The volley of bullets that killed Lois Spellman were aimed just above us.

Newark 1967 

I was between the second and third grades.  It was hot, we were at home in the Hayes Homes projects on Springfield Avenue in Newark.  There was trouble, there was gunfire, Mom was alarmed, I was terrified.  Mom said to get down on the floor so we wouldn't get hit, so we crawled along the floor from room to room.  We were on the second floor, close to the street, we could hear what was going on outside.  I would forget and stand up and Mom would scream at me to get back down.  I couldn't believe this was happening. This went on all day and all that night. 

The next day, a calm was punctured by explosive, lightning-loud rifle shots, bullets blasting the side of our building, lasting several seconds, then silence, then yelling, then screams.  Lois Spellman lived directly above us, on the ninth floor, and the bullets were meant for her.  She was leaning out her window to close it after seeing her young child stray too close to the open window.  They thought she was a sniper.  Her arteries were cut and she was doomed from the moment the bullet struck her.  She died before the ambulance could come.  Nobody knows who fired the bullets, but they came from across the street, probably the roof of the fire station.  I remember the voices in the hall rising hysterically, "They shot Lois!  O my God they shot Lois!"  Lois, our friend, was dead, and I was thinking they were going to kill Mother too.  They were going to kill us all. 

The last event that I remember clearly is walking down Springfield Avenue with my mother and brother, suitcases and bags in hand, past men with guns in uniforms, west toward Irvington, relatives and safety.  We walked 16 blocks to get there, and Mom said, "Whatever you do, don't let go of my hand.  If they shoot me, don't let go of my hand."

I painted Lois Spellman as I have remember her for Black Maids Tribute.  Her angelic portrait is now part of the New Jersey Historical Society's exhibition "Newark and the Legacy of the Sixties."

 -Joey Robinson