The Patricks joined celebrants in the co-naming of Jefferson Avenue, between Tompkins and Throop, as Bertram L. Baker Way – a tribute to Brooklyn’s first Black elected official who assumed office as a State Assemblyman in 1948. Lady Diane and her cousin journalist Ron Howell, an event host and planner, are grandchildren of the late pioneer.  Baker’s life and achievements inspired Governor Patrick who lived on Midwood Street in the Lefferts Manor section of Brooklyn in the 1980’s.

In the early afternoon, The Governor and First Lady spoke at the co-naming event, and later joined guests at Tremaine Wright’s Common Ground café for a reception and book signing for “A Reason to Believe,” Governor Patrick’s new memoir.

The book is about the Governor’s early life in relative poverty  and about the spirit that allowed him to later grasp at opportunities, to attend the elite Milton Academy and then Harvard College and Harvard Law School. Patrick later become head of the Civil Rights unit in the Justice Department under President Bill Clinton.

Jacqueline A. Berrien, Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission EOC), who splits her time between Washington, D.C. and her Brooklyn brownstone, told Our Time Press,  “I am proud to call Bedford Stuyvesant home. All of us here in Brooklyn have a debt to repay Mr. Baker who opened the doors. This event honors the work to which he dedicated his life: community service.”

“The co-naming also links Bedford Stuyvesant’s historic past to its history-making present,” said Peter Williams, President & CEO of the Mid Bronx Desperadoes Community Housing Corporation, who is Ms. Berrien’s husband.  “It also reflects Bedford Stuyvesant’s connections to worlds beyond its borders.”

Astute political analyst and author John Flateau, a longtime Bedford-Stuyvesant resident, offered a sweeping survey of the scene from 1949-1970, giving a nod to the power plays and the players, including Baker, Wesley McHolder, and Maude Richardson and Ida Jackson – “women who helped set the stage for Baker’s nomination in ‘48,” the Bedford Stuyvesant Political League, The United Action Democratic Association, his father Sidney Flateau and more.

“In the 1960s Baker became Majority Whip of the Assembly, the highest position of a black person in the state at that time,” added Flateau. “Earlier in the 1950s hepushed through first-of-its-kind laws barring housing discrimination in the 1950s.  The impact of that work is still felt– more than 50 years later.”

Gov. Patrick,center at Common Grounds book signing with Brooklyn Attorneys Jamal and Monique Murphy

Ms. Berrien noted that some of today’s established politicians were campaign workers to major politicians in the past.  “They taught us.   Many of us volunteered to work on campaigns.  I’ve often said, I was privileged to practice Civil Rights law under giants.  At the core, Bertram Baker worked for the betterment of others, and worked to be of assistance and support to others. Service provides an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others; the reward is in the work. Everyone here shares that mission.”

“And the impact of Mr. Baker’s work reverberates beyond Brooklyn’s political life; it touches education, as well,” said educator Bernadette U. Okeke-Diagne. “I believe young people will benefit from the example set today by the Patricks who traveled here to celebrate with us, and they will learn from this experience.”

Mrs. Violet Payne, commenting on the event’s “historical perspective,” said, “Kids growing up in today’s world need to know this history so there’s no need to recreate the wheel.  The event solidifies why we do some of the things we do to push forward certain issues that relate to the African American community. It is so important for young people to know that there were people back then working to make a difference in the life of the community.  They need to know so they can continue to build on the work started and move it forward.”

Gov.  Patrick, in noting Baker’s extensive contributions to Brooklyn politics, told young people to take to heart the messages of the day and “Believe!”   He also said,  “It’s a good day for Bedford Stuyvesant and a good day for Brooklyn. It’s wonderful to be back home.”

Educator Patrika Wellington, excited by the moment, told us, ‘We only have three African-American governors.  I said to Governor and First Lady Patrick, ‘I’m honored to meet you and see you.’  Relationships and connections seem to always bring you back to Brooklyn.  We are such a mighty spiritual bunch in a mighty spiritual place.”

Among other guests attending the post-event reception were: Marian Baker Howell, daughter of the late Assemblyman Bertram Baker; U.S. Eastern District Court Judge Sterling Johnson; Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Borough President; Altovise Fleary, President of the Jefferson Avenue TNT (Tompkins and Throop Aves.) Block Association; Hon. Annette Robinson, State Assemblywoman; Hon. Hakeem Jeffries, State Assemblyman; Hon. Letitia James, City Councilwoman; Lee Daniels, Director of Communications, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; Robert Cornegy, State Committeeman; Dr. Sydney C. Butts, Assistant Professor, SUNY Downstate Medical Center; Dr. R. Damani Howell and wife Dr. Brittany Howell, both of New York University Medical Center; Dr. Paul and Susan Fox; Robert Swan, founder of the Black Brooklyn Historical Society; Jamal and Monique Murphy, Brooklyn attorneys; Audrey Edwards, realtor, author and journalist; Ozier Muhammad, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times photographer; Hunter College Professor of African-American History Joanne Edey-Rhodes and her husband Ed Rhodes, marketing officer with the City University of New York; Brooklyn College Professor Paul Moses, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author of  The Saint and the Sultan: the Crusades, Islam and Francis of Assisi’s Mission of Peace and wife Maureen Moses, nurse; Les Payne, the Pulitizer Prize winning journalist; William C. Rhoden, New York Times sports columnist and author of Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete; and Mama Iyafin Olatunji, widow of Babatunde Olatunji, the famous drummer, who once played with Gov. Deval Patrick’s late father, jazz saxophonist Pat Patrick.

Block association president Altovise Fleary pushed to get the co-naming action of Bertram L. Baker Way through the City Council; last December, City Councilman Al Vann sponsored the legislation for it

If developer Forest City Ratner (FCR) wants to prefabricate all planned 16 high-rise buildings in his $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project tat’s fine with me as long as most of the factory work stays in Brooklyn.     And a good place to start looking for a site to build modules components of the skyscrapers that will be trucked and bolted together on the 22-acre site starting at the Flatbush/Atlantic avenues intersection is in Bedford-Stuyvesant.     It’s an idea that developer Bruce Ratner should consider after announcing recently he might start the housing portion of the arena/housing project with the world’s largest prefabricated or modular dwelling at 34 stories – 30 percent of which will be affordable.    Modular building provides plenty of jobs in America’s rural areas as many single-family homes are now built that way. If this technology can be perfected in large-scale buildings, other developers will follow suit, and there is a chance to revive the city’s sagging manufacturing base.     The only sour note in Ratner’s announcement was that he was looking to locate the factory in Long Island City Queens, which would take jobs out of Brooklyn.     So I called Ratner spokesperson Joe DePlasco, who said the company, is also looking at sites in Brooklyn. A good place to start is northwest Bed-Stuy, which is currently zoned for manufacturing.      Another good spot would be in and around the Brooklyn Navy Yard – also zoned for manufacturing    James Caldwell, president of Brooklyn United for Innovative Development (BUILD), one of the signatories of the Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) also hailed the move.     “If it creates jobs in manufacturing it will be a throwback to a different era with a new twist,” said Caldwell, whose non-profit organization is funded by Ratner.     Caldwell noted that it’s very tough for people of color to get into construction unions under the current economic climate.     “It (building part of the project in factories) might be an easier way for people of color to get into the unions,” he said.

Caldwell said since signing the CBA, BUILD has put about 350 people to work either through Ratner or on other Ratner projects throughout the city.      “We’re working on an employment plan for when the arena is built to provide about 1,200 jobs and even more when the affordable housing is built,” he said. “There will be a lot of permanent jobs and small business opportunities at the arena, particularly in customer service and hospitality-type jobs.”     The announcement came as the mostly wealthier and white opponents of the project continue to decry it. Interestingly, some of these people have made opposing the plan a cottage industry and have already benefited from the project.     Caldwell said he finds it interesting that opponent bloggers never even try to tell both sides of the story, and continue to demonize anyone that tries to see both sides of the coin.     “I was just at Cataldo’s Restaurant and Pizzeria on Dean Street and Vanderbilt Avenue and the owner told me how he is doing a great business from arena construction workers,” said Caldwell.      “The bloggers and people against the project don’t talk or write about the positive economic impact the arena has already had in the area,” he added.

The Food Bazaar Supermarkets have been a local staple in the Bedford-Stuyvesant/Williamsburg sections of Brooklyn for many years now. Every week around Thursday or Friday, supermarket flyers are left at the doors of all the local residents notifying us of the “Sales” the supermarkets are promoting for the week. Often the sales are reasonably priced and feature foods (mostly) purchased by their “Black” or “Hispanic” customer base –  such as “Beef Oxtail”, “Pork Shoulder”,  “Collard Greens” and “Waxed Yuca.” Furthermore, the supermarket chain has an extensive line of “International” food items which are purchased by many different ethnic groups. It would be safe to say that the Food Bazaar is a well-organized business offering a legitimate service to their (mostly) minority patrons and should be an asset to the communities they cater to.

However, it is not until you walk through the supermarket doors when you notice a “Breakdown” in the “harmoniously ethnic variety” which is found in the stores’ food items. In a community which has a diverse population of mostly Black and Hispanic residents, the positions at the Food Bazaar Supermarkets are being held by more than 98% Hispanic workers. Most, if not all, “Cash Register” positions are filled by Hispanic women, with the only exception being that Hispanic men occupy the more labor-intensive positions such as the “Stock” and “Butcher” positions.  Even the “Fish Market”, “Delicatessen”, “Post Office” and “Lottery” are run by Hispanic’s. It is not presently clear whether the Security Guards who are Black are actually hired by the Food Bazaar directly or are hired by a private security firm. In a complaint sent to the owners of the supermarket chain, local resident Mel Wright, a nationally known photographer, wrote: “I would find it hard to believe that in this dismal economic climate African-Americans are not applying for jobs at your store.”   There are calls for “Boycotting” the stores if the management does not change their hiring practices. For now, residents in the Bedford-Stuyvesant/Williamsburg community await a response from Food Bazarr’s management.(Eric M. Deadwiley is an author, freelancer, community activist.)

Dear Steven,
As far I can tell, you do not love the Bedford Stuyvesant community.  What you love about Bedford-Stuyvesant are its amenities: the transportation infrastructure, the tree-lined streets, the brownstones.   There is the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens and the Brooklyn Museum all within a nice walk, that is what you love.  The inhabitants, however, are an entirely different matter.
Bedford-Stuyvesant has had many ethnicities passing through it over the years.  Now  it is a mostly African-American community with roots stretching back over two hundred years, the Weeksville Houses, still standing, date from 1840.  Bridge Street African Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1766, incorporated in 1818.  So yes, that sentence fragment was right, you are newcomers.  Beyond that, you suffer from what we can call Post-Traumatic Slave State Syndrome (PTSSS).
Dr. Joy DeGruy has written about Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome, the transgenerational transfer of emotional trauma arising out of  the terror needed to hold African-Americans in chattel slavery for 400 years.    This period also produced a state apparatus as well as a state of consciousness in European-Americans arising out of  hundreds of years of superiority and of relating to African-Americans as property.  What you are experiencing here is an example of PTSSS, a condition brought on by vestiges of slavery that are with us every day.
For example.  There are weekly and daily publications in many languages all around you, all referring to their “community” of Polish-Americans, Russian-Americans, Korean-Americans, Pakistani-Americans and many more.  They are of  no interest to you because you do not speak their language.   And if Our Time Press was written in Swahili, you would also pay it no mind.  It is written in English because Africans were captured, transported as cargo and sold as property to provide the cheap mass labor needed to convert raw land into the economic engine that jump-started this United States.
As a part of that, the slave system took away the languages of the Africans and substituted its own, giving slave owners access and control over the Africans’ thoughts.  And now, as you continue that legacy of eavesdropping, you are overcome with umbrage that the property has misbehaved, but you take a gleeful solace in projecting that we won’t be here very much longer.
It is impossible to know which of the echoes of slavery you feel will take us out but given the combination and the multitude I can understand your feeling of confidence.   There are the foreclosures resulting from racist predatory lending driving people from their homes and depression-era unemployment plus a 50% dropout rate, all intertwined with emotional distress, most obviously acted out in self-hating crimes of gunfire and dysfunction at home.
As African-Americans work to cure these problems, you feel empowered to object, which were it not for the PTSSS diagnosis, would be an astonishing impertinence.   But I guess such malevolent arrogance is not unexpected, and the rewards for stealing another’s language, the ability to meddle, keep coming in.
Of course you are right again, it is nice to live next door to decent people.  A person I would have liked to have lived next to was the family of Louisa May Alcott.  In the biography Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women, Harriet Reisen writes this about the capture of Louisa’s family hero, the militant abolitionist John Brown: “We are boiling with excitement here,” Louisa wrote to Alf Whitman a few weeks after the raid, “for many of our people (Anti Slavery, I mean) are concerned in it.  We have a daily stampede for papers, and a nightly indignation meeting of the wickedness of our country & the cowardice of the human race.  I’m afraid mother will die of spontaneous combustion if things are not set right soon.”   And later, after a harrowing description of Louisa’s experiences in a Civil War hospital was this: “The night before she had celebrated the Emancipation Proclamation by leaping from her bed at midnight and racing to the window to add her own cheer to the hollering and singing in the streets of the embattled nation’s capital.  She waved her handkerchief to a crowd of black men gathered below, and returned to bed to savor the bursts of firecrackers and choruses of ‘Glory, Hallelujah’ that sounded all night.”  These passages and many others show me that Miss Alcott and her people, “Anti Slavery, I mean”, are people I’d like to live next to.  And I know their descendants and legacies are here also, luckily offsetting those such as yourself.
(It would be better if abolitionist fire still burned with indignation, decrying white control of African-American education and demanding fairness in city contracting, but the vote for Obama showed there were still some embers there and maybe they just have to be fanned.)
You, however, are a different matter.  Your words on African-Americans remaining in Bedford-Stuyvesant, “that will not be the case very long,” spring from a different source, one captured by Claude McKay in his poem “The Lynching”:

Day dawned, and soon the mixed crowds came to view
The ghastly body swaying in the sun:
The women thronged to look, but never a one
Showed sorrow in her eyes of steely blue;
And little lads, lynchers that were to be,
Danced ’round the dreadful thing in fiendish glee.

And here you are, the little lads’ heir all grown-up and smugly snuggled in your white privilege, a critic of African-American conversations to combat the remains of the slave experience, strengthen our community and be a full partner in the future.
The fact that you find the methods and manner objectionable is heartening, I take it to mean we are on the right track, and as a sort of mile marker on our journey I ask a favor of you please, let us know when you become apoplectic, then we’ll know we’re almost there.

Boykin: “Judge John L. Phillips had 13 properties listed with the Brooklyn Supreme Court Guardianship program.  Of those 13 properties listed, there was only rent recorded being collected for two months for two properties at 563 & 565 Nostrand Avenue, no other property has paid rent in 13 years. 
OTP:  The people in the Slave Theater now, what is their status? 
Boykin:  No one has paid rent in the entire time they’ve been there and all are there in a state of trespassing.  
OTP:  But they have access.
Boykin:  That’s because they won’t leave voluntarily.  I have an eviction notice that has been going on for 5 months, and I’m waiting on the court’s decision to evict.  We’re having a hard time selling the buildings because people want a building empty.  Not with tenants who have not paid rent in ten years. 
OTP:  But what about the electric?
BOYKIN: Dr. Paul Lewis of the Messengers for Christ World Healing center on the second floor is paying the utilities.  It’s an international church.  His church has been there for eight years and he is not paying any rent.  Mr. Hardy (downstairs) uses the church’s utilities and is paying zero bills.   People assume he is the spokesman for the family because he happens to be there. 
OTP:  And the status of the Slave Theater?
Boykin:  I’ve terminated my agreement with Massey and Knakel.  I put a “For Sale” sign on both theaters, “For Sale by Owner”.  I’ve received over a hundred calls.  We’re accepting bids and those that are authentic and qualified I will turn over to the attorneys.
What’s next for the Slave and the Black Lady Theater is that they must  be sold because we owe over $2 million dollars in back taxes and liens.  No property taxes on any of the properties have been paid in ten years. 
OTP: Whose responsibility is it to have paid those taxes?
Boykin:  These past guardians sold all the property and paid no taxes and filed no taxes. 
OTP: Where did that money go?
Boykin: A lot of that money we can’t find.  It’s been a continual embezzlement against the estate of Judge John L. Phillips non-stop by court-appointed guardians, by people who were close to Judge Phillips and say they loved him, but remain in the buildings without paying rent or taxes and others. 
OTP:  When you say that past guardians have been guilty of breaking the law, specifically, which laws are you talking about? 
Boykin:  Failure to file taxes.  Estate taxes, state and city taxes.  Selling property way undervalue.  Waiving of the guardianship law.  Failure to advertise property they were selling.  Paying off illegal mortgages.  Mortgage fraud was committed against 68 Cumberland Street for  $391,500.  Instead of the court reporting these people to the District Attorney’s Office and sending them to prison, they allowed Imani Taylor to pay off the loan from Judge Phillips’ account.  I couldn’t get anyone to respond until recently.  I sent information to the Departmental Disciplinary Committee of the Supreme Court Appellate Division,  State Attorney General, NYS Commission on Judicial Conduct.  Judge Phillips’ case is not isolated.   Anyone in the guardianship program is at the mercy of court-appointed attorneys and others who collaborate in mismanaging the estates.
OTP:  And the longer it takes, the more money everybody makes.
Boykin:  That’s correct.

 He was a familiar sight in his jumpsuits & sea shelled headband. As a Stationary Engineer at several Board of Ed. schools, he was often spotted racing by in one of his signature cars or heard from blocks away on his Harley Davidson motorcycle. After his retirement, he enjoyed dividing his time between broadcasts at WBAI, volunteering his audio visual skills for important causes, traveling and keeping in touch with family and close friends.
Up until his final days, Bro. Rookard was an active warrior in the struggle for African Liberation and human rights. On May 27, 2010, Hampton was called home to rest.
Hampton’s only sister Margaret preceded him in passing. He also leaves to mourn: his son Antonio, daughter Antoinette and their mother Mildred, daughter Vicky, niece Donzia, cousins Dorothy, Thomasina, Celess, Margaret, and Lil Thomasina. He also leaves behind a legacy of four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Hampton and his words of wisdom will be missed by his many close friends and the love of anyone who was fortunate to meet him and listen to the words that he enjoyed sharing.

Black Shows And Performers Grab Tony Nominations
The Tony Award nominations are out and African-American productions and performers are faring very well. FELA, the musical produced by Jay-Z, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith and Alicia Keys is up for Best Musical; Best Book of a Musical-Jim Lewis and Bill T. Jones; Best Direction of a Musical-Bill T. Jones; Best Choreography of a Musical-Bill T. Jones; Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical-Sahr Ngaujah; Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical-Lillias White; Best Scenic Design of a Musical-Marina Draghici; Best Costume Design of a Musical-Marina Dragnici; Best Lighting Design of a Musical-Robert Wierzel; Best Sound Design of a Musical-Robert Kaplowitz; and Best Orchestration of a Musical-Aaron Johnson.
Fences got 10 nominations which included: Best Revival of a Play; Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play-Denzel Washington; Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play-Viola Davis; Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play-Stephen McKinley Henderson; Best Direction of a Play-Kenny Leon; Best Costume Design of a Play-Constanza Romero; Best Scenic Design of a Play-Santo Loquasto; Best Lighting Design of a Play-Brian MacDevitt; Best Sound Design of a Play-Acme Sound Partners; and Best Original Score Written for the Theatre-Branford Marsalis.
Memphis-received eight Tony nominations: Best Musical; Best Book of a Musical; Best Original Score Written for the Theatre; Best Direction of a Musical; Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical-Chad Kimball; Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical-Montego Glover; and Best Orchestra.
In the plays Race and Superior Donuts African-American actors David Alan Grier and Jon Michael Hill respectively both received Tony nominations in the Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play.
The Tony Awards will air live on CBS, Sunday, June 13 from 8pm-11pm. Watch and root for your favorites.

 
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