The Broadsheet - Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper
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‘He Drove Me Away Like A Dog’
Black History Month: Lower Manhattan Taken for a Ride on Monument It Actually Needs
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Above: The intersection of Chatham and Pearl Streets, as it looked in the mid-1800s. Below: Elizabeth Jennings Graham
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While the saga of Rosa Parks and the 1956 Montgomery bus boycott has become a canonical American parable, New York played out its own version of the same drama, more than a century earlier. In July, 1854, Lower Manhattan resident Elizabeth Jennings Graham was on her way to church, and boarded a horse-drawn street car at Chatham and Pearl Streets.
Like much else in mid-19th century New York, street car service was segregated, with most coaches reserved for white riders, but some bearing signs that read, “Negro Persons Allowed in This Car.” And although Graham did not intend to make a political point, she was running late for church, and boarded the first carriage that came to the stop where she was waiting. When the conductor ordered her off, brusquely insisting that she wait for a coach designated for African-American riders, Graham refused to move.
“He then told me that the other car... was appropriated for ‘my people,’” she wrote the following day, in a missive that captured the attention of the entire City. “I told him I had no people. I wished to go to church and I did not wish to be detained. He still kept driving me off the car; said he had as much time as I had and could wait just as long. I replied, ‘very well, we'll see.’ He waited some minutes, when the driver becoming impatient, he said, ‘well, you may go in, but remember, if the passengers raise any objections you shall go out, whether or no, or I'll put you out.’”
“I told him I was a respectable person, born and raised in New York, did not know where he was born, and that he was a good-for-nothing impudent fellow for insulting decent persons while on their way to church,” Graham’s narrative continued. “He then said he would put me out. I told him not to lay hands on me. He took hold of me and I took hold of the window sash. He pulled me until he broke my grasp. I took hold of his coat and held onto that. He also broke my grasp from that. He then ordered the driver to fasten his horses and come and help him put me out of the cars. Both seized hold of me by the arms and pulled and dragged me down on the bottom of the platform, so that my feet hung one way and my head the other, nearly on the ground.”
The conductor, along with the driver, “thrust me out and then tauntingly told me to get redress if I could.... After dragging me off the car, he drove me away like a dog, saying not to be talking there and raising a mob or fight.”
The conductor, whose name was Moss, had tangled with the wrong woman. Graham was not only educated and articulate, but had been raised with a strong sense of justice. And she was very well connected. Her family ranked among the African-American elite of 1850s New York. Her father, Thomas Jennings, was a successful businessman with ties to intellectual and cultural leaders (both black and white) throughout New York. His 1821 invention of the garment laundering process now known as dry cleaning (which he called “dry scouring”) earned Jennings the first patent ever granted to an African-American, and made him independently wealthy. (He used much of his fortune to purchase the freedom of enslaved family members.)
Graham promptly wrote out an account of her ordeal, and passed it along to the First Methodist Congregational Colored Church, located at the Bowery and Sixth Street -- the house of worship to which she had been traveling that morning. Her letter was read aloud before many hundreds of attendees, who erupted into a spontaneous protest and rally. The text was then picked up and printed in full by Horace Greeley’s New York Daily Tribune and (more importantly), the North Star, a newspaper published by renowned abolitionist and (and former slave) Frederick Douglass. This brought the case national attention.
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The only existing memorial to a civil rights pioneer who led the fight for desegregation a century before Rosa Parks.
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Graham’s father then retained the law firm of Culbert, Parker and Arthur, which had a record of successful civil-rights and anti-slavery suits. The case was litigated by junior partner Chester Arthur, who would go on to become president of the United States in 1881. A jury found that there was no basis in New York law to segregate street cars (or any other public accommodation) and awarded Graham $225 in damages, the equivalent of slightly more than $7,000 today.
The court ordered the Third Avenue Railroad Company to desegregate its streetcars immediately, ruling that, “colored persons if sober, well behaved and free from disease, have the same rights as others and could neither be excluded by any rules of the Company, nor by force or violence.”
This litigation also marked the beginning of an avalanche of similar suits that continued through the Civil War and afterward, the eventual result of which was to make segregation illegal in all forms of public accommodation in New York. Graham’s father spurred this process on by helping to found (and becoming one of the chief financial backers of) the Legal Rights Association -- a group that mounted court challenges to all forms of segregation, and served as the inspiration for 20th-century civil rights group, such as the NAACP.
More than a century and a half later, Elizabeth Jennings Graham is still waiting for the recognition she deserves. The good news is that she may soon get it. The bad news is that it appears likely to be in the wrong place. The City is now developing plans to honor Graham, but (for reasons nobody has explained) appears intent upon locating the monument in Midtown, near Grand Central Station. This is an area of New York to which Graham had no known connection.
By contrast, creating a memorial to her in Lower Manhattan would not only honor Graham near the site of her heroic stand, but would also offer proximity to the African Burial Ground National Monument, the Wall Street Slave Market, and numerous other nearby sites that figure prominently in African-American history.
A further irony is that while Downtown residents and community leaders have, in recent years, resisted the foisting onto the community of proposed monuments that have no apparent connection to Lower Manhattan, a local tribute to Graham would actually bring her narrative to life with a sense of context and place.
For now, however, the only acknowledgement New York gives to the civil rights pioneer who preceded Rosa Parks by more than 100 years is a stretch of Park Row, adjacent to City Hall, that is co-named Elizabeth Jennings Place.
Matthew Fenton
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‘Forcing Student to Dodge Forklifts’
CB1 Pushes for Periodic Closure of FiDi Street, to Allow Safe Access to Scho
“We have 800 kids going into that building,” said Tricia Joyce, the chair of the Youth and Education Committee of Community Board 1 (CB1) said at the panel’s December 21 meeting, referring to the Broadway Educational Campus at 26 Broadway, which houses four separate public schools.
Ms. Joyce was explaining why New Street, the location of the primary entrance used by all four schools (on the back side of the building) needed to be closed periodically during school days.
“It’s not feasible to have traffic coming and going and those security barriers that stop vehicles popping up in the street at the same time,” Ms. Joyce said.
She added that New Street is already closed to most traffic, as part of the security perimeter established around the New York Stock Exchange after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, but dozens of construction vehicles and delivery trucks still traverse the narrow alley each day. To read more...
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The Curves Are Up
Alliance Real Estate Analysis Tracks Indicators for Rentals, Condos, and Retail
The Downtown Alliance has published its annual report, “Lower Manhattan Real Estate Year in Review,” which contains multiple, significant data points about the state of the community.
According to the Alliance’s analysis, Lower Manhattan currently hosts 33,650 households in 342 residential buildings.
For those wishing to lease an apartment, the news is as daunting as it is encouraging for landlords: Median rents reached an all-time high in the second half of 2021, topping out at $4,200, which surpasses a high last seen in 2019, when median rents hovered around $4,000. It also marks a rapid and steep recovery from the bottom of the rental market, during the first quarter of 2021, when local median rents were $3,000. To read more...
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Paws to Reflect
Local Leaders Push City Hall to Consider the Cat’s Meow
Community Board 1 (CB1) is urging the City’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) to protect a colony of feral cats that have come together in the South Street Seaport, at the site of the recently demolished New Market Building.
Feral cats, estimated to number as many as half a million in the five boroughs of New York City, face few threats during spring, summer and fall. Ample trash and New York’s prodigious rodent population provide plentiful sources of food. But in winter, they need shelter to take refuge from the cold, and water supplies often freeze. To read more...
Letter
Meow
To the editor:
Thank you for your article about the community cats at the seaport.
A lot has happened since the December CB1 meeting. Following the resolution, the EDC swiftly installed four winter shelters on the site. We are now committed to identifying a safe relocation option for the spring and have since launched a fundraising effort to support this: https://gofund.me/31d86024.
It is important to note that these are feral, and unadoptable strays. They were initially trapped and returned last spring, thus preventing many more unwanted litters from being born.
While we've had support and guidance from organizations, we are a community group of volunteers who are individually contributing our time and personal resources to feed and care for the cats daily regardless of the weather conditions. While we do not need assistance in feeding the cats, it can cost $1000 or more per cat to relocate them so we do need help with the fundraising for relocation.
We appreciate the interest in our effort and the incredible community support we've had thus far.
Thank you.
Esther Regelson
Kristin Eileen Bradfield
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Lights, Cameras, Violation
CB1 Pushes for Expansion in Use of Monitoring Devices
Community Board 1 (CB1) is pushing for the expanded use of traffic enforcement cameras, the automated monitoring devices that can detect violations of the speed limit and other rules (such as stopping at red lights) on public roads.
The use of such equipment began in New York nearly a decade ago, when then-Governor Andrew Cuomo allowed New York City to launch a pilot program to deter speeding in 20 school zones. The success of that initial deployment in 2013 has expanded to 950 cameras in 750 school zones, where the devices logged more than four million violations in 2020, an increase of almost 100 percent from 2019.
Data from the City’s Department of Transportation document the difference that speed cameras make, with a 71.5 percent reduction in speeding and a 16.9 percent drop in injuries at times when and in locations where they are in use. To read more...
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CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS
Swaps & Trades, Respectable Employment, Lost and Found
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SEEKING LIVE-IN ELDER CARE
12 years experience, refs avail. I am a loving caring hardworking certified home health aide
Marcia 347 737 5037
SEEKING LIVING/
WORK SPACE
Ethical and respectable gentleman, an IT Wizard, seeks a living/work space in BPC. Can be a Computer help to you and your business, or will guarantee $1,500 for rental. Reciprocal would be great!
Please contact: 914-588-5284
AVAILABLE
NURSES' AIDE
20+ years experience
Providing Companion and Home Health Aide Care to clients with dementia.Help with grooming, dressing and wheelchair assistance. Able to escort client to parks and engage in conversations of desired topics and interests of client. Reliable & Honest
FT/PT Flexible Hours
References from family members. Charmaine
NOTARY PUBLIC IN BPC
$2.00 per notarized signature.
Text Paula
@ 917-836-8802
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HAVE MORE FUN PARENTING
Learn how to raise a capable child and reduce friction at home.
Come learn parenting
the Positive Discipline way!
ML Fiske is a
Certified PD Parent Educator.
PERSONAL TRAINING,
REFLEXOLOGY,
PRIVATE STUDIO
917-848-3594
CAREGIVER/
TRAVEL COMPANION SOUGHT
78 year old refined intellectual gentleman having a passion for cruises and travel seeking a male or female caregiver/companion in exchange for all expense paid venture on the ocean. Only requirement is relationship comfort between us and ability to help with physical care regarding the limitations and restrictions of COPD.
NANNY WITH OVER 15 YEARS EXPERIENCE
Reliable, nurturing and very attentive. Refs Avail.
Full or Part time
Maxine 347-995-7896
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HAVE SPACE?
Folk dance group seeks empty space of 400+ sq feet for 2 hours of weekly evening dance practice.
Average attendance is 10 women. This is our hobby; can pay for use of the space.
Call 646 872-0863 or find us on Facebook. Ring O’Bells Morris.
NURSES AIDE
Kind loving and honest Nurse's aide seeking full-time or part-time job experience with Alzheimer's patient and others
Excellent references available please call Dian at 718-496-6232
HOUSEKEEPING/ NANNY/ BABYSITTER
Available for PT/FT. Wonderful person, who is a great worker.
Refs avail.
Worked in BPC.
Call Tenzin 347-803-9523
ORGANIZE WITH EASE FOR HOME AND LIFE
Is your home ready for guests?
We can help you easily declutter and organize your overstuffed closets, jammed bookcases, bursting cabinets and drawers, and enormous stacks of paper to put your home in “company is coming” condition.
Randye Goldstein
212-751-9269
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Get Rich or Get Out
Analysis By Housing Group Cites Declining Affordability in Lower Manhattan
A leading housing advocacy organization has completed an exhaustive look at threats to affordability in every community in the five boroughs, and has found that Lower Manhattan ranks among the ten most at-risk neighborhoods by one key metric, while also placing in the 20 most-endangered by another.
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Lower Manhattan Greenmarkets
Tribeca Greenmarket
Greenwich Street & Chambers Street
Every Wednesday & Saturday, 8am-3pm
Food Scrap Collection: Saturdays, 8am-1pm
Open Saturdays and Wednesdays year round
Bowling Green Greenmarket
Green Greenmarket at Bowling Green
Broadway & Whitehall St
Open Tuesday and Thursdays, year-round
Market Hours: 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Compost Program: 8 a.m. - 11 a.m.
The Bowling Green Greenmarket brings fresh offerings from local farms to Lower Manhattan's historic Bowling Green plaza. Twice a week year-round stop by to load up on the season's freshest fruit, crisp vegetables, beautiful plants, and freshly baked loaves of bread, quiches, and pot pies.
Greenmarket at the Oculus
Oculus Plaza, Fulton St and Church St
CLOSED FOR THE SEASON
The Outdoor Fulton Stall Market
91 South St., bet. Fulton & John Sts.
Fulton Street cobblestones between South and Front Sts. across from McNally Jackson Bookstore.
Locally grown produce from Rogowski Farm, Breezy Hill Orchard, and other farmers and small-batch specialty food products, sold directly by their producers. Producers vary from week to week.
SNAP/EBT/P-EBT, Debit/Credit, and Farmers Market Nutrition Program checks accepted at all farmers markets.
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TODAY IN HISTORY
February 18
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1930 – Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.
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1229 – The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy.
1478 – George, Duke of Clarence, convicted of treason against his older brother Edward IV of England, is executed in private at the Tower of London.
1861 – In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America.
1885 – Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is published in the United States.
1930 – While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.
1930 – Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.
1943 – World War II: The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.
1970 – The Chicago Seven are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
1977 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden "flight" on top of a Boeing 747.
2001 – FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
2010 – WikiLeaks publishes the first of hundreds of thousands of classified documents disclosed by the soldier now known as Chelsea Manning.
2013 – Armed robbers steal a haul of diamonds worth $50 million during a raid at Brussels Airport in Belgium.
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Births
1201 – Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Persian scientist and writer (d. 1274)
1745 – Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist, invented the battery (d. 1827)
1848 – Louis Comfort Tiffany, American stained glass artist (d. 1933)
1862 – Charles M. Schwab, American businessman, co-founded Bethlehem Steel (d. 1939)
1892 – Wendell Willkie, American captain, lawyer, and politician (d. 1944)
1898 – Enzo Ferrari, Italian race car driver and businessman, founded Ferrari (d. 1988)
1922 – Helen Gurley Brown, American journalist and author (d. 2012)
1931 – Toni Morrison, American novelist and editor, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2019).
1933 – Yoko Ono, Japanese-American singer-songwriter
1954 – John Travolta, American actor and producer
Deaths
901 – Thābit ibn Qurra, Arab astronomer and physician (b. 826)
1139 – Yaropolk II, Grand Prince of Kiev (b. 1082)
1294 – Kublai Khan, Mongol emperor (b. 1215)
1546 – Martin Luther, German priest and theologian, leader of the Protestant Reformation (b. 1483)
1564 – Michelangelo, Italian sculptor and painter (b. 1475)
1654 – Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, French author (b. 1594)
1902 – Charles Lewis Tiffany, American businessman, founded Tiffany & Co. (b. 1812)
2001 – Dale Earnhardt, American stock car racer and team owner (b. 1951)
Credit: Wikipedia and other internet and non-internet sources
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The Broadsheet Inc. eBroadsheet.com editor @ ebroadsheet.com ©2022 All Rights Reserved All photos © Robert Simko 2022 unless otherwise credited
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No part of this document may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher © 2022
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