Al Vann: Read This List. Your Street May be Named After a Slave Holder

We should give thanks to Councilman Al Vann for again raising the issue of the naming of Bedford-Stuyvesant's streets and avenues.

Councilman Vann's office has put together a list of Bed-Stuy's byways, with accompanying brief bios of the historical figures whose names now grace the street signs.

The irony here is that many of the figures were slave holder and slave traders.

Vann acknolwedges having a political as well as historical motive in putting this list together. He still is piqued that the City Council thwarted the wishes of himself and Councilman Charles Barron to have a section of Gates Avenue named after the late black activist Sonny Carson.

And so in making the case that many of Bed-Stuy's street names have, let's say, sullied backgrounds, he's also making the argument that the names should be, in many cases, changed.

In the newsletter that the Councilman sent out to his constituents, listing the streets names and their origins, he also included a list of black "heroes" and "sheroes" who would make honorable replacements.

We took it upon ourselves to add to that latter list the name of the late Bertram L. Baker, who was the first black elected official in Brooklyn (having won a seat to the State Assembly in 1948) and who lived for half a century on Jefferson Avenue and died right in his house there, a house which (in the words of Councilman Barron) is named after "a slave-holding pedophile."

We should also disclose here that Bert Baker was an honored ancestor of ours.

But more on all this later.

For now, those who care about Bed-Stuy should go through the following list of names and bio sketches that we put into a Web format, and find out which historical figures were slave holders, slave traders, anti-slavery heroes, or mere innocent bystanders.

Note: Keep in mind that in recent years the names of some Bed-Stuy streets - and parts of some other streets - have been renamed.

For example, Sumner Avenue was renamed Marcus Garvey Blvd.

We think this was a strange re-naming because Charles Sumner, the 19th century figure after whom the street was originally named, was one of the strongest anti-slavery politicians of his day. Go figure.

Be that as it may, enjoy the research.

Simply click the link just under this sentence, and then find and click the street name you want to investigate.

 

Bainbridge Street Brevoort Place Chauncey Street Claver Place Clifton Place Decatur Street Dekalb Avenue Franklin Avenue Fulton Street Gates Avenue Greene Avenue Halsey Street Hancock Street Hart Street Herkimer Street Irving Place Jefferson Avenue Lafayette Avenue   Lefferts Place Lewis Avenue MacDonough Street Macon Street Madison Street Marcy Avenue Monroe Street Nostrand Avenue Pulaski Street Putnam Avenue Quincy Street Sandford Street Stuyvesant Avenue Sumner Avenue Throop Avenue Tompkins Avenue Van Buren Street Willoughby Avenue ≈

Comments

[Dominic Ambrose]

I don’t understand why Claver Place and Tompkins Avenue are on this list. St. Peter Claver dedicated his life to giving solace to the African slaves in Latin America, and Governor Tompkins was the driving force behind the abolition of slavery in New York State.

[JAMROCWNZ]

OH AND BYTHEWAY....WE LOVE AL VANN. HOW MANY YEARS DID YOU SAY HE HAS BEEN IN OFFICE? SO YOU CAN COUNT EH? WELL SINCE YOU CAN COUNT, MAYBE YOU CAN DO SOME SIMPLE THOUGHT PROCESSING AS IN "WHY HE IS STILL IN OFFICE?" OBVIOUSLY WE WANT HIM THERE AND YOU CANNOT DO ANYTHING BUT CRY. WE ALSO DEEPLY LOVED SONNY CARSON, JUST AS MUCH AS OUR EX-PRESIDENT THE SLAVE HOLDER JEFFERSON DEEPLY LOVED HIS SLAVE TO THE POINT OF BREEDING HER, OVER AND OVER AGAIN. THERE REALLY SHOULD BE A STATUE FOR SIR CARSON. BE AN ADULT AND ADMIT YOUR BEEF IS REALLY A BLACK ONE AND NOTHING ELSE. NOW GO SIT IN A CORNER AND CONTINUE WATCHING "US" WIN THE RACE.

[ricland]

Brooklyn is one of the lst places where Al Vann's brand of Mau-Mau politics still holds swing.

Having been born and raised in Bed-Stuy it shames me to read about the antics these so-called "black leaders" are still pulling.

The 60s is over. Why is Al Vann et al still Mau-Mauing? Why don't they get a life? Why don't they grow up?

I can accept Harlem's "Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard", Garvey Park, or MLK street, but, No! I don't want a main thorough-fare like Gates Ave re-named Sonny Abubadika Carson, mainly because it's disruptive and stupid and stokes unneeded racial animus.

It also shows how irresponsible race-baiting leaders can be. If you must name a street after Sonny Carson, name a side street where the impact will be minimal, don't name a street that will cause thousands of businesses money to get their letterhead changed. Don't pick a street that will cause millions to get maps changed, confuse delivery men, get mailed sent to the wrong place, baffle visitors looking for landmarks on Gates Ave. The list goes on and on.

Tody it's these race hucksters on the city council who refuse to get along with their white counterparts that are the problem. They're no better than skin-heads and Kluxers. Calling Jefferson a pedophile and slave-owner is not insightful and orignal, it's a guy looking to use race as a weapon.

Here in Cincinnti we kicked three Al Vann types off the City Council and it was the best thing we ever did. Everyone has been getting along with each other wonderfully ever since.

So it must be something in the drinking water in Black Brooklyn because even people who should know better like Spike Lee deal in the Mau-Mauing crap.

Not once did Obama play the race card when he was in Congress, why can't politicians like Al Vann learn from this?

Obama is the future not these people running around naming streets after Sonny Abubadika Carson.

ricland

[ricland]

Al Vann has been using none-issues like this to stay in office for over 30 years.

And we've seen this kind of idiocy in Atlanta where streets with perfectly good names were mangled to names like "Dr. Rev Jeremiah Jackson, III"

Then when they ran out of black reverends to re-name streets after they started using the names of black female educators, you know, the ones with two surnames -- "Dr. Willimina-Mae Stewart-Johnson Avenue"

The boneheads in the city council didn't care about the havoc these ridiculous names caused for police, fireman, taxi-drivers, newcomers, etc, they just wanted all their friends and relatives to have streets named after them.

And the question "Is your street named after a slave owner?" is pure Al Vann hucksterism -- selfish self-interest cloaked as black pride.

And you better believe the moment he gets the right to change the names, his mammy, daddy, preacher, girlfriends and everybody else he can shoehorn in will be at the top of the list.

I was raised on Bainbridge, Decatur, Styvesant and several other streets, and no, I don't want Al Vann messing with those names. I like them.

[Ron Howell]

Thanks much for sharing that.

Just yesterday I had the small victory of winning in traffic court against a police officer who, in some ways like the ones you referred, was just trying to stick someone, preferably someone of color, on a traffic device violation.

He didn't count on someone being able to put together a case to prove he was lying, however.

And there was great satisfaction in doing that in front of an audience and a traffic court judge who otherwise would be very much inclined to take an officer's word against just about anyone.

Thanks again for the interesting comment.

--Ron

[Richard Rodriguez]

The political and historical motive of defining these streets after black “heroes” and “sheheroes” is brilliant. Thanks so much for making an online version of these street names.

I remember seeing members of the community putting up the Sonny Abubadika Carson Avenue signs just before Super Tuesday. It was a wonderful sight to see.

I hope you don’t mind me sharing a story here (I don’t want to get too off topic), but I actually received a ticket for putting up Obama posters on Marcy & Gates while the police were out in full force watching the group that day. As they were writing me a ticket, one of the officers was taunting me as to why I had moved to the neighborhood (informing me that it was not smart of me to do) and instigated that it was foolish of me to be putting up posters for Obama. Another officer said they would not have stopped be but because they were keeping an eye on the “group wanting to rename the street after an anti-white criminal,” any smaller violation they came across would help make them appear they were not solely out because of the protesters.