Peter Golenbock - In the Country of Brooklyn: Inspiration to the World

The 1930s and 1940s

Coney Islands ConscienceLady Deborah and George Tilyou

Here Come the Jews

Crushing the Jewish TroublemakersThe Persecution of Emma Goldman

Growing Up JewishIra Glasser

A One Hundred Percent Jewish ChildhoodSy Dresner

The Lincoln BrigadeAbe Smorodin

Victims of Rapp-CoudertHenry Foner

On the Side of LaborMarvin Miller

The Roots of RacismDorothy Challenor Burnham

Sports Editor of the Daily WorkerLester Rodney

The Negro Soldier Returns from the WarMonte Irvin

The Jews Love JackieJoseph Boskin and Joel Oppenheimer

Jackie Robinsons Place in HistoryIra Glasser

The Accidental RabbiSy Dresner

The 1940s and 1950s

Victims of the Smith ActStan Kanter

Victims of McCarthyTerry (Ted) Rosenbaum

The Absurdity of McCarthyismJoseph Boskin

Fearing the UnknownPeter Meinke

The Protestants Blend InJustus Doenecke

Muslim ImmigrantsDave Radens

Growing Up Greek in Red HookPeter Spanakos

Here Come the ItaliansCurtis Sliwa

Here Come the IrishPete Hamill

Windsor Terrace MemoriesJoe Flaherty, Bobby McCarthy, and Bill Reddy

A Wild ChildJohn Ford

Son of Holocaust SurvivorsHarry Schweitzer

The 1950s and 1960s

For the Love of Billy CoxJohn Mackie

The Musical Genius of Lincoln HighNeil Sedaka

The End of Race MusicBruce Morrow

The Whites DiscriminateJohn Hope Franklin

The Move to the BurbsIan Grad

The Dodgers Flee WestBill Reddy, Irving Rudd, Stan Kanter, and Pete Hamill

The 1960s and 1970s

Growing Up Black in the HoodRobert Crosson

Cop on the BeatJohn Mackie

The Black PantherCharles Barron

Here Come the Puerto RicansVictor Robles

Ocean HillBrownsvilleClarence Taylor

Going to School with the MooliesCurtis Sliwa

Nothing Stays the SamePeter Spanakos

The Guardian AngelsCurtis Sliwa

King of the Tra-la-lasNeil Sedaka

The Night the Lights Went Out. Again.Abram Hall

The 1980s and 1990s

Whites Move BackHarry Schweitzer

A Marine Guards the PeaceRichard Green

Shirley Chisholms BoyVictor Robles

Brighton Beachs Russian JewsAlec Brook-Krasny

The Battle for Sexual FreedomRenee Cafiero

The Twenty-first Century

The Echoes of 9/11Richard Portello

The Mural PainterJanet Braun-Reinitz

The Councilman for ChangeCharles Barron

The Real Estate BoomAbram Hall

Brooklyns CheerleaderMarty Markowitz

The Atlantic YardsJim Stuckey

Remaking Coney IslandJoseph Sitt

T HIS IS A RECOUNTING OF THE IMPORTANCE OF IMMIGRANTS TO THIS LAND, WITH the spotlight on those who escaped war, hunger, and deprivation to come to Brooklyn.

It is also the story of those whose bigotry and narrow-mindedness caused them to fight to keep out those who were different from them. I came to discover that those in power get to define whos a good guy and whos a bad guy, so American history marks as heroes politicians who were antidemocratic and anti-American while those who fought for freedom, for racial equality, and for social justice were labeled as enemies of the state, arrested, and imprisoned. I am hoping that In the Country of Brooklyn will allow the reader to take a second look at some of these heroes and villains.

The Puritans, who came to America to escape religious persecution, set the standard. Conservatively Christian, the leaders like the Reverend Cotton Mather made the rules and set the punishments. Brooklyn, it turns out, was founded by a woman who left Salem to escape the Puritan madness.

Though the Puritan sect no longer exists in America, its conservative brethren still do, and if you study the history of bigotry, Christian ministers and their followers were at the forefront of the segregationist and isolationist movements. The Christian South justified segregation using quotes from the Bible. The Ku Klux Klan was a faith-based organization. The White Citizens Council was made up of devout churchgoing Christians.

As for the hatred of the Jews, most presidents in office in the first half of the twentieth century were anti-Semites or exhibited anti-Semitic tendencies in their private lives. Woodrow Wilson was an anti-Semite, Franklin Roosevelt knew about the Holocaust and did nothing to help the victims, and Harry Trumans wife, Bess, vowed never to allow a Jew to set foot in her house. Congress wasnt any more tolerant. In 1921 Congress passed a bill effectively stopping the flood of Jews into this country, which resulted in the deaths of millions of Jews who had no place to run to when Hitler started wiping them out in Europe less than a generation later.

The Irish and Italians also faced bigotry. Once in America, the Irish had to face bigotry from the WASPs. NO IRISH NEED APPLY signs were routine, but once the Irish organized politically, they became a powerful force unto themselves. The Italians kept to themselves at first, but with each generation became more assimilated.

The history of blacks in America is a whole different story. Blacks werent barred from coming to America but rather were brought to America against their will. Once here, they were enslaved. After the Civil War, they were marginalized, prevented from getting an education and from earning a decent living. After the war, the whites in America used all their political and financial power to keep the blacks subservient. Even as late as 1947, blacks were down so far that the very idea that a black man would be allowed to play major league baseball was revolutionary.

As more and more Latinos came to America, they faced similar racist attitudes and made great strides with each generation. The last group fighting for their equal rights are the members of the gay community.

As you will see, as people become used to living with those of other cultures, tolerance grows and bigotry dies. As a result, every generation becomes less and less bigoted.

It has been estimated that by the year 2030 whites will no longer be the majority population of America. The ability and willingness of Americans to integrate the newcomers to this land will determine how we as a nation fare in the twenty-first century. Perhaps the experiences of the transformation of Brooklyn can be used as an example for the rest of America. While its often said that New York City is not America, one in seven Americans can trace their family back to Brooklyn. If your family came to America from another country, chances are pretty good your great-great-grandfather lived in Williamsburg, or Flatbush, or Bay Ridge, or Brighton Beach before moving on to other places.

The 70.61 square miles of Brooklyn include densely populated urban areas, suburban areas with beautiful private homes, public housing projects, and luxury high-rises, co-ops, and condos, and the type of building that will forever be associated with Brooklynthe brownstone. There are beaches, swamps, city parks, state parks, and national parks, an army base, a former navy yard, a Revolutionary War battlefield, railroads, subways, highways, tunnels, bridges, churches, synagogues, mosques, a minor league baseball stadium, and nearly four hundred years of history.