Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation

Last updated
Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation
FoundedApril 1, 1967;56 years ago (1967-04-01)
Founders Robert F. Kennedy, John Lindsay, Jacob Javits, and Thomas R. Jones
Type Community development corporation
(IRS exemption status): 501(c)(3) [1]
Location
Area served
Brooklyn, New York City
Key people
President - Colvin W. Grannum
Chairman - Kevin Chavers
Revenue (2016)
$11,893,358 [2]
Expenses (2016)$11,018,008 [2]
Website RestorationPlaza.org

The Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation (or BSRC, referred to locally in short as Restoration) is a community development corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, and the first ever to be established in the United States.

Contents

Background

Decline of Bedford–Stuyvesant

In the late 19th century and the early 20th century, the neighborhood of Bedford–Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, New York, was home to middle class German, Dutch, Italian, Irish, and Jewish immigrants and their descendants. In the 1920s, African-Americans migrating from the South settled in the area. Starting in 1930, people from Harlem moved into the neighborhood, seeking better housing. As the impoverished black population increased, banks reduced lending to local residents and businesses. [3] By 1950, the number of blacks had risen to 155,000, comprising about 55 percent of the population of Bedford–Stuyvesant. Over the next decade, real estate agents and speculators employed blockbusting to make quick profits. As a result, formerly middle-class white homes were turned over to poorer black families. By 1960, eighty-five percent of the population was black. [4]

By the mid-1960s, 450,000 residents occupied the neighborhood's nine square miles. Bedford–Stuyvesant had become Brooklyn's most populous neighborhood and had the second largest concentration of African-Americans in the United States. Garbage pickup decreased and local schools deteriorated. The streets became dangerous as juvenile delinquency, gang activity, and heroin use increased. Around 80 percent of residents were high school dropouts and about 36 percent of children were born to unmarried mothers. Economic downturn was in part facilitated by the decline of the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the closure of a Sheffield Farms milk-bottling plant on Fulton Street. [3] Almost half of the housing was officially classified as "dilapidated and insufficient." [5] Rates of venereal disease were among the highest in the United States, [3] while infant mortality was the highest. [5]

1964 riot and reaction

Confrontation between black rioters and police at Fulton Street and Nostrand Avenue during the 1964 riot Bedford-Stuyvesant riot of 1964.jpg
Confrontation between black rioters and police at Fulton Street and Nostrand Avenue during the 1964 riot

On July 16, 1964, an off-duty white police lieutenant, Thomas Gilligan, shot and killed a 15-year old black boy, James Powell. Two nights later, violence broke out in Harlem, and on July 20 rioting started at the intersection of Fulton Street and Nostrand Avenue in Bedford–Stuyvesant. This carried on for three nights in the latter neighborhood and resulted in 276 arrests, 22 injuries, and 556 incidents of property damage which cost an estimated $350,000. [6] The riot brought national attention to Bedford–Stuyvesant, but concern soon faded; after six months, the only improvement in the community was the paving of an empty lot. [7]

On November 21, the Central Brooklyn Coordinating Council hosted an all-day conference at Pratt Institute in response to the summer riot. 600 local civic, religious, and political leaders discussed ways to improve the area. In the end it was decided that the Pratt Institute's Planning Department would conduct a six-month survey of local challenges and the potential for redevelopment. The study focused on a 12-block section of the community, finding much of the housing in the area at the point of decay. However, it was found that chances of rehabilitation in the area were "greatly enhanced" by the fact that 22.5 percent of buildings were owner occupied, 9.7 percent of buildings were owned by individuals that lived close by, and the average homeowner resided in the area for 15 years. The Planning Department's report concluded that New York City should "mobilize all necessary antipoverty and other social welfare and educational programs" to save the neighborhood from further decline. However, Youth-in-Action, the community's city anti-poverty agency, was only allocated $440,000 out of a requested $2.6 million budget for 1965, forcing it to cut many of its programs. [8]

Robert F. Kennedy's involvement

Senator Robert F. Kennedy speaks with a boy during his tour of Bedford-Stuyvesant Kennedy discusses school with young Ricky Taggart.jpg
Senator Robert F. Kennedy speaks with a boy during his tour of Bedford–Stuyvesant

Late in 1965 Robert F. Kennedy, the junior senator of New York, decided to give an address on race and poverty. Disturbed by the Watts riots in Los Angeles, he was worried that America's racial crisis was shifting from the rural South to the urban North. [8] He was also concerned that white support for black demands within the community was declining and that race relations were near to boiling over. [9]

Kennedy gave three consecutive speeches in Manhattan on January 20, 21, and 22, 1966. Most of the content was in line with John F. Kennedy's New Frontier programs, with proposals for job training, rent subsidies, students loans for the poor, and housing desegregation. He also broke with President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society rhetorical optimism, arguing that the situation for black Americans was worsening instead of improving. He asserted that welfare and stricter code enforcement were not solving the problems facing ghettos and that community involvement and action from the private sector were necessary to effectively combat urban poverty. Kennedy warned that failure to act could lead to more race riots. [9] Several days later, Kennedy decided to create his own anti-poverty program. He told speechwriter Adam Walinsky, "I want to do something about all this. Some kind of project that goes after some of these problems[...]see what you can put together." [9]

In mid-February, Kennedy spent an afternoon touring Bedford–Stuyvesant. Afterwards, he attended a meeting with community activists at the local YMCA building. Similar in manner to the Baldwin–Kennedy meeting of 1963, Brooklyn community leaders were bitter towards the senator and lectured him on the problems black residents of the neighborhood faced. Civil Court Judge Thomas R. Jones said, "I'm weary of study, Senator. Weary of speeches, weary of promises that aren't kept[...]The Negro people are angry, Senator, and, judge that I am, I'm angry, too. No one is helping us." [10] Kennedy was irritated by the way he was treated. As he drove back to Manhattan he told his aides, "I could be smoking a cigar down in Palm Beach. I don't really have to take that. Why do I have to go out and get abused for a lot of things I haven't done?" Several moments later he said, "Maybe this would be a good place to try and make an effort." [11]

History

Planning and design

Throughout the summer of 1966 Senator Kennedy's aides, Walinsky and Thomas Johnston, planned an anti-poverty program. As part of their research, they traveled across the country to consult black militants, urban theorists, federal administrators, journalists, mayors, foundation leaders, and banking and business executives. Johnston spent much of his time in Bedford–Stuyvesant trying to sort out differences between the community's middle-class leadership. Earl G. Graves, Sr., a former real-estate broker from the area, was brought in to assist him. [12] Realizing that the Johnson administration and Brooklyn's white Democrats felt politically threatened by his project, Kennedy secured support from Mayor John Lindsay and the senior senator from New York, Jacob Javits, both Republicans. He also earned corporate support from Thomas Watson Jr. of IBM, William S. Paley of CBS, investment banker André Meyer, and former Secretary of Treasury C. Douglas Dillon. Only David Rockefeller declined to support the project. [13]

By October, Kennedy, his staff, and community leaders had resolved to launch a community development corporation for the near-entirety of the ghetto of Bedford–Stuyvesant. [13] Kennedy later said, "An effort in one problem area is almost worthless. A program for housing, without simultaneous programs for jobs, education, welfare reform, health, and economic development cannot succeed. The whole community must be involved as a whole." [14] Initial plans included coordinated programs for the creation of jobs, housing renovation and rehabilitation, improved health sanitation, and recreation facilities, the construction of two "super blocks," the conversion of the abandoned Sheffield Farms milk-bottling plant into a town hall and community center, a mortgage consortium to provide subsidized loans for homeowners, the founding of a private work-study community college for dropouts, and a public campaign to convince corporations to invest in industry in the neighborhood. [15]

A few days before the project was going to publicly unveiled, Kennedy said "I'm not at all sure this is going to work. But it's going to test some new ideas, some new ways of doing this, that are different from the government's. Even if we fail, we'll have learned something. But more important than that, something has to be done. People like myself can't go around making nice speeches all the time. We can't just keep raising expectations. We have to do some damn hard work, too." [14]

First founding

On December 9, 1966, Kennedy, together with Mayor Lindsay and Senator Javits, announced his anti-poverty program at New York Public School 305. [14] He told the audience, "The program for the development of Bedford–Stuyvesant will combine the best of community action with the best of the private enterprise system. Neither by itself is enough, but in their combination lies our hope for the future." [16] The plan was met with mixed reactions in the press, with some liberals accusing the project of relying too heavily on the private sector while conservative elements were more hopeful of its chances for success. [17]

Initially, the responsibility of the revival of the neighborhood rested with two private, nonprofit corporations. The first, Bedford–Stuyvesant Renewal and Rehabilitation Corporation (R & R), consisted of 20 established civic and religious community leaders under the leadership of Judge Thomas R. Jones. Its purpose was to design anti-poverty programs and retain basic decision-making authority. The second, Distribution and Services (D & R) was to secure financial and logistical support for the former. It was run by an all-white board of businessmen that included Watson, Paley, Meyer, Dillon, David Lilienthal and Jacob Merrill Kaplan. Roswell Gilpatric, James Oates, and Benno C. Schmidt Sr. were later added. [18]

Internal disputes and second founding

The community corporation's membership was almost entirely middle class and about one-third female. Many factions in Bedford–Stuyvesant felt underrepresented, resulting in bitter political infighting. [19] In March 1967 Judge Jones reached an impasse with the Central Brooklyn Coordinating Council. With the support of Kennedy and Lindsay, he demanded that the R & R board resolve to expand itself to include a wider array of community leaders and give him three weeks to revise the corporation's structure. The ultimatum lost by a single vote and Jones angrily resigned. [20]

The ensuing dispute threatened to derail the entire project. Kennedy tried to salvage it by dissolving the R & R and creating a new restoration corporation. Arguing that a more representative group was needed to secure federal and private grants, he won the support of Lindsay and Javits to proceed. On April 1, Jones announced the formation of the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation (BSRC). [20] [21] It was the first community development corporation in the United States. [22] The new board included Sonny Carson, Albert Vann, and Milton Galamison. [20] Franklin A. Thomas selected to be the first President and CEO of the new corporation. [23]

Initial activities

The corporations received their first grants from the Stern Family Fund, J. M. Kaplan Fund, Ford Foundation and Astor Foundation. Seven months later they received a $7 million grant from the Department of Labor made possible by a 1966 amendment to the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 drafted by Kennedy and Javits to provide the private sector with incentive payments in exchange for investments in impoverished areas. [18] In spite of a public awareness campaign and support from several prominent Republicans, the project only received modest support from private businesses. Investments from IBM, Xerox, and U.S. Gypsum notwithstanding, most corporate executives believed there was little profit in poorer communities and were concerned about hostile working environments. [17] Most of the residents of Bedford–Stuyvesant were initially skeptical of the project's intentions. [24]

Planning occurred throughout the early months of 1967. By March, a strategy had been laid out for the physical reconstruction and rehabilitation of Bedford–Stuyvesant. It centered around a two-block-wide commercial zone to be located between Fulton Street and Atlantic Avenue which would serve as a principal point for local business and community organizations. Several lightly trafficked roads were chosen to be transformed into landscaped walkways. [23] Architect I. M. Pei was commissioned for the establishment of the two "superblocks". Local residents believed the proposal was purely cosmetic and insisted that housing and employment programs be given greater attention. Pei was eventually able to convince more of the more corporation staff to support his plan. [25]

Meanwhile, members of the still-functional D & S board were working on areas of their expertise; Paley began exploring the development of communications infrastructure, George S. Moore focused on project financing and mortgage pooling, Schmidt assisted small businesses, Watson managed job training and employment programs, and Meyer worked on real estate problems and strategized for the corporation's overall funding. [25] Wanting to earn the trust of the community, Thomas organized the "Community Home Improvement Program" (CHIP). With labor drawn from unemployed youth, various houses would be chosen by lottery to have their exteriors refurbished. In turn, homeowners would provide a token payment of $25 (for work valued at $325). [24] The corporation would continue to maintain the houses after rehabilitation. Though seen by Judge Jones as "superficial", the program went into effect with a $500,000 federal grant and quickly became popular. [26] The D & S board gradually began to lose its supremacy over the BSRC. Thomas lobbied for an end of D & S control over funding and created a joint account to be managed by both corporations. In December 1967 Kennedy brought in John Doar to be the new executive director of the D & S board. One of his first actions was to relocate the businessmen corporation's staff into the BSRC's offices. [26] It was seen by community leaders as a hindrance and eventually dissolved.

The BSRC also produced a television series about the neighborhood, Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant, which premiered in April 1968. [27] By December, the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation had restored 400 brownstones and tenements with the help of 272 local residents, 250 of whom were later hired in full-time construction jobs. Two "Neighborhood Restoration Centers" for free advice and legal consultation had been opened, 14 new black-owned businesses had been established, and 1,200 residents had received vocational training. IBM located a computer cable plant in the neighborhood, creating 300 new jobs, while the City University of New York had agreed to coordinate with community leaders for the construction of a new community college in the area. A mortgage pool fund run by a consortium of 65 banks loaned $1.5 million to homeowners. [28] Still, progress was slow and journalist Jack Newfield estimated that of Bedford–Stuyvesant's 450,000 inhabitants, only about 25,000 had been affected by the corporation's work. [29]

In 1968 the BSRC purchased the abandoned milk-bottling plant on Fulton street for rehabilitation. Its restoration was completed in 1972 and it became the new corporate headquarters for the BSRC, entitled Restoration Plaza. [16] In 1979, Pathmark opened the first supermarket in Bedford-Stuyvesant in the plaza. [30]

In 1971, the BSRC looked to stimulate the region's economy through employment, education, and healthcare programming. This included a textile project by the Design Works of Bedford-Stuyvesant, founded by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, shown at a gala event at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. [31]

21st century

As of 2010, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation had constructed or rehabilitated 2200 housing units in the neighborhood, provided mortgage financing to nearly 1500 homeowners, brought $375 million in investments to the community, and created over 20,000 jobs. [22]

Restoration Plaza currently serves as an office and mall complex for the surrounding area and as the unofficial downtown of Bedford–Stuyvesant. In addition to housing utilities services and a post office, the building hosts the BSRC's Center for Arts and Culture. This includes the Billie Holiday Theatre, Restoration Dance Theater, and the Skylight Art Gallery. The Youth Arts Academy, Under One Sun, and Phat Tuesday programs are also run from the plaza. [32] In 2023 the architect David Adjaye unveiled the design the addition of 600,000 square feet of office space, a remodeled public plaza, and an expansion to existing facilities, including the Billie Holiday Theatre. [33]

Citations

  1. ↑ "Mission Statement". restorationplaza.org. Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. 2009. Archived from the original on 26 November 2016. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation" (PDF). Candid. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 Hymowitz 2013
  4. ↑ Newfield 1988 , p. 89
  5. 1 2 Newfield 1988 , p. 87
  6. ↑ Newfield 1988 , p. 90
  7. ↑ Newfield 1988 , p. 91
  8. 1 2 Newfield 1988 , p. 92
  9. 1 2 3 Newfield 1988 , p. 93
  10. ↑ Newfield 1988 , p. 94
  11. ↑ Schlesinger 2002 , p. 786
  12. ↑ Schmitt 2011 , p. 148
  13. 1 2 Newfield 1988 , p. 95
  14. 1 2 3 Newfield 1988 , p. 96
  15. ↑ Newfield 1988 , pp. 95–96
  16. 1 2 "History". restorationplaza.org. Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. 2009. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
  17. 1 2 Newfield 1988 , p. 98
  18. 1 2 Newfield 1988 , p. 97
  19. ↑ Newfield 1988 , p. 102
  20. 1 2 3 Schmitt 2011 , p. 157
  21. ↑ Newfield 1988 , p. 103
  22. 1 2 "Guide to the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation publication and photograph collection ARC.124". New York Public Library. Brooklyn Historical Society. 9 December 2011.
  23. 1 2 Schmitt 2011 , p. 158
  24. 1 2 Newfield 1988 , p. 101
  25. 1 2 Schmitt 2011 , p. 159
  26. 1 2 Schmitt 2011 , p. 162
  27. ↑ Hubert, Craig (July 18, 2018). "Producer Charles Hobson Remembers 'Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant' on Its 50th Anniversary". Brownstoner. Retrieved February 26, 2019.
  28. ↑ Newfield 1988 , p. 108
  29. ↑ Newfield 1988 , p. 109
  30. ↑ "50 Years of Restoration: Building Assets and Community Wealth". Brooklyn Reader. December 29, 2017. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
  31. ↑ "Brooklyn Museum". www.brooklynmuseum.org. Retrieved 2020-12-30.
  32. ↑ Freudenheim & Wiener 2014 , pp. 64–65
  33. ↑ Klein, Kristine (2023-02-21). "Adjaye Associates unveils design for Restoration Plaza in Brooklyn". The Architect’s Newspaper. Retrieved 2023-04-13.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East New York, Brooklyn</span> Neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City

East New York is a residential neighborhood in the eastern section of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City, United States. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise, are roughly the Cemetery Belt and the Queens borough line to the north; the Queens borough line to the east; Jamaica Bay to the south, and the Bay Ridge Branch railroad tracks and Van Sinderen Avenue to the west. Linden Boulevard, Pennsylvania Avenue, and Atlantic Avenue are the primary thoroughfares through East New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brownsville, Brooklyn</span> Neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City

Brownsville is a residential neighborhood in eastern Brooklyn in New York City. The neighborhood is generally bordered by Crown Heights to the northwest; Bedford–Stuyvesant and Cypress Hills to the north; East New York to the east; Canarsie to the south; and East Flatbush to the west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn</span> Neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City

Bedford–Stuyvesant, colloquially known as Bed–Stuy, is a neighborhood in the northern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Bedford–Stuyvesant is bordered by Flushing Avenue to the north, Classon Avenue to the west, Broadway to the east, and Atlantic Avenue to the south. The main shopping street, Fulton Street runs east–west the length of the neighborhood and intersects high-traffic north–south streets including Bedford Avenue, Nostrand Avenue, and Stuyvesant Avenue. Bedford–Stuyvesant contains four smaller neighborhoods: Bedford, Stuyvesant Heights, Ocean Hill, and Weeksville. Part of Clinton Hill was once considered part of Bedford–Stuyvesant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franklin A. Thomas</span> American businessman and philanthropist (1934–2021)

Franklin Augustine Thomas was an American businessman and philanthropist who was president and CEO of the Ford Foundation from 1979 until 1996. After leaving the foundation, Thomas continued to serve in leadership positions in American corporations and was on the board of the TFF Study Group, a nonprofit institution assisting development in South Africa. Thomas was chairman of the nonprofit organization September 11th Fund from 2001 to 2004 and was involved in the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, having served as the manager of its American office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ocean Hill, Brooklyn</span> Neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York City

Ocean Hill is a subsection of Bedford–Stuyvesant in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 16 and was founded in 1890. The ZIP code for the neighborhood is 11233. Ocean Hill's boundaries start from Broadway and the neighborhood of Bushwick in the north, Ralph Avenue and the neighborhoods of Bedford-Stuyvesant proper and Crown Heights to the west, East New York Avenue and the neighborhood of Brownsville to the south, and Van Sinderen Avenue and the neighborhood of East New York to the east.

A community development corporation (CDC) is a not-for-profit organization incorporated to provide programs, offer services and engage in other activities that promote and support community development. CDCs usually serve a geographic location such as a neighborhood or a town. They often focus on serving lower-income residents or struggling neighborhoods. They can be involved in a variety of activities including economic development, education, community organizing and real estate development. These organizations are often associated with the development of affordable housing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weeksville, Brooklyn</span>

Weeksville is a historic neighborhood founded by free African Americans in what is now Brooklyn, New York, United States. Today it is part of the present-day neighborhood of Crown Heights.

The demographics of Brooklyn reveal a very diverse borough of New York City and a melting pot for many cultures, like the city itself. Since 2010, the population of Brooklyn was estimated by the Census Bureau to have increased 3.5% to 2,592,149 as of 2013, representing 30.8% of New York City's population, 33.5% of Long Island's population, and 13.2% of New York State's population. If the boroughs of New York City were separate cities, Brooklyn would be the third largest city in the United States after Los Angeles and Chicago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weeksville Heritage Center</span> United States historic place

The Weeksville Heritage Center is a historic site on Buffalo Avenue between St. Marks Avenue and Bergen Street in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York City. It is dedicated to the preservation of Weeksville, one of America's first free black communities during the 19th century. Within this community, the residents established schools, churches and benevolent associations and were active in the abolitionist movement. Weeksville is a historic settlement of national significance and one of the few remaining historical sites of pre-Civil War African-American communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annette Robinson</span> American politician

Annette Robinson formerly represented the 56th district of the New York State Assembly, which includes most of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights and Bushwick, from 2002 to 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">B15 (New York City bus)</span> Bus route in Brooklyn, New York

The Sumner Avenue Line and New Lots Avenue Line were two streetcar lines in Brooklyn, New York City, running mainly along Marcus Garvey Boulevard, East 98th Street, and New Lots Avenue between northern Bedford–Stuyvesant and New Lots. Originally streetcar lines, the two lines were combined as a bus route in 1947. That bus route became the present B15 Marcus Garvey Boulevard / New Lots Avenue service, operated by MTA New York City Bus' East New York Depot in East New York. The B15 continues east from New Lots to John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens.

Joseph J. Sitt is an American real estate investor, founder of the retail chain Ashley Stewart, and founder of global real estate company Thor Equities.

Thomas Russell Jones, Jr. was an African-American member of the New York State Assembly, a justice of the New York Supreme Court, and a leading civil rights activist for black Americans in slums of Northern cities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Cornegy</span> American politician

Robert E. Cornegy Jr. is an American politician. He is a former New York City Council Member for the 36th district, representing Bedford-Stuyvesant and northern Crown Heights in Brooklyn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billie Holiday Theatre</span> Theater in Brooklyn, New York City

The Billie Holiday Theatre is as 218-seat theatre located in the New York neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. It opened in May 1972, It was founded by the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation.

Chief Charles A. Joshua Plaza is a .22-acre public space located at the crossroads of Ralph Avenue, Fulton Street and Macdougal Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. The plaza's namesake, Chief Charles Adebowale Joshua (1924-1999) was a community activist who led efforts to stimulate cooperation among the neighborhood's numerous nonprofit organizations, including programs serving foster children, people with mental disabilities and people living with HIV and AIDS. Beginning in 1973, as Executive Director of the Central Brooklyn Coordinating Council, he worked to stimulate cooperation among more than 135 community agencies in implementing social programs benefiting local residents. Joshua was also a founder of the Caribbean-American Chamber of Commerce and Industry, an organization founded in 1985 to provide assistance to small businesses within the city's Caribbean immigrant community.

Rasu Jilani is an independent curator, social sculptor, and an entrepreneur whose work is to investigate the intersection between art, culture and civic engagement as a means of raising critical consciousness. The objective of his work is to activate interaction between artists, the local community and the wider public in order to promote awareness around social issues through exhibitions, humanities, community programs, and cultural events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African Americans in New York City</span> Ethnic group and minority in New York City

African Americans constitute one of the longer-running ethnic presences in New York City, home to the largest urban African American population, and the world's largest Black population of any city outside Africa, by a significant margin. As of the 2010 Census, the number of African Americans residing in New York City was over 2 million. The highest concentration of African Americans are in Brooklyn, Harlem, Queens, and The Bronx. New York City is also home to the highest number of immigrants from the Caribbean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph S. Clark's and Robert F. Kennedy's tour of the Mississippi Delta</span> United States Senators investigative tour of the Mississippi Delta

United States Senators Joseph S. Clark and Robert F. Kennedy toured the Mississippi Delta on April 10, 1967. At the behest of civil rights lawyer Marian Wright, Clark and Kennedy, together with two other senators, traveled to Mississippi to investigate reports of extreme poverty and starvation. Following a field hearing, they drove from Greenville to Clarksdale, stopping and touring impoverished communities as they went. Deeply disturbed by what they saw, the senators returned to Washington, D.C., and began pushing for a series of reforms to alleviate the situation. Extensive media coverage of the event exposed the American public to real instances of malnutrition and starvation. The country was shocked and hunger became an important topic nationwide as people began looking for solutions. Efforts by the government and political action groups ultimately resulted in the problem being largely reduced by the 1970s.

Stefani Zinerman is an American Democratic Party politician who currently represents New York State Assembly district 56, which includes Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights in Brooklyn, New York.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.