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Brooklyn CORE (part 3)
Just before the D.C. action, BK CORE's created a campaign to improve the issue of sanitation and trash pickup, one of the things that created the ghetto conditions that made life unbearable, dirty streets. The chapter's investigation revealed that White areas of Brooklyn got five day service whereas garbage in Bedford-Stuyvesant got picked up only three days a week and even then much of the garbage was left on the street. BK CORE concluded that service had to do with the fact residents of Bedford-Stuyvesant were mostly Black. This was seen as a form of environmental racism. The neighborhood was being discriminated against because of who lived there. The chapter also hoped the campaign would get local people involved. It did, including two students from Pratt: Bob Law who had grown up in the Kingsborough projects and James Steward who was working for NYPD to pay for college. Even though the chapter worried it already had police informants, Steward's participation does not seem to have been problematic. The two worked well alongside older members such as bus driver Vinny Young, who had been a member of Rev. Milton Galamison's congregation and Gil Banks, a construction worker who was also a veteran of World War II. The worst street in Bedford-Stuyvesant was identified as Gates Avenue between Broadway and Bedford Avenue. After attempts to negotiate with city officials proved unsuccessful, Goldwag alerted the press beforehand that they were going to dump garbage on a city official's doorstep, but did not say which. Police shut down the Brooklyn Bridge so that BK CORE could not dump the trash at City Hall in Manhattan. The garbage was taken directly off the streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant. About twenty BK CORE members followed behind trash collectors with U-Haul trucks and picked up what the garbage collectors left behind. They then paraded down the street until they got to Brooklyn's Borough Hall and dumped the trash on the steps of Borough Hall. No one was arrested but they were given a ticket for littering on the sidewalk. The action received lots of press coverage and support from city officials. Despite the added pressure, BK CORE could not get the Sanitation Department to make any real changes. The department stated it simply did not have the funds. The collection for bulk garbage was increased from one to two days, but even though city officials agreed that conditions were horrible, it was the Bedford-Stuyvesant residents themselves who were blamed for this by the Sanitation Department. BK CORE versus the Board of Education
Brooklyn CORE's first campaign against the Board of Education (BOE) was on behalf of two of its own members, Jerome and Elaine Bibuld. Working with Galamison's Parent's Workshop for Equality, the campaign was one of the first public school sit ins in NYC, and a precursor to the wave of school demonstrations that would take place throughout the 1960's in NYC. When the Bibulds lived in Crown Heights, the school their kids went to had a program for gifted students. A fire forced them to move to Park Slope where the school their kids were placed into, PS 282, had lower standards. The oldest, Douglas, a fifth grader, was forced to do third grade work when at his previous school he had been in the gifted program. After trying to home school them, the city threatened to remove the kids from the home. The Bibulds were taken to court, charged with neglect and faced doing a year in prison. Their attempts at sending their kids to live with relatives in order to attend school in New Jersey also did not work. This led Elaine Bibuld to create and lead the chapter's first education committee. Its plan was to do an investigation on segregation in public schools and contact other local groups for assistance. A meeting with the Superintendent of Schools got the Bibulds offers for other schools but they were rejected as also being inadequate.
Intermission
BK CORE also participated in the Route 40 freedom rides that year. Members Claire Toombs and Al Gordon, who had participated on the first Freedom Rides, were joined by Arnie Goldwag, Ollie Leeds, Eduardo Standard, Barbara Wallace and Rioghan Kirchner in demonstrating against racial discrimination on the main highway between NYC and Washington, DC.
Just before the D.C. action, BK CORE's created a campaign to improve the issue of sanitation and trash pickup, one of the things that created the ghetto conditions that made life unbearable, dirty streets. The chapter's investigation revealed that White areas of Brooklyn got five day service whereas garbage in Bedford-Stuyvesant got picked up only three days a week and even then much of the garbage was left on the street. BK CORE concluded that service had to do with the fact residents of Bedford-Stuyvesant were mostly Black. This was seen as a form of environmental racism. The neighborhood was being discriminated against because of who lived there. The chapter also hoped the campaign would get local people involved. It did, including two students from Pratt: Bob Law who had grown up in the Kingsborough projects and James Steward who was working for NYPD to pay for college. Even though the chapter worried it already had police informants, Steward's participation does not seem to have been problematic. The two worked well alongside older members such as bus driver Vinny Young, who had been a member of Rev. Milton Galamison's congregation and Gil Banks, a construction worker who was also a veteran of World War II. The worst street in Bedford-Stuyvesant was identified as Gates Avenue between Broadway and Bedford Avenue. After attempts to negotiate with city officials proved unsuccessful, Goldwag alerted the press beforehand that they were going to dump garbage on a city official's doorstep, but did not say which. Police shut down the Brooklyn Bridge so that BK CORE could not dump the trash at City Hall in Manhattan. The garbage was taken directly off the streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant. About twenty BK CORE members followed behind trash collectors with U-Haul trucks and picked up what the garbage collectors left behind. They then paraded down the street until they got to Brooklyn's Borough Hall and dumped the trash on the steps of Borough Hall. No one was arrested but they were given a ticket for littering on the sidewalk. The action received lots of press coverage and support from city officials. Despite the added pressure, BK CORE could not get the Sanitation Department to make any real changes. The department stated it simply did not have the funds. The collection for bulk garbage was increased from one to two days, but even though city officials agreed that conditions were horrible, it was the Bedford-Stuyvesant residents themselves who were blamed for this by the Sanitation Department. BK CORE versus the Board of Education
Brooklyn CORE's first campaign against the Board of Education (BOE) was on behalf of two of its own members, Jerome and Elaine Bibuld. Working with Galamison's Parent's Workshop for Equality, the campaign was one of the first public school sit ins in NYC, and a precursor to the wave of school demonstrations that would take place throughout the 1960's in NYC. When the Bibulds lived in Crown Heights, the school their kids went to had a program for gifted students. A fire forced them to move to Park Slope where the school their kids were placed into, PS 282, had lower standards. The oldest, Douglas, a fifth grader, was forced to do third grade work when at his previous school he had been in the gifted program. After trying to home school them, the city threatened to remove the kids from the home. The Bibulds were taken to court, charged with neglect and faced doing a year in prison. Their attempts at sending their kids to live with relatives in order to attend school in New Jersey also did not work. This led Elaine Bibuld to create and lead the chapter's first education committee. Its plan was to do an investigation on segregation in public schools and contact other local groups for assistance. A meeting with the Superintendent of Schools got the Bibulds offers for other schools but they were rejected as also being inadequate.