As we sat at a large wooden table in the main branch of the Newark Public Library, a research librarian brought out boxes of newspaper clippings, hand-drawn maps, agendas for community meetings, transcripts from commission hearings, letters from local leaders, interviews, and government reports—archival materials relating to the riots that erupted in Branch Brook Park over Labor Day weekend in 1974. During three days that came to be known as the Puerto Rican Riots, there were 84 fires, more than 70 people were injured, and two died.