Our Time PressThe Local Paper with the Global View

By Dee Bailey

We must come together to fight HIV and AIDS and all issues impacting all communities. As we quickly approach World AIDS Day (December 1) 2017 we have yet again found ourselves at a learning moment.  A place in time when reflection on how far we’ve come can help us chart a new course of where we want to go.  It was 60 years ago when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and fellow civil rights leader Bayard Rustin came together in pursuit of freedom and civil rights for African Americans across the country.

While we all know the value of partnership in fighting HIV/AIDS, we also know quite well the challenges we often face in collaborating with fellow organizations who have also taken on the tremendous work associated with educating and reducing barriers to services for those infected and affected by this pandemic in our communities.  Partnerships are the cornerstone of success!  We have seen this before, and we can only eternally thank leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr.  and Bayard Rustin for the freedoms we have today.

During our struggle for civil rights in America two of our greatest leaders also faced difficulty in their attempts to collaborate for the greater good.  As is often the case, there were well-intended influencers whispering in Dr. King’s ear in an attempt to disparage Bayard Rustin’s tremendous work to demand civil rights for African Americans.

The problem with naysayers is that they are often short sighted.  They only see what is within reaching distance.   What were they saying?  Individuals who found themselves in the company of Dr. King were telling him that Bayard Rustin’s lifestyle as a gay man was not beneficial to the movement.  They cautioned Dr. King that many of Mr. Rustin’s lovers were white men.  This coupled with the fact that Mr. Rustin represented a demographic that many believed did not add to, but only subtracted from Dr. King’s work was reason enough that a collaboration was frowned upon and strongly advised against.

Fortunately Dr. King was a man of vision.  Dr. King was a man steadfast in fighting for the civil rights of the African American community and saw and understood the value of partnerships.  He did not allow minor differences to detract from the ultimate goal of civil rights for all.  While he listened to all the noise that was being raised around collaborating with Mr. Rustin, Dr. King also saw what awaited us over the mountain top.

Today, as community leaders, we find ourselves in a similar place.  We are often advised by those who do not possess our long-term vision but will give you a myriad of reasons why we should not work together. “They’re too this or they’re too that!”  The list of reasons why something can’t or won’t work is endless, but the reasons why we should work are few.

We only need a few good reasons to work together as partners in our civil rights fight against an epidemic that for over 30 years refuses to release its grip on our communities.  On the contrary, its grip is getting stronger, and tighter.  Why?  Because unlike Dr. King and Bayard Rustin, there is still a resistance to long-term partnerships in this line of work.  While we may come together from time to time to collaborate on a stand-alone initiative, there still lacks a cohesive and conscious effort to maintain these partnerships.

Collaborations and partnerships are good for our community in the fight against HIV/AIDS.  On a short-term basis we see the results of our efforts.  Our communities are educated, our leaders are motivated, and we created bridges of comraderies throughout the community.  Looking beyond the short-term and a study of history as so eloquently provided by Dr. King and Bayard Rustin we are living the benefits and results of their partnership in the fight for our civil rights.  I appreciate this every day and thank them for showing us the way.  The mere fact that I can have a drink of water from any public fountain, or the fact that I don’t have to give up my seat or sit in the back of a bus compels me every single day to build partnerships that will fight HIV/AIDS in our community.

Thank you Dr. King!   Thank you Bayard Rustin!  Thank you for showing us through living proof the importance and value of partnership.  I hope that this World AIDS Day will mark the beginning of our partnership example for the next generation of leaders.

Until There’s a Cure…

Dee Bailey

Founder

Watchful Eye

Weeksville is the four restored remnant 19^th century buildings along the old Huntersfly Road; the families, including our friend Jeanne Hammond’s, who resided in the area in the 20^th century; the historians James Hurley, Dewey Harley, Dolores McCullough, Patricia Johnson in the 1960’s, and, in these times, preservationists Joan Maynard (deceased) and Pamela Green, who all worked to bring “the miracle” to life. It is much more than the “no man’s land” or terra incognita depicted in the article below written by a 19^th century reporter. It now is a jewel in King’s County’s crown. Next year, we commemorate the sesquicentennial of Weeksville’s founding, the golden anniversary of its resurrection as a global community center for learning and its position in history as a foremost example of the borough’s spirit. Said Ms. Green at the October 29, 2002 groundbreaking to kick-off Weekville’s multi-million restoration project. “Brooklyn’s story is New York’s story and America’s story.” Weeksville is Brooklyn and beyond.

 WEEKSVILLE

Brooklyn Eagle Newspaper

Wednesday, July 30, 1873

South of Atlantic Avenue — in that part of the City (of Brooklyn, New York) intersected by Troy, Schenectady, Utica and Rochester Avenues — is a sort of Terra incognitas {sic}.

The inhabitants are principally colored people and its chief products are low groggeries, goats, and mangy, half red and wholly savage curs.

Animate and Inanimate Characteristics

As a place of resort for picnic parties it is not and probably never will be at all popular, but on the contrary it is quite a “Jack in the Box” sort of locality for the police of the tenth sub-precinct. Sergeant Meeks is always in a state of curiosity as to “What will turn up in Weeksville to-night?” Sometimes, it is a disorderly house, a regular witch’s mixture sort of place where whites and blacks and all the intermediate shades mingle, mingle, mingle so freely and get so tight that the evening’s entertainment invariably winds up with a brutal knock down and drag out fight. Then the police have their work cut out for them and Sergeant Meeks is easy in his mind, he knows “What’s up to-night”. A hunt after a suspected purloiner of chickens forms another pleasantly exciting episode in the experience of the policemen of that precinct, but wandering around from house to house asking questions about stray goats with a relish for the bark of the trees on the Avenue, or making inquiries respecting wolfish dogs who have partially lunched off the chubby legs of some mother’s darling are aggravating expeditions. The inhabitants are never able to answer such conundrums, and the policeman returns sadder but not a wiser man.

What Nature has done and what the Contractors Think

Nature has kindly done her best to make the place picturesque. It is all hills and hollows. The hills are the highest and hollows are the deepest of any city. Contractors fail to see anything to admire in the picturesque beauty of those sandhills, studded with boulder and carpeted with {the} scubbiest kind of grass or the hollows filled with stagnant water in which float the rotting carcasses of decayed dogs and cats. They simply see so many lots waiting to be dug down or filled up: That is the impression it makes upon their materialistic minds. The streets are in a state of chaos and general uncertainty. Ruts, stones, garbage, ashes, dust, and all other disagreeable and disgusting things are there in abundance while the houses on either side appear to be debating the question whether they should move off to some safer place or remain just where they are for fear of a worse fate befalling them. Some of the frame and frail tenements are parched on the top of a sand bank, like sparrow houses on a pole, others have their foundations in a sunken lot and the roofs are level with the street. That is what gives the place an air of uncertainty and the casual visitor would not at all be surprised to see the house either tumble down or disappear altogether. Those not built high up or low down are stuck on the side of a hill where they hang like a fly on the wall. Most of the houses have little patches of garden surrounding them and although untidy and shiftless hands attend to them, their products — in the shape of corn, tomatoes, beans, peas and what is called “Truck” — are plentiful and well grown. The livestock consists of chickens, geese, and goats. They are looked after semi-occasionally, counted in the evening and the chickens and geese receive a daily allowance of food in addition to what they pick up while foraging in the street, or scratching a neighboring garden. The goats are always in good condition on a mixed diet of old boots, rags, paper, condemned mattresses, chips, corks, cabbage stalks and other provender picked up during their day’s ramble. It would be unfair to omit all mention of the dogs for they are always not only always heard, but they occasionally make their presence felt. They prowl around every corner, scrape luxurious couches in the dusty streets, or lie panting on the shady side of the fence and snap and snarl, and bark and bite in a manner to remind a Turk of the city which the descendants of Peter the Great so much desire to annex. The progress of improvement is slow in that section for the work to be done is expensive and the majority of the owners of property are not wealthy. If pushed forward rapidly the assessments, instead of being one half the assessed value of the property, would eat it all up and then there would be a large bill for the Auditor to audit and the controller to pay on behalf of the city.

An Ice – House in the Cellar and a fish Pond in the Parlor –

Last winter many of the property owners experienced considerable inconvenience and sustained heavy losses on account of the freshets and in some instance, they had from three to four feet of solid ice in their cellars for more than two months. When the thaw came the result was even worse, as the large pond lying between Utica Avenue and the old Hunterfly Road rose to an unprecedented height. The water made itself at home in several parlors and refused to leave until Spring months had almost passed away. Complaints were loud and numerous, but nothing could be done until the sewer in course of construction along Rochester Avenue was finished, and then Alderman McGroaty offered a resolution that a temporary sewer be built to connect with the pond for the purpose of drawing it. The resolution was adopted of city works. The colored people are anxious to know what Messrs. Palmer and Whiting are going to do about it. The work of filling the pond is in the hands of Mr. Peter Riley and progresses slowly, for reason that the average depth of the ten acres to be filled is about 25 feet. Two and three carloads of dirt dumped into such a hole as that make hardly any perceptible difference in its appearance.

Modern Improvements in the Shape of Sewers and a New Railroad

Last winter the legislature passed a bill authorizing the construction of a railroad along Rochester Avenue to connect with the Broadway line of cars, and on Tuesday morning the first load of timber to be used was dumped on Atlantic Avenue. Work will be commenced immediately, and it is expected that the road will be in running order sometime during the Fall.

For those doing business in the E.D. {Eastern District} or in the upper part of New York it will be a great convenience, as at present they are obliged to walk a long distance before they can get aboard the cars on Broadway.

* Eastern District was a term used in the 19th century for the eastern part of Brooklyn generally including Bushwick, Williamsburg and the northern parts of the Bedford-Stuyvesant sections.

                                              Weeksville Today

Weeksville was a nineteenth century free black community located in what is now the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, New York.  It is remembered today as a historic site for its community programs, urban employment opportunities, and the promotion of racial respectability. In 1838, only 11 years after slavery ended in New York, Weeksville was formed when Black men purchased a substantial area of land from Henry C. Thompson, another free black man.   Other African Americans were encouraged to settle on the property and lots were sold to newcomers.

Weeksville Today …

A 19th century Halloween party captured by photographer and Weeksville resident Alexander Moore. [Photo: Percy F. Moore Collection, courtesy of the 5th of July Resource Center for Self-Determination & Freedom, Weeksville Heritage Center]