the Book

July 1967. After the arrest, beating, and imprisonment of cab driver John Smith by local police, the city of Newark—already a tinderbox—became a hotbed of protest and retaliation. Over five long days, 26 people were killed by police gunfire and hundreds more were injured, thousands arrested, and millions of dollars in property damage caused. The scars on the city remained for decades. 

Bud Lee, a 26-year-old novice photographer for Life magazine, was called upon to cover the civic uprising in Newark as it broke out. Lee and Life reporter Dale Wittner arrived to find a majority Black population—already struggling under a corrupt local government and a vicious, authoritarian police force—trying to persevere in extraordinary circumstances: stores burned and looted; a city under siege by trigger-happy city and state police; and the young, inexperienced, and exhausted National Guardsmen sent to patrol it day and night. 

The War Is Here documents the several days Bud Lee spent in Newark. These photographs capture life in a city transformed into an urban war zone. Lee witnessed first-hand two policemen shoot a man named Billy Furr in the back. Lee’s dramatic images of this cold-blooded murder ran in Life. The same bullets also hit and wounded a 12-year-old boy named Joey Bass Jr., who had been playing at a nearby intersection. Lee’s stark, emotional image of Bass, lying bleeding and contorted in pain on dirty concrete, ran on the July 28, 1967 cover of Life, sparking a national conversation on race and police violence and becoming the defining image of the “long, hot summer” of ’67—a summer of fire and fury, protest and rage across the country. Over half a century later, Bud Lee’s raw, desolate, and empathetic photographs of the people of Newark, at a turning point in the city’s history, continue to resonate: a testament to their resilience and fortitude.

Praise for The War Is Here

“The Summer of 1967 lives in the DNA of our city—the traumatic pain, the savage injustices, the violence and destruction. Also, what was born from that summer was a Newark with a better understanding of its own indelible core. The stirring images within The War is Here bring Newark’s summer of 1967 back to life in vivid detail, reminding us that the past is with us.”

—Senator Cory Booker

“A haunting portrait of Newark’s bloody summer of unrest.”

—M. Z. Adnan, The New Yorker

“In July 1967, Life magazine photographer Lee (1941–2015) was sent to Newark, N.J., to cover the civil unrest convulsing the city … this [is a] harrowing visual account.… Especially striking is Lee’s photo of 12-year-old Joe Bass Jr., who lies in the street, limbs askew, in a pool of his own blood; the image was selected for the cover of Life magazine and fueled national dialogues about racial justice.… Fifty-six years later, the images resonate in their ability to capture with depth and honesty the particularities of a historical moment, and in their disturbing timeliness. This is powerful.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Bud Lee captures the 1967 Newark riots…. Lee’s pictures opened up a nationwide debate about police violence. A new book, The War Is Here: Newark 1967, collects those images, many of them unpublished, and reinhabits not only the fear and the violence—but also … the defiance of that bloody week in Newark history.”

—Tim Adams, The Observer

“The War Is Here represents one of the most comprehensive collections of photos about the 1967 Newark Rebellion and Billy Furr that I have ever seen.  It tells a story of police violence, community response, and the destructive narrative that was like a weight upon the city of Newark for many years. I can appreciate it both as a memorial to the photographer, who I never met, and as a story about what we once endured.”

—Junius Williams, Official Newark Historian, author of Unfinished Agenda: Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power

“Bud Lee was a graphic storyteller who made informative, often gripping, pictures of despair and anger. He watched and documented Billy Furr being fatally shot in the back and the critical wounding of twelve-year-old Joey Bass, Jr. His photographs of death and destruction were given the cover and a six-page feature in Life.  Six pages and a cover were effective then, but now we have The War Is Here, an in-depth record by a gifted and empathetic photographer, ‘lest we forget.’”

—Anne Wilkes Tucker, Gus and Lyndall Wortham Curator of Photography Emerita at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. 

“In July 1967, Newark citizens took to the streets to demonstrate against the arrest and beating of a young Black cab driver by police. Five days of protest followed, leaving twenty-six people killed by police gunfire, thousands arrested, and millions of dollars incurred in property damage. The War Is Here collects unforgettable photographs Bud Lee took on assignment for Life magazine, capturing the lives of ordinary citizens as their neighborhoods were transformed into war zones…. Extraordinary … the events of 1967 in Newark resonate with the current climate.”

—Brendan Dowling, Public Libraries Online

"Powerful."

—Dave Simpson, The Guardian

“At the time, Lee couldn’t conceive the influence his shots would have in the immediate aftermath of the riots, nor could he imagine their ongoing relevance…. Lee’s photographs were featured in Life over the months following the riots, bringing unpalatable truths to the American public. These moments captured on film remain to this day a harrowing but vital reminder of an eminently dark corner of American history…. [Lee’s] legacy lives on as one of America’s most revered photojournalists of the 20th century.”

—Jordan Potter, Far Out Magazine

“We live in a time when journalists, including photojournalists, have lost the public trust. Bud Lee was a reporter. He wasn't seeking to impress you with his singular vision. He was in Newark to look, listen, and report on the complex, tragic events unfolding in front of him. And he did his job, but it’s the way that Bud Lee addressed the tragedy that sets him apart. We see that in The War Is Here.”

—Eugene Richards, photojournalist, author of Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue, The Fat Baby, and War Is Personal

About the Photographer

About the Editor

About the Introducer

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