Chapter 1: Coney Island’s Conscience—LADY DEBORAH AND GEORGE TILYOU
Interview with John Manbeck, former official historian of Brooklyn for eight years under Borough President Howard Golden.
See A Dangerous 1600s Woman, by George Dewan, Newsday community guide.
Some of the material in this chapter was researched from Jeffrey Stanton’s unpublished book on Coney Island. Also see Good Old Coney Island, by Edo McCullough (Charles Scribner’s Sons: New York, 1957).
Columbus first called them Indians. Another explanation was that the word derives from “una gente in Dios”—a people in God—which was Columbus’s description of the people of the New World.
In 1649, nine years after Lady Deborah left for New England, the Puritan Oliver Cromwell murdered Charles I and changed England into a fundamentalist, terrorist state. He murdered Catholics with impunity, initiating a reign of terror.
“She is a dangerous woeman.” Russell Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World (Vintage Books: New York, 2005), p. 160.
The witch test. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s came up with a similar witch test for subversives. According to his logic, if you once belonged to the Communist Party, you were a subversive. No one was ever proved innocent under either test.
The Illuminati. Lipset and Raab, The Politics of the Unknown, pp. 36–37.
August Belmont’s real name was August Schoenberg. A Jew who had converted to Protestantism, he was one of the founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“My Mariooch-Maha-Da-Hoocha-Ma-Coocha,” McCullough, p. 257.
With no competition, McKane and his construction company got rich in the nineteenth century the way Vice President Dick Cheney and his Halliburton construction company did more than a hundred years later in Iraq.
Anthony Comstock had a huge influence both in Brooklyn and Manhattan. He was one of the first great reformers in New York City’s political history.
“The people of Gravesend must not be interfered with…” Good Old Coney Island, p. 89.
William Gaynor later became mayor of New York City. He was a rare reform Democrat (most reformers of the time were Republicans), and after he double-crossed Tammany Hall, they refused to renominate him. He was nearly assassinated in 1910.
“They’re all drunk.” Ibid., p. 94.
“Don’t you bet he’d change places with me now.” Ibid., p. 110.
The Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo was where President William McKinley was assassinated.
Hell Gate refers to the dangerous waters near the northeast tip of Manhattan. A few years earlier, the ship General Slocum burned and sank with the loss of more than two thousand lives.
The Thunderbolt rollercoaster. In the movie Annie Hall, Woody Allen’s character, Alvie Singer, lived in a house under the Thunderbolt.
Chapter 2: Here Come the Jews
…only five thousand Jews in the United States until 1830. Coppa and Curran, The Immigrant Experience in America (Twayne Publishers: Boston, 1976), p. 148.
…nine Jews were brought up for trial. Brooklyn Eagle, May 14, 1879.
A hundred thousand Jewish families were reduced to “homeless beggary.” Ibid.
The captives were turned loose. Brooklyn Eagle, May 15, 1891.
Very few ever went back. Maxine Seller, To Seek America: A History of Ethnic Life in the United States (Jerome S. Ozer: New York, 1977), p. 108.
…the figure had risen to 3,388,951 by 1917. Coppa and Curran, p. 149.
The Jewish community grew from 250,000 to 3,500,000. Ibid., p. 147.
At its height, a million Jews plied their skills in the garment trade. Ibid., p. 154.
The German Jews noted that the names of many Russian Jews ended in “ki.” Edward Robb Ellis, The Epic of New York City (Kondansha International, New York, 1997).
“It cannot be denied these Jews are a species of social nuisance.” Brooklyn Eagle, May 7, 1870.
“Is America the Jews’ Promised Land?” Brooklyn Eagle, February 24, 1901.
By 1910 there were 1,252,000 Jews living in New York City. Ellis, p. 417.
Chapter 3: Crushing the Jewish Toublemakers—THE PERSECUTION OF EMMA GOLDMAN
Goldman believed in peaceful means to accomplish the annihilation of law and government. Brooklyn Eagle, September 9, 1901.
…her reaction was, “You fool.” Brooklyn Eagle, September 10, 1901.
“There is no anarchist ring that would help him.” Ibid.
“To them we must look for the accused inspiration that struck down the President.” Brooklyn Eagle, September 14, 1901.
Landis, who was also a racist, sentenced Winconsin Congressman Victor Berger and several others to twenty years in prison for sedition. John Barry, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America (Simon and Schuster: New York, 1997), p. 138.
The elites transmitted fear to the populace…Joel Kovel, Red Hunting in the Promised Land: Anti-Communism and the Making of America (Basic Books: New York, 1994), p. 16.
In his book The Age of Surveillance (Alfred Knopf: New York, 1980), Frank Donner argued that intelligence agents were often chasing scapegoats and pursuing critics of the status quo in order to undermine social change.
…bringing the demonizing mentality up to full speed.” Ibid.
“They were going to ‘slaughter the bourgeoisie…’” Ibid., p. 17.
“[Nothing] will save the life of this free Republic…” John Higham, Strangers in the Land, Patterns of American Nativism 1860–1925 (Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick, NJ, 1988), p. 227.
…racists were sure the blacks were incapable of raising their voices against injustice. Kovel, p. 19.
…undermining the loyalty of the Negroes. Ibid.
Wilson had Colonel House spy on Baruch. Edward Robb Ellis, The Epic of New York City (Kondansha International, New York, 1997). p. 508.
“Palmer, do not let this country see Red.” Arthur Schlesinger Jr., The Crisis of the Old Order 1919–1933 (Little, Brown: Boston, 1957), p. 42.
Henry Ford accused the Jews of trying to corrupt baseball. Daniel A. Nathan, “Anti-Semitism and the Black Sox Scandal,” Nine…4 (Fall 1995), pp. 96–98.
Jews were enemies of all that Anglo-Saxons mean by civilization. Higham, pp. 280–284.
Proof the Jews were intending world conquest. Kovel, p. 26.
…most were innocent of any crime and were not connected to radical politics. Kopel and Olsen.
“…the unmistakable criminal type.” Burton Hersh, Bobby and Edgar (Carroll and Graf: New York, 2007), chapter 2.
They were arrested, held incommunicado…Kovel, p. 21.
Hoover told Stone he would comply with all new policies. Diane Garey, Defending Everybody: A History of the American Civil Liberties Union (TV Books: New York, 1998), p. 75.
“…and the howling savage at the gates.” Ibid., p. 22.
filthy, un-American, and often dangerous in their habits.” Maxine Seller, To Seek America: A History of Ethnic Life in the United States (Jerome S. Ozer: New York, 1977).
“a solution to this immigration business.” Roosevelt to Joseph Gurney Cannon, January 12, 1907, in Elting E. Morison, ed., The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, vol. 5 (Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA, 1952), p. 550.
Dillingham ordered a study of the 2 million public school children in 1908. New York Times, Sam Dillon, “In Schools Across America, the Melting Pot Overflows,” August 26, 2006.
The least retarded were those children of British ancestry. John M. Lund, “Boundaries of Restriction: The Dillingham Commission,” University of Vermont History Review, col. 6, December 1994.
Congress virtually cut off the entry of Eastern European Jews and Italian Catholics in 1924. Higham, p. 285.
…that rationality against the entire U.S. population. Seller, p. 218.
“The day of indiscriminate acceptance of all races has definitely ended.” Roger Daniels, Guarding the Golden Door: American Immigration Policy and Immigrants since 1882 (Hill and Wang: New York, 2004), p. 55.
More than 300,000 Jews who applied for visas were turned away. Ibid., p. 78.
987 refugees, mostly Jewish, from camps in Italy, were helped. Ibid., p. 86.
twenty thousand charming children would all too soon grow into twenty thousand ugly adults.” From the manuscript diary of State Department official Jay Moffat, May 25, 1939, as cited ibid., p. 79.
Chapter 4: Growing Up Jewish—IRA GLASSER
Jews were accused of profiteering, smuggling, and draft-dodging. Frank J. Coppa and Thomas J. Curran, The Immigrant Experience in America (Twayne Publishers: Boston, 1976), p. 160.
Grant’s position was clear. Ibid.
Resorts, social clubs, and private schools excluded Jews. As a result, there arose in the Catskills the development of the so-called Jewish Alps.
The Jews were climbing too fast and had to be kept in their place. Coppa and Curran, p. 160.
In 1944 a poll showed that 24 percent of Americans believed Jews to be a menace to American society. Ibid., p. 163.
To the fathers, they were lost souls. Ibid., p. 132.
Vincent Impelliteri, the New York City Council president, took over as mayor on August 31, 1950, when mayor Paul O’Dwyer was appointed ambassador to Mexico by President Harry Truman. O’Dwyer was facing indictment for fiscal improprieties. Impelliteri ran and won as a third-party candidate. He was defeated in 1953 by Robert Wagner.
Jimmy Wechsler, a member of the Communist Party during his Columbia days, was for more than forty years a liberal columnist for the New York Post. He stood up to J. Edgar Hoover and later was on Richard Nixon’s enemies list.
P.M. was succeeded by the Star and then by the Daily Compass. Dr. Seuss, aka Theodore Geisel, started there.
Brooklyn Catholics were fed anti-Semitic rhetoric by the notoriously right-wing Tablet, a shrill tabloid.
Interview with Ira Glasser.
Chapter 5: A “One Hundred Percent Jewish” Childhood—SY DRESNER
By 1976 four out of five Jewish high schoolers went to college. Frank J. Coppa and Thomas J. Curran, The Immigrant Experience in America (Twayne Publishers: Boston, 1976), p. 157.
Interview with Israel Dresner.
Chapter 6: The Lincoln Brigade—ABE SMORODIN
Interview with Abe Smorodin.
Chapter 7: Victims of Rapp-Coudert—HENRY FONER
The American Communists by the mid-1920s had no interest in violence or regime change. Ellen Schrecker, The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford/St. Martin’s: New York, 1994), p. 2.
The conservatives considered Bertrand Russell an advocate of free love. It is also what the conservatives said about Emma Goldman.
The Co-ops in the Bronx were apartments built in 1927 by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union.
The Peekskill Riots were set off by an announced concert by Paul Robeson, who had expressed his extreme displeasure with the way blacks were treated in America. It was organized to benefit the Civil Rights Congress. It was held on September 4, 1949; twenty thousand people attended. After it was over, veterans and hate groups threw rocks and bottles at the cars of the attendees. Over 140 people were injured as the police stood by and watched.
Interview with Henry Foner.
Chapter 8: On the Side of Labor—MARVIN MILLER
The Rochester company that locked its faucets and sent home workers who were a minute late…Leon Litwack, The American Labor Movement (Prentice-Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1962), pp. 15–16.
Strikers were called Communists as far back as 1877. Ibid., p. 53.
DO IT NOW! John Barry, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America (Simon and Schuster: New York, 1997), p. 139.
The Call was ransacked. Ibid.
ten thousand strikes involving 5,600,000 workers. Litwack, p. 119.
At a rally at Madison Square Garden, Avery Brundage praised the Nazis, and in 1941 he was expelled from the America First Committee for his Nazi leanings.
Robert Taft was a Republican U.S. senator from Ohio, who was a leading opponent to FDR’s New Deal. He ran and lost in a bid for the presidency in 1940, 1948, and 1952.
Interview with Marvin Miller.
Chapter 9: The Roots of Racism—DOROTHY CHALLENOR BURNHAM
The poor white Southerners didn’t know it, but they were being sold a bill of goods. Taylor Branch, At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years 1965–1968 (Simon and Schuster: New York, 2006), p. 166.
In 1872 President Grant spelled out the aims of the Klan. Freakonomics, p. 50.
Klansmen had to believe in three tenets, including the virgin birth of Jesus; the literal infallibility of the Bible; and the bodily resurrection of Christ. This was explained to me by Fred Lamar, who was pastor of Bynum (Alabama) Methodist Church in the years 1959–1961. Lamar protested the burning of the bus on which the first freedom riders traveled. By 1965 he was ordered out of Alabama under the penalty of death.
Jesse Max Barber fled to Chicago. James R. Grossman, Land of Hope: Chicago, Black Southerners and the Great Migration (University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1987).
Wilson said, “My only regret is that it is all so terribly true.” Wye Craig Wade, The Fiery Cross (Simon and Schuster: New York, 1987), p. 124
Colonel William Joseph Simmons announced the rebirth of the Klan. John Barry, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America (Simon and Schuster: New York, 1997), p. 141.
By 1920 the Klan had eight million members. Steven Leavitt and Stephen Dubner, Freakonomics (New York: HarperCollins, 2005), p. 50.
“…the rank and file of the Baptist and Methodist ministry has either acquiesced in it or actively espoused it.” Barry, p. 154.
In the 1920s the enemy below was Catholics, immigrants, blacks, and political radicals. Ibid.
Forty years later segregationists in Congress read the Communist Party’s platform into the Congressional Record in an attempt to undermine civil rights reform. Congressional Record, January 23, 1964, p. 1249.
To show how little sway the Communists had with the black community, Moore garnered exactly 296 votes. Mark Naison, Communists in Harlem during the Depression (University of Illinois Press: Urbana, 1983), p. 17.
Adam Clayton Powell threw his support to the Communists. Ibid., p. 87.
Henry Wallace was elected vice president to FDR in 1940. He ran for president on the Progressive Party ticket in 1948. His platform advocated the end of segregation, full voting rights for blacks, and universal government health care.
Interview with Dorothy Burnham.
Chapter 10: Sports Editor of the Daily Worker—LESTER RODNEY
Once the “Red Scare” era began, Wendell Smith distanced himself from Lester Rodney.
In 1943 Benjamin Davis took the council seat of Adam Clayton Powell, when Powell was elected to the U.S. Congress. In 1949 Davis was indicted under the Smith Act and sentenced to five years in prison. After getting out of prison he resumed his role as black leader and social critic. He died on August 22, 1964.
After Stalin’s war crimes were revealed, Rodney and editor John Gates attempted to open up the pages of the Daily Worker to debate. The CPUSA leaders suppressed the effort and suspended publication of the paper. Rodney resigned after twenty-two years and moved to Torrance, California, where he worked as the religion editor for the Long Beach Press-Telegram. On April 17, 2008, he celebrated his ninety-seventh birthday.
Interview with Lester Rodney.
Chapter 11: The Negro Soldier Returns from the War—MONTE IRVIN
“The war provided a fascinating social laboratory in which to observe a nation’s schizophrenic behavior…” Jack D. Foner, Blacks in the Military in American History (Praeger: New York, 1974), p. 135.
“Negroes cannot help but feel that their country does not want them to defend it.” Ibid., p. 136.
The Red Cross even refused to take blood from blacks…Ibid., p. 140.
“It looks, smells, and tastes like Fascism.” Ibid., p. 148.
They were considered “bad Negroes”…Ibid., p. 149.
“In that so many blacks were poorly educated…” Ibid., p. 159.
“I have never seen any soldiers who have performed better in combat than you.” Ibid., p. 162.
“We certainly are not fighting for the Four Freedoms.” Ibid., p. 155.
“Segregation was an egregious error…” Ibid., p. 172.
“…a certain hope died, a certain respect for white Americans faded.” Ibid., p. 175.
Monte Irvin served as assistant to baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn from 1968 until 1984, when he retired. It was Irvin who pushed to open the doors of the baseball Hall of Fame to former members of the Negro Leagues.
Interview with Monte Irvin.
Chapter 12: The Jews Love Jackie—JOSEPH BOSKIN AND JOEL OPPENHEIMER
Woody Guthrie was born in Okremah, Oklahoma. After he was discharged from the army in 1945, he moved into a house on Mermaid Avenue in Coney Island. He had four children, including Arlo. By the late 1940s his health deteriorated. He left Brooklyn to briefly live in California and Florida, but he returned to Brooklyn and lived there at the time of his death in 1967.
The Oppenheimer material is the only section I borrowed from Bums, my oral history of the Brooklyn Dodgers. It’s evocative and fits perfectly.
Interviews with Joseph Boskin and Joel Oppenheimer.
Chapter 13: Jackie Robinson’s Place in History—IRA GLASSER
Interview with Ira Glasser.
Chapter 14: The Accidental Rabbi—SY DRESNER
Interview with Israel Dresner.
Chapter 15: Victims of the Smith Act—STAN KANTER
Dies sought an investigative committee in an attempt to become more visible. Michael Dorman, Witch Hunt: The Underside of American Democracy (Delacorte Press: New York, 1976), p. 18.
Hearst called the president Franklin Stalino Roosevelt. Joel Kovel, Red Hunting in the Promised Land: Anti-Communism and the Making of America (Basic Books: New York, 1994), p. 37.
“Every organization in Negro life which was attacking segregation per se was put on the subversive list.” Cheng, Cold War and the Black Liberation, p. 189.
Hoover used hearsay, rumor, snitching, backbiting, and innuendo. Kovel, p. 89.
Congress turned down the request because it felt such a unit would create a “blow to freedom and to free institutions.” Ibid., p. 90.
“All the institutions young Hoover joined—Sunday school, church, Central High—regarded themselves as defense against the immigrant threat to the nation…” Richard Gid Powers, Secrecy and Power: The Life of J. Edgar Hoover (Free Press: New York, 1987), p. 33.
For Hoover, the immigrant and the radical were part of what he saw as a larger pattern of lawlessness belonging to the modern world. Ibid., p. 91.
Hoover’s justification. Ibid., p. 96.
“…he was not going to rest until America’s cities were ‘completely cleaned up.’” Max Lowenthal, The Federal Bureau of Investigation (Harcourt, Brace: New York, 1950), pp. 18–19.
Viola Liuzzo’s husband was a Teamster Union official, which is what put Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa on the side of Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement.
He could turn on Communism everything that wracked his twisted soul. Powers, p. 97.
McCarthy was discussing how he could revive his flagging political fortunes. Kovel, p. 112.
Hunt said Communism began in this country when the government took over the distribution of the mail. Ibid.
The Red hunt gave the appearance that the government was riddled with spies. Douglas Miller and Marion Nowack, The Fifties: The Way We Really Were (Doubleday: New York, 1977).
Howard Fast, who was a member of the Communist Party, was jailed for contempt of Congress for three months in 1950. When I asked Fast whether going to jail scared him, he said, “No, quite the contrary. I looked on it as a challenge.” While in jail, he began writing his most famous work, Spartacus, about an uprising among Roman slaves. He wrote dozens of books, including Citizen Tom Paine, Freedom Road, and The Immigrant’s Daughter.
The Giants stole the signs from the opposing team during their pennant run in 1951. According to Giants catcher Sal Yvars, infielder Henry Schenz and coach Herman Franks relayed signals from the Giants centerfield clubhouse to the bullpen with a buzzer system created by electrician Abe Chadwick. Yvars then relayed the signals to the hitters, who knew what pitch was coming. The Associated Press, February 2, 2001.
Interview with Stan Kanter.
Chapter 16: Victims of McCarthy—TERRY (TED) ROSENBAUM
See Ellen Schrecker, The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford/St. Martin’s: New York, 1994).
McCarthy undermined the findings. Richard Rovere, Senator Joe McCarthy (Harper/Colophon Books: New York, 1973), p. 156.
Alfred Lama won the election. He served as a member of the New York State Assembly from 1943 to 1972.
Interview with Ted Rosenbaum.
Chapter 17: The Absurdity of McCarthyism—JOSEPH BOSKIN
Erich Fromm, a psychoanalyst, extolled the virtues of humans taking independent action and using reason to establish moral values, rather than adhering to authoritarian moral values.
“Good night—and good luck.” David M. Oshinsky, A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy (Free Press: New York, 1983), p. 399.
“Have you no sense of decency left?” Ibid., p. 463.
“…one of the most disgraceful episodes in the history of our government.” Ibid., p. 471.
Editorial in the Fort Worth Southern Conservative. Richard Rovere, Senator Joe McCarthy (Harper/Colophon Books: New York, 1973), p. 252.
McCarthy never uncovered one single Communist. Oshinsky, p. 507.
“He understood that force, action, and virility were essential for a Red-hunting crusade.” Ibid., p. 507.
Ann Coulter to this day stoutly defends McCarthy.
Interview with Joseph Boskin.
Chapter 18: Fearing the Unknown—PETER MEINKE
The poem comes from the book Underneath the Lantern, 1986.
Interview with Peter Meinke.
Chapter 19: The Protestants Blend In—JUSTUS DOENECKE
A mob stripped him naked, wrapped him in the American flag, dragged him through the streets, and lynched him. John Barry, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America (Simon and Schuster: New York, 1997), p. 137.
Interview with Justus Doenecke.
Chapter 20: Muslim Immigrants—DAVE RADENS
Interview with Dave Radens.
Chapter 21: Growing Up Greek in Red Hook—PETER SPANAKOS
Interview with Peter Spanakos.
Chapter 22: Here Come the Italians—CURTIS SLIWA
Four million Italians came to America between 1890 and 1920. Frank J. Coppa and Thomas J. Curran, The Immigrant Experience in America (Twayne Publishers: Boston, 1976), p. 128.
Some towns in Calabria lost as much as 20 percent of their population. Ibid., p. 124.
The Irish were prejudiced against the Italians because they weren’t orthodox enough. Ibid., p. 132.
“Don’t make your children better than we were.” Ibid., p. 142.
Only 6 percent of students at City College had Italian names. Ibid.
Interview with Curtis Sliwa.
Chapter 23: Here Come the Irish—Pete Hamill
Cromwell drove out the “treasonous, idol-worshiping, priest-ridden…” Pete Hamill, Forever (Little, Brown: Boston, 2003), p. 21.
“…the intention was clear: to humiliate Catholic men and break their hearts.” Ibid., p. 58.
Protestants were convinced Catholics were conspiring to undermine the American Revolution. Maxine Seller, To Seek America: A History of Ethnic Life in the United States (Jerome S. Ozer: New York, 1977), p. 95.
“Can one throw mud into pure water and not disturb its clearness?” Ibid.
It was a secret Protestant fraternal organization…Roger Daniels, Guarding the Golden Door: American Immigration Policy and Immigrants since 1882 (Hill and Wang: New York, 2004).
Interview with Pete Hamill.
Chapter 24: Windsor Terrace Memories—JOE FLAHERTY, BOBBY MCCARTHY. AND BILL REDDY
Interviews with Joe Flaherty, Bill Reddy, and Bobby McCarthy. These interviews were conducted in 1983 for my book Bums but were not used in the published book.
Chapter 25: A Wild Child—JOHN FORD
English laws prevented Catholics from owning land. Frank J. Coppa and Thomas J. Curran, The Immigrant Experience in America (Twayne Publishers: Boston, 1976), p. 95.
The Irish were accepted after hostility shifted to the newer immigrants. Ibid., p. 109.
Interview with John Ford.
Chapter 26: Son of Holocaust Survivors—HARRY SCHWEITZER
Interview with Harry Schweitzer.
Chapter 27: For the Love of Billy Cox—JOHN MACKIE
Interview with John Mackie.
Chapter 28: The Musical Genius of Lincoln High—NEIL SEDAKA
Among the early groups who recorded Sedaka-Greenfield songs were Laverne Baker, Clyde McFadder, The Clovers, The Cardinals, and The Cookies, who later went on to join Ray Charles as The Raylettes.
Interview with Neil Sedaka.
Chapter 29: The End of Race Music—BRUCE MORROW
Interview with Bruce Morrow.
Chapter 30: The Whites Discriminate—JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN
White working-class homeowners viewed the prospect of Negro neighbors as a catastrophe equal to the loss of their homes. James R. Grossman, Land of Hope: Chicago, Black Southerners and the Great Migration (University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1987), p. 175.
Results of the 1921 public opinion poll. Ibid., p. 168.
Interview with John Hope Franklin.
Chapter 31: The Move to the Burbs—IAN GRAD
Interview with Ian Grad.
Chapter 32: The Dodgers Flee West—BILL REDDY, IRVING RUDD, STAN KANTER, AND PETE HAMILL
The editor of one L.A. paper vowed that the phrase “Dem Bums” would never appear in his newspaper. Edo McCullough, Good Old Coney Island (Charles Scribner’s Sons: New York, 1957), p. 181.
See my book Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers for more on the subject.
Interviews with Bill Reddy, Irving Rudd, and Pete Hamill.
Chapter 33: Growing Up Black in the Hood—ROBERT CROSSON
Loans became scarce, and times became hard. James R. Grossman, Land of Hope: Chicago, Black Southerners and the Great Migration (University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1987), p. 28.
In 1917, 2,500 blacks were forced out of two Georgia counties. Ibid., p. 17.
Booker T. Washington’s advice was to “stick to the farm,” Ibid., p. 33.
New York City’s black population only rose from 91,709 in 1910 to 152,467 in 1920. Ibid., p. 4.
In Macon, police evicted several hundred migrating blacks after they entered the railroad station. Ibid., p. 48.
At Summit, Mississippi, police closed the railroad station. Ibid.
The police of Greenville, Mississippi, would go into trains and drag out blacks trying to leave. Ibid., p. 108.
Employers argued if they raised wages, blacks would use the extra money to buy a train ticket out of town. Ibid., p. 53.
By 1899 reformer Jacob Riis declared Brownsville to be “a nasty little slum.” Edo McCullough, Good Old Coney Island (Charles Scribner’s Sons: New York, 1957), p. 201.
Interview with Robert Crosson.
Chapter 34: Cop on the Beat—JOHN MACKIE
By 1980, 656,000 whites had left, and 67,000 new blacks arrived. Edo McCullough, Good Old Coney Island (Charles Scribner’s Sons: New York, 1957), p. 212.
Interview with John Mackie.
Chapter 35: The Black Panther—CHARLES BARRON
Marcus Garvey, the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, like Martin Luther King forty years later, was targeted by J. Edgar Hoover for persecution. Hoover badly wanted to deport Garvey, but he didn’t have grounds to do so. In November of 1919 the Bureau of Investigation hired five African-American agents to infiltrate his organization. A charge of mail fraud was brought against him in connection with the sale of stock of a shipping line he owned. Brochures that Garvey mailed bore the picture of the ship Phyllis Wheatley, before Garvey had the chance to change the name from the Orion. Hoover, calling the brochures “fraudulent,” pushed for a conviction and got one. Garvey was sentenced to five years in prison. His sentence was commuted by President Calvin Coolidge. Since he was convicted of a felony and was not a U.S. citizen, he was deported to Jamaica, where a large crowd cheered his arrival. Garvey died in London in 1940, after a stroke. Garvey is lionized in a number of rap songs by black artists, including Ludacris, the Wu-Tang Clan, and Nas. A branch of the New York Public Library in Harlem is dedicated to him.
Malcolm focused on the problems of the ghetto and black self-denial. Nicholas Lemann, The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America (Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 1991), p. 163.
The IRS collected dossiers on ten thousand individuals. Michael Dorman, Witch Hunt: The Underside of American Democracy (Delacorte Press: New York, 1976), p. 256.
Interview with Charles Barron.
Chapter 36: Here Come the Puerto Ricans—VICTOR ROBLES
Interview with Victor Robles.
Chapter 37: Ocean Hill–Brownsville—CLARENCE TAYLOR
Clark’s studies. Clarence Taylor, Knocking at Our Own Door: Milton A. Galamison and the Struggle to Integrate New York City Schools (Columbia University Press: New York, 1997), p. 53.
Albert Shanker called the firings illegal. Ibid., p. 198.
Interview with Clarence Taylor.
Chapter 38: Going to School with the Moolies—CURTIS SLIWA
Mulignon is a corrupt form of Italian for “eggplant.”
Interview with Curtis Sliwa.
Chapter 39: Nothing Stays the Same—PETER SPANAKOS
Interview with Peter Spanakos.
Chapter 40: The Guardian Angels—CURTIS SLIWA
Interview with Curtis Sliwa.
Chapter 41: The King of the Tra-la-las—NEIL SEDAKA
Interview with Neil Sedaka.
Chapter 42: The Night the Lights Went Out. Again.—ABRAM HALL
The city lost 340,000 jobs. Jonathan Mahler, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of the City (Picador: New York, 2007), p. 224.
There was more crime in Bushwick than any other district. Ibid., p. 189.
There were thirty-four police officers. Ibid.
First the professionals, then the alienated adolescents, then those motivated by “abject greed.” Robert Curvin and Bruce Porter, Blackout Looting! Report of the Ford Foundation.
Not one single cop from another precinct was sent to help. Mahler, p. 195.
Forty-five stores had been looted and burned. Ibid., p. 205.
3,776 people were arrested. Ibid., p. 218.
Interview with Abram Hall.
Chapter 43: Whites Move Back—HARRY SCHWEITZER
Interview with Harry Schweitzer.
Chapter 44: A Marine Guards the Peace—RICHARD GREEN
Interview with Richard Green.
Chapter 45: Shirley Chisholm’s Boy—VICTOR ROBLES
Interview with Victor Robles.
Chapter 46: Brighton Beach’s Russian Jew—ALEC BROOK-KRASNY
Replacing them were Holocaust survivors…Nancy Foner, New Immigrants in New York, p. 278.
Interview with Alec Brook-Krasny.
Chapter 47: The Battle for Sexual Freedom—RENEE CAFIERO
Whitehall Street in Lower Manhattan was the location of New York’s Army induction center. Lower Manhattan was a ghost town on the weekends, as there were no hotels or apartments at the time, and Battery Park City had not yet been built.
Interview with Renee Cafiero.
Chapter 48: The Echoes of 9/11—RICHARD PORTELLO
Interview with Captain Richard Portello.
On June 22, 2007, Richard Portello was promoted to battalion chief.
Chapter 49: The Mural Painter—JANET BRAUN-REINITZ
Interview with Janet Braun-Reinitz.
Chapter 50: The Councilman for Change—CHARLES BARRON
Interview with Charles Barron.
Chapter 51: The Real Estate Boom—ABRAM HALL
Interview with Abram Hall.
Chapter 52: Brooklyn’s Cheerleader—MARTY MARKOWITZ
His constituency went from being 55 percent white to 92 percent black and Latino. Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, April 25, 2005.
Interview with Marty Markowitz.
Chapter 53: The Atlantic Yards—JIM STUCKEY
Interview with Jim Stuckey. On June 12, 2007, two weeks after my interview, Jim Stuckey resigned as executive vice president of Forest City Ratner.
Chapter 54: Remaking Coney Island—JOSEPH SITT
Interview with Joe Sitt.