Lenox Road and Civil Rights History

This post and slideshow on the New York Times’ Lens blog introduced me to a facet of Civil Rights history involving Downstate Medical Center and people living in Flatbush—almost certainly including people on Lenox Road.

If you look at pictures 13 and (I think) 15 on that slideshow, you'll see protesters from CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) trying to persuade the builders of Downstate to employ workers who better represent their neighborhood. According to this garbled abstract of an article:

For over three weeks, Brooklyn CORE, along with a coalition of over 14 black ministers, staged dramatic demonstrations at the construction site and demanded an immediate 25% increase of black and Puerto Rican workers in the all-white work force on the site, which was a neighborhood that was fast becoming all black. Demonstrators blocked trucks and were arrested by the hundreds.

(Note: I've silently corrected a few obvious errors in the transcription.)

Perhaps at a future Lenox Road Block Association Alliance meeting we can discuss creating an educational program around this important event in the history of our community—and, it seems, our country.