Races: Trouble Across the Tracks

To the thousands who flock each summer weekend to its white sand beaches and boardwalk carnival rides, Asbury Park, N.J., seems a tidy, if somewhat faded haven of tranquillity. But it is also, like many American small towns, a community where "across the tracks" still has a vivid, invidious meaning. To the east of the Penn Central railroad line, where well-kept lawns sweep toward the Atlantic Ocean, live most of Asbury Park's 12,500 whites. On the West Side, in a ghetto of frame houses splaying out from Springwood Avenue, live most of Asbury Park's 8,500 blacks. Last week the...