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Another nearby community is this suburban neighborhood just outside of Peekskill in Cortlandt Manor that has had a relatively long history of a substantial black middle class: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzHD8O2XPog
So, both are close to colleges for events(D1 sports at both, lectures, etc.), some stores/shops on Main and have good access to public transit to Downtown.
A quote from an article: "In the 1950s and 60s much of Buffalo’s white middle class fled the city. The purchase of a few houses by African Americans often triggered panic selling by white homeowners in a neighborhood, and rapid change in the racial composition of the population. In some cases, including the Hamlin Park Historic District, contiguous with Parkside, stable middle-class African American communities took shape.ix In others, slumlords replaced owner-residents as property owners, and deterioration proceeded rapidly. But Parkside is the most conspicuous example in the city of a neighborhood which successfully integrated. Matters came to a head in 1963. Realtors began applying the technique of ‘blockbusting’ they had perfected elsewhere in the city to Parkside, and a sense of panic began to spread. The Parkside Community Association was created in this environment. On 1 July 1963 its organizers distributed an 8-page outline, of what the group stood for, to neighbors. The text read in part:
“Integration present and future is a fact. Four Negro families presently own or occupy homes. More persons of a minority race will no doubt purchase homes in the near future. This is their right as it should be any person’s right to reside where he chooses. No one is opposed to anyone residing in our community because of race or religion.
What the group wants for this neighborhood is to make it the best possible place to live—to raise our families, to obtain an education, to grow intellectually, spiritually, and physically. We want good neighbors regardless of color. We want all to stay and continue to live where we live. We want to attract persons of all ages, religions, races, education, economic abilities, etc. to our fine community. We want to preserve the area’s residential character. We are proud of our public and parochial schools and of our well-kept houses, trees, lawns, shrubs, and yards. We like to live in the City of Buffalo…â€x
The PCA fought against the subdivision of single family homes into multiple units. It fought against unethical practices by realtors. Dick Griffin and Jack Anthony, the white activists who took the initiative in organizing the association, recruited an early African American homeowner named Frank Mesiah. He became an original board member of the PCA, and later President of the Buffalo Chapter of the NAACP. Defying the odds, Parkside has remained a stably racially integrated community for fifty years."
Source: https://www.americanbungalow.com/sta...t-in-parkside/ (Hamlin Park is currently predominantly black and still has a middle class presence. In fact, the city's current mayor lives in the neighborhood: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_Brown Hamlin Park is adjacent to Parkside to the south) Some more Hamlin Park information that mentions a black middle class presence going back to the 1950's/1960's: https://buffaloah.com/h/hamln/hamlin.html
Just curious, but are there any other Northeastern cities, on the initial list or not, that have similar examples of such neighborhoods? Any suburban communities?
Last edited by ckhthankgod; 03-09-2022 at 02:36 PM..
(short history of the successful effort in Buffalo to integrate Parkside, and the stability of neighboring Hamlin Park, deleted)
Just curious, but are there any other Northeastern cities, on the initial list or not, that have similar examples of such neighborhoods? Any suburban communities?
A professor of history at Kean University who grew up in it wrote a book about the first such neighborhood:
The book describes how white residents of West Mount Airy in northwest Philadelphia banded together in the early 1950s to fight the practices real estate agents of the time engaged in to instill fear of Black newcomers in white residents and cause neighborhoods to flip from one race to another. (That process was underway in the east-side Kansas City neighborhood where I was born in 1958 at the same time; my parents were one of the first Black families to buy a house in it in 1954, and by 1964, the year I entered first grade, the last of the white kids I used to play with had left.)
West Mount Airy Neighbors was formed in 1954 specifically to foster integration in the neighborhood and welcome the new Black residents. The Allens Lane Art Center, a companion institution, was founded the year before as a place where Black and white residents could come together around common interests. The neighborhood organization for the neighborhood's less affluent (and by the time more heavily Black) east side, East Mount Airy Neighbors, was formed in 1966 with the same goals in mind as WMAN.
Mount Airy gained both regional and national renown for the success of its efforts to resist blockbusting, prevent white flight and foster racial integration, and the neighborhood continues to trade on its history to this day.
This Philadelphia Tribune review of Making Good Neighbors was written by a fellow journalist I've known for some time, as we both belong to and serve on the Board of Governors of the Pen & Pencil Club of Philadelphia, the nation's oldest press club in continuous daily operation (and the second-oldest in the country, period, after one in Denver). She just got re-elected to her third term as board president, the first African-American and first woman to run the club in its 125-year-plus history. I'm beginning my fourth term as Board Secretary — also the first Black to hold that position in its history.
BTW, the Tribune — founded in 1884 — is the nation's oldest Black newspaper.
The book describes how white residents of West Mount Airy in northwest Philadelphia banded together in the early 1950s to fight the practices real estate agents of the time engaged in to instill fear of Black newcomers in white residents and cause neighborhoods to flip from one race to another. (That process was underway in the east-side Kansas City neighborhood where I was born in 1958 at the same time; my parents were one of the first Black families to buy a house in it in 1954, and by 1964, the year I entered first grade, the last of the white kids I used to play with had left.)
West Mount Airy Neighbors was formed in 1954 specifically to foster integration in the neighborhood and welcome the new Black residents. The Allens Lane Art Center, a companion institution, was founded the year before as a place where Black and white residents could come together around common interests. The neighborhood organization for the neighborhood's less affluent (and by the time more heavily Black) east side, East Mount Airy Neighbors, was formed in 1966 with the same goals in mind as WMAN.
Mount Airy gained both regional and national renown for the success of its efforts to resist blockbusting, prevent white flight and foster racial integration, and the neighborhood continues to trade on its history to this day.
This Philadelphia Tribune review of Making Good Neighbors was written by a fellow journalist I've known for some time, as we both belong to and serve on the Board of Governors of the Pen & Pencil Club of Philadelphia, the nation's oldest press club in continuous daily operation (and the second-oldest in the country, period, after one in Denver). She just got re-elected to her third term as board president, the first African-American and first woman to run the club in its 125-year-plus history. I'm beginning my fourth term as Board Secretary — also the first Black to hold that position in its history.
BTW, the Tribune — founded in 1884 — is the nation's oldest Black newspaper.
I knew a bit about Mount Airy, but I wasn't sure as to when the neighborhood started to integrate/get black residents.
Didn't know that about the Tribune either.
Is that the only area of Philadelphia like this or are there others with a relatively long history of having middle class black residents/integration?
Anyone know of other neighborhoods like this in the region?
What made me mention this is this video from the 2nd episode of a former public broadcasting show called Black Journal on National Educational Television, a precursor of PBS(it became Tony Brown's Journal later on and they should bring the show back). Anyway, at around 16 minutes into this episode from 1968, they discuss the METCO program with scenes of Roxbury and an example of a student that attended an elementary school in Brookline: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U46IIdH3qD8
So, this is an educational option for families that live in the city.
Thinking of very urban areas for cities on the list with a black middle class, this census tract that covers Olde Uptown and the Engleton portion of Midtown in Harrisburg has a substantial black percentage: https://censusreporter.org/profiles/...05-dauphin-pa/
A quote from an article: "In the 1950s and 60s much of Buffalo’s white middle class fled the city. The purchase of a few houses by African Americans often triggered panic selling by white homeowners in a neighborhood, and rapid change in the racial composition of the population. In some cases, including the Hamlin Park Historic District, contiguous with Parkside, stable middle-class African American communities took shape.ix In others, slumlords replaced owner-residents as property owners, and deterioration proceeded rapidly. But Parkside is the most conspicuous example in the city of a neighborhood which successfully integrated. Matters came to a head in 1963. Realtors began applying the technique of ‘blockbusting’ they had perfected elsewhere in the city to Parkside, and a sense of panic began to spread. The Parkside Community Association was created in this environment. On 1 July 1963 its organizers distributed an 8-page outline, of what the group stood for, to neighbors. The text read in part:
“Integration present and future is a fact. Four Negro families presently own or occupy homes. More persons of a minority race will no doubt purchase homes in the near future. This is their right as it should be any person’s right to reside where he chooses. No one is opposed to anyone residing in our community because of race or religion.
What the group wants for this neighborhood is to make it the best possible place to live—to raise our families, to obtain an education, to grow intellectually, spiritually, and physically. We want good neighbors regardless of color. We want all to stay and continue to live where we live. We want to attract persons of all ages, religions, races, education, economic abilities, etc. to our fine community. We want to preserve the area’s residential character. We are proud of our public and parochial schools and of our well-kept houses, trees, lawns, shrubs, and yards. We like to live in the City of Buffalo…â€x
The PCA fought against the subdivision of single family homes into multiple units. It fought against unethical practices by realtors. Dick Griffin and Jack Anthony, the white activists who took the initiative in organizing the association, recruited an early African American homeowner named Frank Mesiah. He became an original board member of the PCA, and later President of the Buffalo Chapter of the NAACP. Defying the odds, Parkside has remained a stably racially integrated community for fifty years."
Source: https://www.americanbungalow.com/sta...t-in-parkside/ (Hamlin Park is currently predominantly black and still has a middle class presence. In fact, the city's current mayor lives in the neighborhood: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_Brown Hamlin Park is adjacent to Parkside to the south) Some more Hamlin Park information that mentions a black middle class presence going back to the 1950's/1960's: https://buffaloah.com/h/hamln/hamlin.html
Just curious, but are there any other Northeastern cities, on the initial list or not, that have similar examples of such neighborhoods? Any suburban communities?
So, in terms of Northeastern cites it goes as such by state:
MA-Boston and Framingham
CT-Bloomfield
PA-Chester, Aliquippa, Farrell(in between Pittsburgh and Youngstown OH), Carlisle, Yeadon, Duquesne, Wilkinsburg, Braddock, Norristown(no mayor, but council president), Darby and Coatesville(city manager and council president, no mayor)
NJ-Newark, Camden, Salem, East Orange, Hillside, Plainfield, Union, Irvington, Orange, Maplewood, Montclair, Linden, Roselle, Lawnside, Atlantic City, Burlington, Glassboro and Pleasantville
NY-Buffalo, Rochester, Ithaca, Hudson, Newburgh, Mount Vernon, Peekskill and South Floral Park. Bronx and Brooklyn borough presidents are similar.
This information can give an idea of communities/neighborhoods that offer transit/walkability within each of these areas.
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