This is 1969 photo of Clayton Chesson (right, glasses), founder of Brookhaven CORE and its first chairman. Chesson was head of the Patchogue NAACP before he came to CORE. He served as a director of and then chairman of the board at the Farm Workers…
This is a photo of Long Island CORE member Geraldine Johnson. She worked as a nurse’s aide and lived in Hempsted.
Originally from Montgomery, Alabama, she was the vice chairman of the Wilklow Tenants Association, a group 'organized through…
This is a 1971 photo of Long Island CORE vice chairman Lorenzo Merrit. Voted social worker of the year in 1973 by the Nassau chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, he also worked for the Westbury anti-poverty board.
This is a photo of Long Island CORE member Billy Geller. In the photo he is a freshman at Dartmouth College in 1967. At Dartmouth, he became a member of SDS but lived with members of the school’s Afro-American Society. He was also arrested for…
This is a 1966 photo of Suffolk County CORE chairman Henry G. Smith (Black). He is talking with Suffolk District Court Judge Floyd Sarisohn (White). The two tried to create an experimental program to help ‘indigent defendants who are jailed…
This is a 1966 photo of LI CORE member Gloria Weinberg. She is standing next to Floyd Mckissick at a party thrown at her home to congratulate him on becoming national director of CORE that year. Mrs. Weinberg is notable because she was not only…
This is a 1969 photo of students in Long Island CORE’s Leadership Training Program. This is the graduation ceremony held at Hofstar University in June. It was the third session. 27 students graduated.
This is a photo of the Long Island CORE’s Black Leadership Training School, part of the chapter’s Leadership Training Program. The photo is from the first session at State Agricultural and Technical College at Farmingdale.
This is an August 1964 photo of members of the Society for the Prevention of Niggers Getting Everything, (SPONGE), an organization of young Whites specifically formed as a reaction to CORE. In the photo, they are counter demonstrating against Long…
This is a 1968 photo of Long Island CORE member Lunetta Miller (center). She is standing between Lincoln Lynch and Hazel Dukes of the NAACP. She is an example of CORE’s emphasis on turning ‘local people’ into activists.
She became a…