Hamm Lisa - Upsetting the apple cart : Black-Latino coalitions in New York City from protest to public office

THE COLUMBIA HISTORY OF URBAN LIFE

THE COLUMBIA HISTORY OF URBAN LIFE

KENNETH T. JACKSON, GENERAL EDITOR

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UPSETTING THE APPLE CART

BLACK-LATINO COALITIONS IN NEW YORK CITY FROM PROTEST TO PUBLIC OFFICE

FREDERICK DOUGLASS OPIE

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK

Columbia University Press

Publishers Since 1893

New York Chichester, West Sussex

cup.columbia.edu

Copyright 2015 Columbia University Press

All rights reserved

E-ISBN 978-0-231-52035-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Opie, Frederick Douglass.

Upsetting the apple cart : Black-Latino coalitions in New York City from protest to public office / Frederick Douglass Opie.

pages cm. (The Columbia history of urban life)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-231-14940-2 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-0-231-52035-5 (e-book)

1. African AmericansNew York (State)New YorkPolitics and government20th century. 2. Hispanic AmericansNew York (State)New YorkPolitics and government20th century. 3. African AmericansNew York (State)New YorkRelations with Hispanic Americans. 4. New York (N.Y.)Politics and government20th century. 5. New York (N.Y.)Race relations. I. Title.

F128.9.N4O65 2014

305.8009747'1dc23

2014012943

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COVER IMAGE : Picket line at Lenox Hill Hospital, 1959. (Courtesy of Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.)

COVER DESIGN : James Perales

BOOK DESIGN : Lisa Hamm

References to websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.

Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.

S PECIAL THANKS TO the intellectual communities at Marist College, Babson College, and Harvard University for their support. A similar thanks to those who allowed me to interview them and/or suggested others to interview. Without their support, this book would not have been possible.

I N RESEARCHING THIS BOOK , I used interviews, secondary works, published papers, and archival collections of newspapers, photos, and oral histories. I retrieved materials from the Kheel Center at Cornell University, Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University, the Archives of the Puerto Rican Diaspora at Hunter College, the archives of Lehman College and City College of New York (CCNY), and the New York City Municipal Archives. Oral histories from people involved in the events, movements, organizations, and institutions discussed are absolutely essential to the books analysis and credibility. The book also includes oral histories of and about activists and their supporters dating back to the mid-1950s, including those of Morris Moe Foner and Bayard Rustin, and about A. Philip Randolph, Malcolm X, Percy Sutton, and Joseph Monserrat. I use the oral histories of students and teachers who participated in the student movement of the late 1960s and activists from political organizations, including the Young Lords (YLO); El Comit Movimiento de Izquierda Nacional Puertorriqueo (MINP); the Dominican Parade Committee in Washington Heights; the Hispanic youth organization, ASPIRA; the Hostos Community College campus takeover; and the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP). The book includes interviews with members of the New York Committee in Support of Vieques (NYCSV), the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights (NCPRR), Latinos for Jackson, and Latinos for Dinkins. I was also able to interview Mayor David Dinkins and a number of his close friends and political allies, including Basil Paterson and Denny Farrell. I spoke with key labor leaders, including the former president of District Council 37 Stanley Hill and the former president of Local 1199 Dennis Rivera. Rivera and the political strategist Bill Lynch ran Jesse Jacksons campaign for president in 1988 and David Dinkinss campaign for mayor in 1989.

The oral histories not only add a profound richness to these stories but also provide a vital check on the accuracy of widely accepted secondary accounts. Journalists and writers from even the most prestigious institutions seem to have relied on assumptions rather than research when reporting on contentious events and alliances between blacks and Latinos in New York. Many times I found that I was the first to have asked even the most basic questions to these primary sources or to have attempted to interview people directly involved in major organizations and campaigns.