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Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Seven Political Mega-Trends Of Black Brooklyn And Beyond

Chapter 1 Black Brooklyn: The Politics of Ethnicity, Class, and Gender Introduction, Literature Review, and Theoretical Framework

Chapter 2 Black Brooklyn: A Political History, 1600’s to 2005

Chapter 3 The Census Demographics and Political Economy of Black Brooklyn: Ethnicity, Class and Gender

Chapter 4 African American and Caribbean Elites-Field Interviews: On Black Brooklyn, Politics, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender

Chapter 5 Black Brooklyn: Voter Turnout, Candidate Choice, and the Significance of Ethnicity, Class and Gender

Chapter 6 Black Brooklyn and 21st Century Urban Politics: Summary, Conclusions, and Future Prospects

Appendix A Interview Questionnaire

B Dependent Variables

C Demographic Summary

List of Tables

Table No. 2.01 Brooklyn and Black Populations, 1698-2000

Table No. 3.01 US Foreign Born Population, 1970-2000

Table No. 3.02 West Indian and African Ancestry Populations, US, NYS and NYC

Table No. 3.03 Selected West Indian Immigration to the U.S., 1961-1998

Table No. 3.04 Undocumented Immigrants: Selected States and Countries of Origin, 1996

Table No. 3.05 Estimated Unauthorized West Indian Population in the U.S., 2000

Table No. 3.06 US Cities with 250,000 or more Blacks, 2000

Table No. 3.07 Central Brooklyn PUMAs-Black Ethnic Populations

Table No. 3.08 Black Brooklyn Neighborhoods: African American and West Indian Composition, 2000

Table No. 3.09 Racial and Population Changes 1970-2000, Nine Black Brooklyn Community Districts

Table No. 3.10a African American Bed-Stuy and Caribbean East Flatbush: A Demographic Comparison

Table No. 3.10b African American Bed-Stuy and Caribbean East Flatbush: A Demographic Comparison

Table No. 3.10c Vital Statistics, 1990-1999, Nine Black Brooklyn Community Districts

Table No. 3.11 Black Brooklyn-Citizen Voting Age Population (CVAP) by Sex

Table No. 3.12 Black Brooklyn Senior Citizens CVAP by Sex

Table No. 3.13 African American and West Indian Home Ownership (All Age Groups)

Table No. 3.14 Ethnic Gaps: West Indian and African American Households

Table No. 3.15 West Indians and African Americans: People in Households with Seniors

Table No. 3.16 West Indians and African Americans: Under 18 year olds in the Household

Table No. 3.19 West Indians and African Americans: Educational Attainment

Table No. 3.20 Gender Gaps in West Indian and African American Educational Attainment

Table No. 3.21 African American and West Indian Labor Force, Black Brooklyn

Table No. 3.24 African American and West Indian Personal Income

Table No. 3.25 African-Amer. & West Indian Median Income by Gender (For Workers)

Table No. 3.26 African American and West Indians-Class of Workers

Table No. 3.27 African Americans and West Indians-Industry Sectors

Table No. 3.28 African Americans and West Indians-Occupational Categories

Table No. 3.29 African Americans and West Indians-2 or more Workers In Family (WIF)

Table No 5.01 Olsen: Voter Turnout Analysis-NYC Elections, 1988 -1994 SES and Neighborhood Stability Model

Table No 5.02 Levitt: Voter Turnout Change, 1989-1993 Black Brooklyn Neighborhoods

Table No 5.03 Levitt: Dinkins Vote Change, 1989-1993 Black Brooklyn Neighborhoods

Table No. 5.04 Descriptive Variables for Ethnicity, Class and Gender Dependent Variables: Percent Candidate Vote, Percent Voter Turnout Total N = 808

Table No. 5.05 Impact of Ethnicity, Class and Gender on

Table No. 5.06 Unstandardized WLS Regression Coefficients For Ethnicity, Class and Gender

Table No. 5.07 Unstandardized WLS Regression Coefficients For Ethnicity, Class and Gender

Table No. 5.10 WLS Model for Ethnicity, Class and Gender

Table No. 5.11 African American and West Indian Citizenship & Voting Age Popula’n (CVAP) Rates

Table No. 5.12 EZI Estimates-African American & West Indian Voter Turnout City Comptroller Democratic Primary, 2001

Table No. 5.13 EZI Estimates, African American & West Indian Voter Turnout Mayoral General Election, 2001

Appendix C - Tables

Table No. C-1 Comparative Census 2000 Demographics: POPULATION and FAMILY FORMATION African Americans and West Indians in Black Brooklyn

Table No. C-2 Comparative Demographics, Census 2000: EDUCATION and the GENDER GAP African Americans and West Indians in Black Brooklyn

Table No. C-3 Comparative Demographics, Census 2000: LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION African Americans and West Indians in Black Brooklyn

Table No. C-4 Comparative Demographics, Census 2000: INCOME and POVERTY African Americans and West Indians in Black Brooklyn

Table No. C-5 Comparative Demographics, Census 2000: CLASS OF WORKERS African Americans and West Indians in Black Brooklyn

List of Figures (Maps)

Figure 3.01 Brooklyn: New York State Assembly Districts, 1992-2001

Figure 3.02 New York City: Predominant Racial Populations

Figure 3.03 Central Brooklyn: Black Population Distribution by Community District

Figure 3.04 Black Brooklyn: West Indian Population Distribution (by Numbers)

Figure 3.05 Black Brooklyn: West Indian Population Distribution (by Percentage)

Figure 3.06 Central Brooklyn: Black Population Change, 1990-2000

Figure 3.07 Black Brooklyn: West Indian Median Household Income

Figure 5.01 EZI Estimates, African American Voter Turnout-2001 Comptroller Primary

Figure 5.02 EZI Estimates, West Indian Voter Turnout-2001 Comptroller Primary

Figure 5.03 EZI Estimates, African American Election Districts, 2001

Figure 5.04 EZI Estimates, West Indian Elections Districts, 2001

Figure 5.05 EZI Estimates, African American Voter Turnout 2001 Mayoral General Election

Figure 5.06 EI2 Estimates-Bloomberg Vote-2001 Mayoral General Election

Figure 5.07 EZI Estimates, West Indian Voter Turnout 2001 Mayoral General Election

Appendix C - Figures

Figure C-1 African Americans and West Indians: Population and Citizen VAP

Figure C -2 African Americans and West Indians: Married Couple Families and Female Headed Households

Figure C-3 African Americans and West Indians: Employed Males and Females

Figure C-4 African Americans and West Indians: Males & Females- College Degrees

Figure C-5 African American and West Indian Household Income (# of HHs):

Figure C-6 African American and West Indian Home Ownership Rates and 2 or More Workers in the Family

Bibliography

About the Author

This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Political Science in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy,

Abstract

BLACK BROOKLYN: THE POLITICS OF ETHNICITY, CLASS, AND GENDER

by

John Louis Flateau

Advisor: Professor John Mollenkopf

In the 1960s, Black urban communities moved from protest politics to the electoral arena. They made major strides in electing big city mayors with Black led, bi-racial coalitions including white liberals, Hispanics and other coalition partners. The study of this minority ascendancy to urban power in heavily Black and racially mixed cities is known as minority incorporation theory (Browning, Marshall and Tabb 2003). By the 1990s, research shifted to how these earlier bi-racial coalitions and mayoral regimes were sometimes supplanted by more centrist, business oriented, white led multi-racial coalitions, such as Richard J. Daley Jr. in Chicago; Rudolph Giuliani then Michael Bloomberg in New York; Ed Rendell in Philadelphia; and Richard Riordan then James Hahn in Los Angeles. With massive immigration and urban migration from the 1980s onward, Hispanics and Asians, and in New York City, West Indians as well, emerged as important voting blocs, swing voters, and highly mobile coalition partners.

This dissertation argues that in the 21st century study of urban politics, more attention should be paid to the internal dynamics of ethnicity, class and gender among Blacks, in order to better understand their own political development and their ability to coalesce with others. Black Brooklyn, and its two main ethnic groups of African Americans and West Indians, comprises the case study which explores this proposition.

This research demonstrates how and why ethnicity, class and gender powerfully circumscribe Black Brooklyn’s ability to consummate its own racial solidarity and pose a challenge to the pursuit of multiracial coalitions, a critical precondition for minority incorporation. This study tests the central hypothesis that Central Brooklyn’s African Americans and West Indians have distinct patterns of ethnicity, class and gender which significantly drive their political behavior, both within and across their ethnic blocs, neighborhood concentrations and political districts. This study verifies that ethnicity, class and gender do matter, and they are statistically significant predictors of voter turnout and candidate choice in the politics of Black Brooklyn, particularly in municipal elections.

Thus ethnicity, class and gender should be taken into account when assessing racial group solidarity, minority incorporation, and multi-racial coalition building in the pursuit of urban power, more effective policy and decision making, and more responsive, representative and equitable governance.

Preface

The Good Shepherd

PSALM 23

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

- The Holy Bible, King James Version

Seven Political Mega-Trends Of Black Brooklyn And Beyond

John Louis Flateau, Ph.D.

Introduction

I completed Black Brooklyn: The Politics of Ethnicity, Class And Gender a decade ago. Much politically and otherwise has evolved since then. This narrative, Seven Political Mega-Trends… seeks to bring the main work current through the 2016 US Presidential election, noting some powerful, important trends which are causing paradigm shifts in the very nature of Black Brooklyn going forward. With some modifications, the main work which follows is my Doctoral dissertation in Political Science, with a specialization in American Politics and Public Policy. I completed this work under the distinguished Faculty of the Graduate School And University Center of The City University of New York. My Dissertation Committee consisted of five internationally renowned scholars, academicians and CUNY Distinguished Professors: Dr. John Mollenkopf, Chair; Dr. Frances Fox Piven, Reader; Dr. Marilyn Gittell, Dr. Joyce Gelb, and Dr. Philip Kasinitz; as well as Dr. Ruth O’Brien and Dr. W. Ofuatey-Kodjoe, Executive Officers of the Dept. of Political Science.

A great support team encouraged me throughout this process, including scholars, fellow students, community leaders, public officials, friends; and generations of my own awe inspiring Family, who are deeply embedded in generations of the Black American struggle for freedom, justice and equality. I am motivated by my faith in the Creator; and the promise of American Democracy, built with our ancestors’ sweat equity, and still, very much a work in progress.

Black Brooklyn is a personal journey, and distillation of my decades of lived and learned experiences as its native son, scholar-activist, participant observer and avid contributor to Black Brooklyn’s past and present, political and civic life. This work is the product of serious reflection, studious research and critical analysis. I and colleagues have periodically re-read and critiqued the text, checking for flaws. This story still holds up under scrutiny. I thought it prudent for this narrative to marinate intellectually, analytically and contextually in the tests of time, changing politics and churning demographics before its release. The time is now.

In the update which follows, Seven Political Mega-Trends of Black Brooklyn and Beyond, I comment on key issues that I believe point to important political, policy and demographic trends and issues that have impacted Black Brooklyn over the past decade to the present and into the future. Also, as a note to encourage future Black Ph.D.’s, who are woefully underrepresented in academia and the marketplace (some whom I mentor), I have included my Dissertation Proposal in the appendix, which offers an evolutionary perspective on this work. Hopefully, through the lens of learning about Black Brooklyn, the reader will have a window on to America’s and the world’s urban centers, being daily shaped by a growing majority of people of color.

1. Black Political Participation 2016, 2017 and 2018; and the Millenial Challenge

Presidential Election 2016 ushers in a new President of the United States of America, the Leader of the Free World, the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump. He won the electoral vote, while opponent Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, calling into question for the fifth time in US history, the efficacy of the Electoral College as a tool of democracy. Black America and Black Brooklyn’s voting levels for Clinton, did not reach the levels that it did for President Obama, one reason for Clinton’s shortfall, along with other profound lessons to be learned from this election. Only 55 percent of eligible Americans voted, the lowest level among advanced democracies; and 95 million did not vote. It will not take long to compare campaign promises to governing prose and to discern President Trump’s urban policy, domestic policy, foreign policy and economic and fiscal policy; and to assess as well, how his policies will positively and negatively impact the Black Brooklyns, urban, suburban and rural, rich, poor and middle class Americas; and indeed the global community.

Building a wall along the Mexican border, mass deportation of illegal immigrants, ending sanctuary cities and banning Muslims are some of Trump’s policy prescriptions. Guaranteed, there will be a paradigm shift in federal policies, programs and funding from an Obama to a Trump Presidency. It is projected that Trump may gain up to four of the nine appointments to the US Supreme Court. Add to this, control of other federal judicial appointments, Presidential control of federal prosecutors nationally, as well as the DOJ Anti-Trust, Civil Rights and Voting Rights bureaus. The President’s successes and failures will in part be circumscribed by his vision and initiative; by the goodwill and cooperation that he engenders; and by his Cabinet appointments, senior talent with which he surrounds himself; and 4,000 top federal appointments to carry out his agendas.

Republican President Trump will also have a one party, Republican controlled US Senate and House of Representatives with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker Michael Ryan as governing co-partners. This tripartite leadership control of the national government has already made plain, that they will have a radically different policy agenda than President Obama, such as dismantling most of Obamacare. President Trump and the Congress’ ability to conduct the people’s business and get things done, will also be circumscribed by the extent of their own intra-party civil wars; the degree of their party discipline rising above factionalism and ideological differences; and the limited power to neutralize US Senate action by the Democratic Conference, loyal opposition in the Senate, led by the new Minority Leader New York’s Senator Charles Schumer, using filibuster and procedural rules to empower minority opposition and stifle majority action.

Partisan and ideological gridlock may again shut down the national government or block key reforms over unresolvable policy, legislative and budgetary disputes. The Democratic Party, still a minority in both House and Senate, is engaged in its own haunted soul searching, tinged with civil war and factionalism, facing a power vacuum, and a fight for the future leadership of their party, with the Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren wings of the party appearing ascendant; and the Hillary Clinton wing, seeming in retreat. With the exception of a jobs and infrastructure program, the preliminary signs are that under a Law and Order Trump administration, there will not likely be a progressive federal urban policy that incorporates the needs of the Black Brooklyns of America; as well as their fair share of the federal $4 trillion Budget; competing against the needs of the politically ascendant sectors of a previously neglected white America; and the corporate sector, who is never out of power.

Mayoral Election 2017 in New York City means that the entire municipal government: Mayor, Comptroller, Public Advocate, four County District Attorneys and the entire 51 member City Council is up for reelection. In 2013, three of Black Brooklyn’s sons and daughters ascended to higher Office: City Council Member Leticia James, first Black woman elected to citywide Office; State Senator Eric Adams, first Black Brooklyn Borough President; and Ken Thompson, first Black Brooklyn District Attorney, now deceased.

The next Mayor and the 51 member City Council will control: a) a $77 billion Executive Budget; b) including $15 billion in city contacts (with barely 2% going to Black owned businesses); c) a $20 billion capital budget; and land use and development decisions radically redesigning and gentrifying the world’s premier global city and making truly affordable housing a rare commodity; d) a $25 billion Dept. Of Education budget; e) $10 billion Dept. Of Social Services budget; f) $5 billion Police Department budget; and other key features. A key question is: will Black Brooklyn’s one million New Yorkers receive their fair share of municipal goods and services? And, who in partnership with their elected officials, will best represent their interests and formulate and implement a progressive policy agenda on behalf of their needs?

Also, a key statewide Referendum will be on the ballot in November 2017, asking the voters of New York State, if they want to hold a State Constitutional Convention to assess the structures, policies and processes of state government; and to potentially, and to add and subtract special interest proposals to the State Constitution.

Gubernatorial Election 2018 throughout New York State, means that the Governor, State Comptroller, State Attorney General and the entire 213 member State Legislature is up for re-election (State Senate, 63; and State Assembly, 150 members). The Governor and Legislature control a vast array of laws, policy making, agencies and a $ 150 billion Executive Budget. Key questions are: will Black Brooklyn’s one million New Yorkers receive their fair share of state programs and services? And, who in partnership with their elected officials, will best represent their interests and formulate and implement a progressive policy agenda on their behalf? Should Governor Cuomo achieve re-election in 2018, he would be a top Presidential candidate in 2020.

The Black Millenial Challenge. Demographic studies indicate that there are now as many persons 18-35 years old, America’s lowest voter turnout group; as there are persons 65 years and older, the highest voter turnout group. In other words, millennials now equal baby boomers in population size. However, polling and voter turnout data indicates that there is a generational disconnect of these young persons from the electoral process; and a range of solutions must be implemented to reconnect this cynical generation to voting, the cornerstone of our Democracy.

Black Lives Matter and Black Votes Matter in this new era of American politics. Brooklyn with 1.4 million voters and New York City with 4.2 million voters are at an all-time high.

But civic and voter education are woefully lacking in our families, schools and communities. Politics not only includes voting but also advocacy, lobbying, litigation, political protest and social media activism. In this new era of politics, we must embrace a broad, intergenerational, multidimensional, multi-party and independent political perspective, with the utmost priority on developing broad progressive agendas and coalitions, leadership development, civic and voter education, diversity and inclusion.

2. The 2020 Census Is Rapidly Underway. The next Decennial Census, as required by the US Constitution is in 2020. Strategic planning, policy and programmatic decisions and implementation are well underway since 2010. Over $ 1 billion in Census contracts have already been awarded; the process will be much more technology intensive; there will be far fewer field offices and jobs due to increased technology infusion. New racial are ethnic categories are being reviewed, which will have a profound impact on who is counted and how they are categorized. President Trump and the Congress can shut down all of these plans; and re-program the 2020 Census in whole new directions.

New York City’s neighborhoods of color and immigrant communities have had persistent undercount problems for decades, which can be significantly addressed at the state and local levels as they were with New York’s own 2010 funding and efforts, before the next Census. New York is shortchanged billions of dollars in federal funding based on its census undercount. And New York has steadily lost Congressional representation, from a peak of 45 seats, number one in the nation in 1940; to today 27 seats, behind California, Texas and now Florida in population. New York and Black Brooklyn, the Census undercount epicenter, must initiate proactive strategies, resources and funding, to prevent another Census undercount.

3. The Perpetual Battle for Voting Rights. The US Supreme Court’s 2013 landmark decision in Shelby County, AL v. Holder, declared Section 4 unconstitutional, effectively gutting the Section 5 Preclearance section of the US Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 as amended. This means that New York City (Brooklyn, Bronx and Manhattan); and New York State, previously covered by the VRA, are no longer required to submit their proposed changes in voting practices and legislative redistricting proposals to the US Justice Dept. for preclearance, before they can proceed to implementation. Progressive forces for minority voting rights, along with the Mayor, City Council, Governor and State Legislature must forge new voting rights laws and policies at the municipal and State levels, in order to plug these gaping holes in our voting Democracy.

Voter ID laws in some states have been declared discriminatory by the federal courts. And Early Voting access has been reduced in a number of states. In the 2010 national mid-term elections, which the Democratic Party slept, in the euphoria of their 2008 Obama victory, the Republican Party gained control of 36 Governorships and State Legislatures. These powers then proceeded to institute Voter ID laws, cut back on Early Voting, pass stricter voter registration requirements and conducted voter purges. These measures reduced the voting strength of minorities, students and senior citizens, core Democratic voters. In 2016 these tactics played themselves out in major swing states like North Carolina, where they conducting voter purges targeting Black voters just before the election. Due to NAACP lawsuits, the federal courts ordered North Carolina to reinstate the purged Black voters.

4. A New Legislative Reapportionment and Redistricting: Any Time, Any Place. A federal or state lawsuit, at any time, in any place can overturn existing legislative reapportionments (allocation of the number of seats); and redistricting (drawing the actual district boundaries). These processes have historically been based on the use of Census total population data. But rules can change. A number of lawsuits have successfully changed the redistricting basis from general population (GPOP); to voting age population (VAP) or citizen voting age population (CVAP). Recent lawsuits by white voters seek to use voter registration (VR); and even voter turnout data (this formula is biased against young and immigrant groups).

Rules that exist today can be turned on their head, with a single court decision, legislative action, executive order or agency mandate. Black Brooklyn has the largest group of Black elected officials in New York City, State and nation. This base can be eroded through gentrification and home foreclosures; but also by way of a census undercount and legislative redistricting, using techniques of packing, cracking, racial gerrymandering and manipulating population deviations. Now, plans no longer have to be precleared by the US Justice Department; and the federal courts and DOJ are under the influence of a Trump Presidency.

5. Closing the Gender Gap: Reducing Political Inequality. In 2016, Black Brooklyn has the largest number of Black women public officials in New York City, State and perhaps the nation: NYC Public Advocate Leticia James; US Congresswoman Yvette Clarke; State Senators Velmanette Montgomery, and Roxanne Persaud; NYS Assemblywomen Annette Robinson (soon to be Tremaine Wright), Latrice Walker, Diana Richardson, Rodneyse Bichotte, Pamela Harris and Jamie Williams; City Council Members Darlene Mealy, Inez Barron and Laurie Cumbo; and several NYS Supreme Court Justices, Civil Court and Family Court Judges. Half of these women legislators have been elected within the past four years, an explosive growth in the Black women’s political power. There was a gender gap of political under-representation of women in public office in Black Brooklyn for decades. But this problem seems to have been solved, with Black women now representing more than half of Black Brooklyn’s elected officialdom. Whether the power equation is now truly gender equal, is a subject for further analysis.

6. Triple Pandemics Eroding the Base: Foreclosures, Tax Liens & Gentrification

According to Census data, there are an estimated 50,000 Black home owners in Brooklyn. Thousands are losing their homes due to subprime mortgages; and homeowners and tenants are forced to move out. NYC property tax liens for non-payment of taxes and water bills, is massively hemorrhaging home ownership. The aftershocks of the housing bubble and market collapse of 2008-9 are at a pandemic level in Black Brooklyn. The Wall St. investment firms and Big Banks who precipitated the housing crash, were too big to fail and were bailed out with a trillion dollar, federal Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac restructuring and other measures. The parallel forces of rising real estate prices and feverish upscale market rate and luxury housing development is forcing long-time residents out; and attracting higher income residents into prime location Black Brooklyn neighborhoods, near transit systems, minutes away from Wall St., Mid-Manhattan, and lucrative job markets.

These real estate forces coupled with Black out-migrations and white in-migrations, are eroding the Black economic, political and population bases of Black Brooklyn. A major outcome of the triple housing pandemics, as of yet unchecked due to feeble agency and court system response has resulting in: a) a lack of affordable housing for residents in Black Brooklyn neighborhoods; b) likely reduction in the number of Black elected officials in the near future, due to a shrinking Black population and voting base; and c) a radically shifting race and class composition in these fading Black neighborhoods, a phenomenon which has already overtaken Harlem; is growing in Washington Heights in Manhattan; and is well underway in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Crown Heights and Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhoods.

7. Mass Incarceration; and Health Care Systems Re-Design

The Prison Industrial Complex. Overly aggressive policing, including the now banned Stop and Frisk practices, low educational attainment, high unemployment, participation in the underground economy, a million outstanding warrants, overcrowded courts and correction facilities, gang violence and antisocial behavior have all led to mass incarceration of a disproportionate share of Black Brooklyn residents. Persons with criminal records have extreme difficulty getting jobs and housing (except jail), leading to high recidivism. Formerly incarcerated can’t register and vote until their sentence has expired; and thousands don’t even know that they can restore their right to vote in New York. Almost no government support services follow the formerly incarcerated back to their home communities upon release from prison; and they are legally banned from employment in several trades. Mass incarceration and its aftermath is politically, economically and socially neutralizing the rehabilitation and life prospects of several thousand Black Brooklyn returning residents, estimated at 3-4,000 per year.

(See The Prison Industrial Complex: Race, Crime and Justice in New York, by John Flateau.)

Health Care Systems Re-Design. New York State has a $55 billion Medicaid budget, one of the largest in the nation. Medicaid financing of health care delivery is being dramatically revamped so that funding is more health outcomes based, to provide more cost effective, better quality, more preventive health care, with a special focus on medically underserved communities including the largest health care consumer market in New York, which is Black Brooklyn. This state driven initiative is known as DSRIP, the Design System Reform Incentive Payment program.

Participation in this health care systems re-engineering by every public and voluntary hospital throughout Brooklyn is mandatory; and new networks, governance and institutional controls are being put in place, with varying levels of community consultation. Add to this a woeful lack of diversity and inclusion of health executives of color on boards of directors and in leadership of the major hospital institutions and health care professional organizations (with the exception of the NYC Health & Hospitals Corporation. Then there is the likelihood on the federal level of the elimination of Obamacare; reduced regulation of pharmaceuticals; as well as other health care industry adjustments. With this tsunami of changes underway, the future health status of Black Brooklyn, their hospitals, community based care, and quality of life, faces an uncertain future.

Conclusion

Above are some of the key policies, issues and trends confronting Black Brooklyn, its people and its leaders at this juncture in our history and going forward. These mega-trends however, also have applicability to many other urban settings. By God’s grace and the people’s agency and determination, Black Brooklyn will continue to address and resolve these challenges; and will move inexorably towards its brighter future.

Today’s Black Brooklyn stands on the broad shoulders of its forebears, who by great sacrifice laid down the foundations for future growth and development of a kidnapped people, by way of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Four hundred years ago, African slaves built Kings County, the largest slave holding county in New York; and indeed built this nation’s early economy with their involuntary, as of yet uncompensated, free labor. By New York law, they endured 28 years of gradual emancipation, from 1799 to 1827. Africans literally slaved, saved, bought and fought for their own freedom and that of their own families. Today, Black Brooklyn is struggling towards another emancipation.

Our ancestors conquered far greater challenges in their time than the ones we face today. From brutal racism and chattel slavery, to freedom and community building, in a place like Weekesville, Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the oldest, property owning and voting, independent Black residential community in America. They freed themselves, then established and ran African Free Schools, later expropriated as Colored Schools No. 1, 2 and 3 by the then segregated Brooklyn Board Of Education.

Rejecting racial discrimination by white Christians, they withdrew and formed their own church sanctuaries like Bridge St. AWME Church, celebrating their 250th anniversary in 2016, older than America. From their pulpit at 309 Bridge St. on February 19, 1863, Frederick Douglass rallied his people to fight for freedom, on Lincoln’s side in the Civil War; and he also admonished America to live up to its creed. So many anonymous giants have led Black Brooklyn to today’s time and place in our history. For those of us here and now, we owe a tribute to our ancestors. Let us continue the work they began, and strive as they did, through blood, sweat and tears, with our time, talent and treasure, to make Black Brooklyn a more glorious place than we found it, for the benefit of ourselves and our future generations.

(Sources: Brooklyn Historical Society and Weekesville Heritage Center Exhibition (http://pursuitoffreedom.org): In Pursuit Of Freedom, Brooklyn Abolitionists. 2012. And Archives, Bridge St. AWME Church, Rev. David Cousin, Pastor; Board Of Trustees.)

John Louis Flateau, Ph.D.

John Flateau Enterprises, Inc.

Brooklyn, New York

Acknowledgements

I give thanks to the Creator for sustaining me on a journey to achieve a new millennium Ph.D. Standing on the shoulders of my African ancestors and others, I have had great role models to emulate. I especially thank my wife Lorraine, and our children Jonathan, Marcus and Chaunee for their love, understanding and support. Older generations, uncles, aunts, cousins, siblings, Deans and doctors, and their achievements set the bar high. I thank my grandparents, Daniel and May, Albert and Mathilde; my parents Jeanne and Sidney; six great brothers and sisters, Sidney, Anne, Alice, Adele, Richard, and Andrea. Adele and Andrea especially were of special support on this project. Thanks to my Bridge St. church family, community, neighbors, and friends who cheered me onward. Family inspired me to ‘hold it together’ through challenging times.

John Mollenkopf has been a great Advisor and mentor, highly accessible, and constantly challenges my intellect. Fran Piven is a great Reader, teacher and incisive critic. Marilyn Gittell gave me early research training and solid critiques, as did other Committee members Prof. Joyce Gelb and Phil Kasinitz. W. Ofuatey-Kodjoe, Christa Altenstetter, Andrew Polsky, Alan Di Gaetano, Roscoe Brown and other Grad Center faculty inspired me with their teaching. A special note to former and present EO’s for their support, W. Ofuatey-Kodjoe and Ruth O’Brien. Dr. Joe Pereira helped me navigate seas of census data. The US Census Bureau, the Center for Urban Research, CUNY Data Service, and Howard Samuels State Management Policy Center have given me great opportunities to develop my research.

My gratitude to David Dinkins, Mario Cuomo, Edison O. Jackson, and Al Vann, for the opportunity to serve and to learn. President Edison O. Jackson, Provost Dominic Nwasike, students, faculty at the diasporan citadel of Medgar Evers College have been inspirational and very supportive, with special thanks to my team, Tanya Jones, and Lateefah Bell. Marcella Maxwell, Amir Al-Islam, and Vincent Banrey egged me onward.

Discourse with Walter Stafford, Wilbur Rich, Marion Orr, and Angelo Falcon; Bill Lynch, Jerry Hudson, Esmeralda Simmons, James Steele, Greg Mayers, William Boone and others inform my thinking. I have been blessed withassociations with elected and appointed officials and their staffs, white, Black, Hispanic and Asian, federal, state and local, business, professional, religious and non-profit. I thank them all for allowing me into their worlds.

Student and community activism taught me early that all politics isn’t electoral. Everyday people and leaders of Brooklyn and beyond, compel me to tell this story. I thank 52 leaders of Black Brooklyn who shared their inner thoughts, critiques and aspirations. Kathe Newman, Francois Pierre-Louis, Carol Archer, Robert Lindsay, Phil Thompson, Ron Hayduk, Lorraine Minnite; Merih Anil, Arielle Goldberg, Thomas Soehl, Leslie Hirsch, Antoinette Pole, Maggie Gray, Robert Biondi and other Grad Center colleagues have helped me along the way.

Again, thank you to John Mollenkopf, advisor, mentor, master teacher of urban politics, and task master on this mind expanding journey. He and Fran Piven guided me across the finish line. To all, I say thank you!

John Louis Flateau

April 2005

Chapter 1

Black Brooklyn: The Politics of Ethnicity, Class, and Gender Introduction, Literature Review, and Theoretical Framework

Drawing upon the scholarly literature on urban politics, racial and ethnic politics, Black politics, Caribbean immigration, minority incorporation theory and linked fate theory, this dissertation will examine Black political development in Brooklyn, New York. This study will focus empirically on the following questions: a) what are the main dimensions of Black Brooklyn’s dramatically changing community demographics; b) what impacts do these growing complexities have on the political behavior of the Black Brooklyn electorate and its key constituent groups, African Americans and West Indians; and c) how are the current generation of Black elected officials managing these political challenges in the quest for minority incorporation?

This project uses a three pronged approach to answer these questions: analyzing census demographics in local communities; undertaking quantitative analysis of election results; and contextualizing that analysis with qualitative field research. This project seeks to determine how evolving patterns of Black ethnicity, an increasingly diverse class structure, and growing gender and family differences have led to the emergence of a more complex Black electorate whose heterogeneous voting patterns have important implications for Black political competition, development and coalition politics.

The central focus of this study is how changing patterns of ethnicity, class and gender are shaping Black political behavior and development. Five reasons underscore why this is important to the study of urban politics, racial and