Kenneth Allen Gibson (May 15, 1932 – March 29, 2019) was an American politician of the Democratic Party who was the 36th mayor of Newark, New Jersey from 1970 to 1986.

[citation needed] Gibson was also a representative of the city's large African-American population, many of whom were migrants or whose parents or grandparents had come North in the Great Migration.

Poet and playwright Amiri Baraka wrote, "We will nationalize the city's institutions, as if it were liberated territory in Zimbabwe or Angola.

[5] Gibson entered and with his new city council "challenged the corporate sector's tax arrangements and pushed business interests to take a more active and responsible role in the community.

Amiri Baraka then labeled him a "neo-colonialist" and complained that Gibson was "for the profit of Prudential, Public (private) Service, Port Authority, and other huge corporations that run in and around and through and out of Newark paying little or no taxes" while the residents were ignored.

[10] After 16 years under Gibson, the city’s unemployment rate had risen nearly 50 percent, its population had continued dropping, it had no movie theaters, only one supermarket remained, and only two-thirds of its high school students were graduating.

[11] After unsuccessful runs in 1981 and 1985 for the Democratic nomination for New Jersey governor, he was defeated as well in his bid for a fifth consecutive term as mayor by Councilman Sharpe James.

[12] On July 24, 2000, Gibson was indicted for bribery and for stealing funds from a school construction project in nearby Irvington, New Jersey.

[17] In a 2005 interview with The New York Times, Gibson said his "most gratifying" mayoral accomplishment had been improving Newark's health services, leading to a reduction in the city's high rates of tuberculosis, infant mortality and the deaths of mothers during childbirth.