By Walter Elliott
“As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on, there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day; and not only to me but also to all who have longed for His reappearing. – II Timothy 4:6-8.
NEWARK – If parking was scarcer and traffic more crowded than usual around the Perry Funeral Home here March 24-25, it was because of the volume of mourners who paid tribute to State Sen. Ronald L. Rice.
Perry, at 34 Mercer St., was where a “walk-through” visitation was held Friday night and his funeral service was conducted Saturday morning. It was similar in format to the August 2020 last rites for his late wife Shirley.
Many of those who gave their last measures of respect and honor to the former state legislator, deputy mayor, councilman, police officer, community organizer, marine and student followed Rice’s remains to its last resting place Saturday afternoon – Union’s Hollywood Cemetery.
The procession, led by the Newark Police Division motorcycle unit, temporarily halted traffic while on its way through Newark and Hillside into Union. They passed U.S. and state flags that have been lowered to half-staff by Gov. Phil Murphy’s March 16th”s statewide proclamation.
Rice, 77, who had lost his battle against cancer March 15, was a Newark Vailsburg- based state General Assemblyman and State Senator for 34 years – Dec. 4, 1986 – Aug. 31, 2022. Becoming the longest-serving African American New Jersey state senator – he never received less than 66 percent of the vote – was largely thanks to the voters of the-now “Old” 28th Legislative District.
That Rice’s public service was rewarded with continued re-election came largely from his own character. That character, in the eyes of “Local Talk,” included self-sacrifice, principles and integrity with some street sense.
Rice was unbossed and unafraid while standing up for minorities and the underprivileged. He frequently spoke his peace in the State House, City Hall and in other legislative or public meetings. He occasionally broke ranks with colleagues and Democratic Party operatives on particular issues.
Former governor Richard Codey, while he was Senate President, would give advice to his colleagues who complained about Rice’s on-floor speeches.
“When he starts talking, don’t interrupt,” said Sen. Codey (D-Roseland). “If you wait, he’s a complete gentleman. He’s just a joyful and wonderful human being.”
Those qualities began to form in Ronald Louis Rice when he was born Dec. 18, 1945 into a family of six and first raised in Jim Crow era Richmond, Va. Rice’s parents divorced when he was 9, however, and a judge had him move with his father, Benjamin “Bennie” Rice, to Newark.
While Bennie worked as a barber, Ron was a Newark Public Schools student. The then-South Side (now-Malcolm X. Shabazz) High School student was a member of its executive committee, band, mixed chorus and boys glee club.
“Big Ron,” in his “Optimist ” yearbook, was described as “cool and collected” and having “a natural talent for making friends.”
The Class of 1964 graduate began studying at Howard University before the military draft for the Vietnam War started. Rice enlisted with the U.S. Marine Corps in 1966 and was honorably discharged in 1970 with Navy Unit and Presidential Citations. His time included a 1968-69 tour in Vietnam which he never talked about in public, if ever.
“You spend one day there, you spend 100,” said Rice in 2006. “It’s all the same.”
The honorably discharged Rice answered Mayor Kenneth Gibson’s call for more minorities to join the Newark Police Department in 1970. The glasses-wearing Rice was kept from being hired until his letter-writing campaign lifted that NPD ban.
“I had the honor and privilege of working alongside then-Det. Rice in the Newark Police Department” said Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura. “Ron was a no-nonsense, straight-shooting, great street cop. Ron Rice carried that same approach to the world of politics.”
Det. Rice, off-shift, graduated from Essex County College with an associate’s degree in police science. He would go on to get a bachelor’s degree in administration and planning from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a master’s in criminal justice from Rutgers. He had attended classes here at Rutgers School of Law.
Rice was promoted to sergeant before he resigned in 1982 to manage PSE&G’s safety and security department. He was already the West Ward Councilman, having won the May 1982 non-partisan election.
He would be re-elected three times before resigning to run against Sharpe James for mayor in 1998. James crushed Rice for his third mayoral term, 56 percent to 27 – but appointed Rice as his deputy mayor in 2002.
Rice resigned as deputy mayor on July 1, 2006, for two reasons. The first was that he and his “Home Team” of council candidates were shut out by former councilman Cory A. Booker and his slate that May. The second was that he had decided to keep his state senate seat in light of the newly-enacted state ban on dual office holding.
Rice was first elected to the State House in a special 1986 election to succeed the late John P. Caufield. Caufield, who was also Newark Fire Director, suddenly died on Aug. 24, 1981.
“John and I had our offices in the same building (in Vailsburg),” recalled Rice. “He once looked at me and said, ‘Whatever happens to me, I want you to have my seat.’ “
Rice turned back challenges for the 28th District seat that included those supported by several Democratic Party power brokers.
In the 1997 Democratic primary, Rice won the party nomination by 1,218 votes in an off-the-party-line campaign against former policeman Larry Brown. Brown was favored by Mayor Sharpe James, Cong. Donald M. Payne, Sr., State Sen. Wynona Lipman and North Ward Democratic Committee leader Stephen N. Adubato, Sr.
District voters returned Rice over former Assemblyman Willie Brown by 986 votes in the 2001 primary. Rice edged then-Irvington councilman and county freeholder D. Bilal Beasley by 475 votes in the 2007 primary.
Rice also weathered three U.S. Census-driven drawings of his district in 1990, 2000 and 2010.
“Local Talk” remembers Rice and the late Sen. Marion Crecco (R-Bloomfield) commiserating with each other after a public Bloomfield event over the redrawn 28th District.
Crecco found herself and Bloomfield drawn out of the 34th, where she had won four elections, into the 28th. Rice eventually defeated Crecco, 69 to 29 percent.
While in the State House, Rice co-founded and was chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus.
“Our people need help; they’re crying to us from the streets,” said Rice when he was made chairman. “Corporate America, the schoolhouses, the correctional facilities, even the churches – they weren’t there for them because, in each case, they may one see one, three or four (Black representatives in those institutions.)”
Rice until last summer, seemed poised to run after the 28th’s latest redrawing. He and General Assembly Members Cleopatra Tucker (D-Newark) and Ralph Caputo (D-Nutley) were to run in Newark’s Vailsburg-West and “southwest” wards, Irvington and Union’s Hillside plus new additions South Orange and Maplewood.
Rice, however, began missing State House sessions. A doctor’s examination detected cancer – which needed his full attention to fighting.
“As I announce my retirement, this is a heart-wrenching letter to compose,” said Rice to the Legislative Black Caucus. “Together, we’ve been etching compassion and equality into our society, one issue, and sometimes one person, at a time.”
Rice was laid to rest next to his late second wife, Shirley N. Rice. Shirley was a University of California-Berkeley administrator who met and married Ron in 1978. Shirley, 76, who became a longtime ECC administrator, suddenly died Aug. 3, 2020.
“Local Talk” extends condolences to son Ronald C., daughter Yuki T., grandchildren Mia, Ayden and RJ, brothers Joseph and Alton Benjamin and sisters Renee and Sharon among his survivors.
