By Fern Gillespie

For almost 20 years, New York and New Jersey audiences tuned into NBC-TV’s “Positively Black” to hear host Gus Heningburg’s insights into issues concerning African American metro area residents.

“Positively Black” was an important mainstay for local African American audiences. Heningburg’s television persona was almost scholarly, yet casual, as he broadcast shows on political, educational, business, civil rights, legal, community, societal and cultural issues concerning African Americans on a local, national and global scale.

Although to millions of viewers Heningburg was a broadcast legend, to Essex County residents Heningburg is known as the man who helped rebuild Newark .

Since the early 1970’s, while serving as president and chief executive officer of the Greater Newark Urban Coalition, Heningburg has been at the forefront in utilizing negotiations, and at times demonstrations, to attain construction jobs and business contracts for Essex County minority residents.

Over the last three decades, he has bartered with Fortune 500 CEOs, governors, legislators, union officials, community leaders and even the White House to insure that minorities would get a fair share of the construction dollars in building up Essex County .

His political pull is reflected in his high profile appointments. In 1986, he served as chair of Mayor Sharpe James’ transition team and in 1987, he was appointed by the governor as commissioner of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. Other positions include chair of the Committee to Study the Governance of New Jersey’s County Colleges, chair of the New Jersey Educational Opportunity Fund, and federal court-appointed special master of the Newark Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

The Newark Plan

Today, at age 77, his firm Gustav Heninburg Associates, Inc. in Newark continues to assure minority contractor and union participation on every major construction project in Essex County . His firm provides consultation services in the areas of communications, public policy analysis and development, government relations, lobbying and affirmative action with special expertise in the construction industry. Clients have included Marriott Hotels, Hartz Mountain Industries, Continental Airlines and many more.

Heningburg created the “Newark Plan” which provided training and employment for hundreds of African American and Hispanic construction workers. This model plan, adopted by the State of New Jersey , has been nationally praised as the most effective construction affirmative action plan in the U.S.

Yet, to Heningburg, his most effective construction affirmative action plan to date has been the Prudential Center. It is the first major league sports venue to open in the New York City metropolitan area since Continetal Airlines Arena. This massive 18,000 seat arena is located just blocks from City Hall in downtown Newark. The October grand opening celebration features

New Jersey’s superstar group Bon Jovi. The Prudential Center, which will be the new home of the New Jersey Devils hockey team, has been dubbed the “Devil’s Arena.” There’s even been some controversy about building a stadium for a hockey team in Newark .

“The official name of this 18,000 seat arena is the Prudential Center ,” Heningburg told The Positive Community. “That will give you a clue as to whether the white power structure has embraced this arena being in Newark . It will be the newest in America .”

“The minority participation in the arena has exceeded expectations in every trade and minority contract,” he explained. “Its exceeded any project that we’ve done before, including the airport. Because each time you do it, you cut away a little more resistance for minorities to get in.”

Getting the job done

During the last two decades, his firm has been awarded the opportunity to handle the affirmative action for some of Essex County ’s most high profile new structures. These include Rutgers Law School , two new Rutgers dormitories, and a new prison in Newark ’s East Ward. The jewel is the elegant New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Under Heningburg’s administration minority input at NJ PAC had a whopping 39 percent of the worker hours and 32 percent of the business contracts. Heningburg’s name is featured on a special plaque in the NJ PAC rotunda, sharing space with the names of governors, corporations and deep-pocketed philanthropists.

“On the jobs that we are hired to insure minority participation, one of my conditions is that I have to approve, with my signature, every invoice for payment for every contractor,” he stressed. “And, if I don’t sign off, they don’t get paid. No demonstrations anymore. No lawsuits anymore. No marching up and down. It works.”

In the early 1970’s, marching was his only option to opening up minority opportunities on the construction sites at Newark International Airport . As president and chief executive officer of the Greater Newark Urban Coalition, he headed a demonstration that not only caused a work stoppage, but shut down the airport. “It screwed up air traffic all over the East Coast. Every airline on its way to Newark got diverted to some other airport,” he recalled.

It was the era of President Richard Nixon. After the demonstration, a special New Jersey contingent comprised of Heningburg , the executive director of the Port Authority, New Jersey Governor William Cahill and Prudential Chairman Donald MacNaughton, who was the also the chair of the New Jersey State Chamber of Commerce and Heningburg’s Newark Urban Coalition, flew to Washington D.C. for a major meeting with Nixon Attorney General John Mitchell.

“The message was clear. If you want to impact these kinds of things you have got to bring the power structure with you,” he stressed. “Simply confronting the power structure does not work for very long. It might work for a short period.”

Attorney General Mitchell sent federal representatives to Newark and sued every construction union in Essex County . At the time, there was no minority owned concession at any airport in the US . After negotiations there were 11 minority-owned concessions at Newark Airport . Now, there are over 700 minority-owned businesses with airport concession contracts around the US . T he Airport Minority Advisory Council was formed to promote the full participation of minority, women, and disadvantaged business enterprises in airport contracts and employment opportunities. It holds major national conferences and utilizes lobbyists.

“What happened in Newark created an industry. Everything that we have started here has grown to other places,” he pointed out. Heningburg even advised Mayor Maynard Jackson in Atlanta . “If you’ve been to Atlanta Airport , you would recognize that it’s one of the most integrated airports in the country.”

In New Jersey , unions are grouped by counties. In order to train minorities for eligibility in Essex County construction unions, workers had to be instructed through a union apprentice-training program. Under Heningburg, a training school for every trade was established and the instructors were union workers.

“We learned a great deal in the process. It took getting sued. It took getting pilloried in the newspapers. It took having Port Authority police sitting outside my apartment,” he said.

“This is not a moral issue. This being an integrated work force, this a money issue.”

The Heningburg Legacy

In honor of Heningburg and his work, the Rutgers Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience recently launched the Gustav Heningburg Civic Fellows program at Rutgers–Newark. Each year the Heningburg fellows, who are educators, executives and community leaders, utilize Rutgers ’ services and scholars to develop a broader understanding of the cultural and historical context of issues. The program was developed to create partnerships between Newark 's established and rising leaders, and local and nationally known scholars. It was designed to find new methods to address some of the issues facing the city and to expand public involvement in the city's renewal.

“Gus is perhaps the most significant civic leader in Newark and more generally in New Jersey . During the period between roughly the mid-1960’s and mid-1980’s, Gus helped Newark and New Jersey transition from a very troubled state, a very intolerant state, and a state in which Black people especially were treated very shabbily,” stated Dr. Clement A. Price, the Institute’s first director and a Rutgers professor of history on the Newark campus and a nationally recognized advocate of public scholarship in history, culture and the arts. “ New Jersey is a state that now embraces diversity, a state that seeks now to elevate all of its citizens, and a state in which its largest city, Newark , is now rebounding. And, Gus is in the middle of all the positive steps forward that has led to the rejuvenation of Newark and New Jersey civic life.”

Advocacy and education are part of Gustav Heningburg’s DNA, so is non-comformity. It’s a rare occasion when Gus puts on a suit and tie. “My father didn’t see any reason to wear one, and neither do I,” he smiled. He was born at Tuskegee Institute, the son of a college professor. After graduating from Hampton University , he served for seven years as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army. During the Brown vs. Board of Education case, he served as assistant to the president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, where he worked with Thurgood Marshall. Heningburg was also one of the United Negro College Fund’s pioneers, serving as director of Alumni Affairs.

Like many of Newark ’s veteran politicos, he is still observing Mayor Booker’s freshman tenure as mayor. “He is very bright and very energetic,” he said.

This summer, the 40 th anniversary of the Newark riot was commemorated and reflected upon by New Jersey residents and the press. “There were 61 riots across the country that year. It wasn’t just Newark . It was Watts , Detroit , Pittsburgh , et cetera. I am convinced that Newark has proceeded further in rebuilding itself than any of the other 61 cities in America that had a riot or civil disorder or whatever you want to call it,” stressed Heningburg. “ Watts today looks like Watts looked when it had its riot. Detroit is an economic basket case right now, 40 years later. Newark is going through a major rebuilding.”

Newark is in the midst of a resurgence, and Heningburg is one of its advocates and architects. “No matter what Newark ’s image may happen to be, it’s coming back.”