In the aftermath of the riots, Newark was quite rapidly abandoned by many of its remaining middle-class and affluent residents, as well as much of its white working-class population.

This accelerated flight led to a decades-long period of disinvestment and urban blight, including soaring crime rates and gang activity.

The Newark riots represented a flashpoint in a long-simmering conflict between elements of the city's then-growing African-American population, which had recently become a numerical majority, and its old political establishment, which remained dominated by members of non-African ethnic groups (especially Italian, Jewish, and Irish Americans) who had gained a political foothold in Newark during earlier generations.

Due to the legislation of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, increasing numbers of white veterans, who had recently returned from fighting in World War II, emigrated from Newark to the suburbs where there was improved access to interstate highways, low-interest mortgages, and colleges.

[2] Racial profiling, redlining, and lack of opportunity in education, training, and jobs led the city's African–American residents to feel powerless and disenfranchised.

Newark's Police Department director, Dominick Spina, rejected the budget request as he thought it would not be approved.

Thousands of low-income African American residents were displaced at a time when housing in Newark was aging and subjected to high tax rates.

[citation needed] Many African Americans, especially younger community leaders, felt they had remained largely disenfranchised in Newark, despite massive changes in the city's demographic makeup.

Police said that Smith's driving license had been revoked, and that he had been involved in eight car crashes in the days prior but continued to operate his vehicle as he was in dire need of money.

Some say that the crowd threw rocks through the precinct windows and police then rushed outside wearing riot helmets and carrying clubs.

[11] One witness to the initial arrest contacted members of the Congress of Racial Equality, the United Freedom Party, and the Newark Community Union Project for further investigation; they were subsequently granted access to Smith's 4th Precinct holding cell.

[12] After seeing the injuries Smith sustained from the police, they demanded he be moved to Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, and were granted their request.

At close to the time when the meeting was ending, members of the Students for a Democratic Society's Newark branch distributed handwritten leaflets in the area indicating there would be a rally at the 4th Precinct at 7:30 p.m.[4] Governor Hughes and Addonizio assigned James Threatt, the Newark Human Rights Commission's (NHRC) executive director, to surveil the rioting.

By 7:30 p.m. black residents who were angry and carrying homemade signs would march in front of Hayes Homes, a housing project that was located directly across the street from the 4th precinct.

Threatt would announce to the crowd in an attempt he thought would calm them down that an African American man on the police force, Lieutenant Eddie Williams would be promoted to captain.

After he was shot at from the high-rise, over 200 National Guard soldiers combined with state and city police opened fire on the building where they believed the sniper to be positioned, arresting 25 people in response.

[4] Early on the evening of July 15, a woman named Rebecca Brown was killed in a fusillade of bullets directed at the window of her second-floor apartment, leading to further backlash and discord from the community.

There, Lee took several grim photos of a police officer gunning down 24-year-old William Furr, who was caught in an act of stealing a six pack of beer from the ransacked Mack's Liquors store; both Lee and Wittner had earlier met Furr who barged into the latter's conversation with a Black Muslim man regarding the rioting situation.

He also shot a photo of a 12-year-old civilian, Joe Bass Jr. who was bleeding on the ground after stray pellets from the policeman's shotgun blast that killed Furr accidentally struck him.

[19] While the riots are often cited as a major factor in the decline of Newark and its neighboring communities, longer-term racial, economic, and political forces contributed towards generating inner city poverty.

[24] The riots were depicted in the 1997 Philip Roth novel American Pastoral as well as its 2016 film adaptation, directed by and starring Ewan McGregor, alongside Jennifer Connelly and Dakota Fanning.

In September 2021, a theatrical prequel to The Sopranos premiered, entitled The Many Saints of Newark, which is partially set during the riots.