Black Brooklyn

Black Brooklyn: The Politics of Ethnicity, Class and Gender, is a story about the oldest, largest, most diverse Black urban community in North America. With a million people in nine communities and nearly a half million voters, it has impacted county, State and national elections and public policy. This work analyzes Black Brooklyn along the lines of its ethnic similarities and differences; socio-economic class, gender and intergenerational dynamics; and other internal and external influences. Using historical analysis, elite interviews and election and demographic analysis, this work shows how these factors influence the political behaviors of African Americans and Caribbean Americans: who they vote for (candidate choice); their levels of political participation (voter turnout); and why, they vote the way they do. Soon, 80 percent of the world population will reside in cities, largely of color. Better understanding urban democracies, their people, politics and governance is a key to sustainable cities of the future. This Black Brooklyn study provides a solid path to the future. Visit www.johnflateau.com

In addition, they endorsed the education of the clergy, thereby demonstrating to American society at large that African Americans possessed the sophistication and the means to pursue and to promote culture.

Boss of Black Brooklyn presents a riveting and untold story about the struggles and achievements of the first black person to hold public office in Brooklyn. Bertram L. Baker immigrated to the United States from the Caribbean island of Nevis in 1915. Three decades later, he was elected to the New York state legislature, representing the Bedford Stuyvesant section. A pioneer and a giant, Baker has a story that is finally revealed in intimate and honest detail by his grandson Ron Howell. Boss of Black Brooklyn begins with the tale of one man’s rise to prominence in a fascinating era of black American history, a time when thousands of West Indian families began leaving their native islands in the Caribbean and settling in New York City. In 1948, Bert Baker was elected to the New York state assembly, representing the growing central Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford Stuyvesant. Baker loved telling his fellow legislators that only one other Nevisian had ever served in the state assembly. That was Alexander Hamilton, the founding father. Making his own mark on modern history, Baker pushed through one of the nation’s first bills outlawing discrimination in the sale or rental of housing. Also, for thirty years, from 1936 to 1966, he led the all-black American Tennis Association, as its executive secretary. In that capacity he successfully negotiated with white tennis administrators, getting them to accept Althea Gibson into their competitions. Gibson then made history as the first black champion of professional tennis. Yet, after all of Baker’s wonderful achievements, little has been written to document his role in black history. Baker represents a remarkable turning point in the evolution of modern New York City. In the 1940s, when he won his seat in the New York state assembly, blacks made up only 4 percent of the population of Brooklyn. Today they make up a third of the population, and there are scores of black elected officials. Yet Brooklyn, often called the capital of the Black Diaspora, is a capital under siege. Developers and realtors seeking to gentrify the borough are all but conspiring to push blacks out of the city. A very important and long-overdue book, Boss of Black Brooklyn not only explores black politics and black organizations but also penetrates Baker’s inner life and reveals themes that resonate today: black fatherhood, relations between black men and black women, faithfulness to place and ancestry. Bertram L. Baker’s story has receded into the shadows of time, but Boss of Black Brooklyn recaptures it and inspires us to learn from it.

BEER SCHOOL Beer School Bottling Success at the Brooklyn Brewery What do you get when you cross a journalist and a banker? A brewery, of course. “A great city should have great beer. New York finally has, thanks to Brooklyn. Steve Hindy and Tom Potter provided it. Beer School explains how they did it: their mistakes as well as their triumphs. Steve writes with a journalist’s skepticism—as though he has forgotten that he is reporting on himself. Tom is even less forgiving—he’s a banker, after all. The inside story reads at times like a cautionary tale, but it is an account of a great and welcome achievement.” —Michael Jackson, The Beer Hunter “An accessible and insightful case study with terrific insight for aspiring entrepreneurs. And if that’s not enough, it is all about beer!” —Professor Murray Low, Executive Director, Lang Center for Entrepreneurship, Columbia Business School “Great lessons on what every first-time entrepreneur will experience. Being down the block from the Brooklyn Brewery, I had firsthand witness to their positive impact on our community. I give Steve and Tom’s book an A++!” —Norm Brodsky, Senior Contributing Editor, Inc. magazine “Beer School is a useful and entertaining book. In essence, this is the story of starting a beer business from scratch in New York City. The product is one readers can relate to, and the market is as tough as they get. What a fun challenge! The book can help not only those entrepreneurs who are starting a business but also those trying to grow one once it is established. Steve and Tom write with enthusiasm and insight about building their business. It is clear that they learned a lot along the way. Readers can learn from these lessons too.” —Michael Preston, Adjunct Professor, Lang Center for Entrepreneurship, Columbia Business School, and coauthor, The Road to Success: How to Manage Growth “Although we (thankfully!) never had to deal with the Mob, being held up at gunpoint, or having our beer and equipment ripped off, we definitely identified with the challenges faced in those early days of cobbling a brewery together. The revealing story Steve and Tom tell about two partners entering a business out of passion, in an industry they knew little about, being seriously undercapitalized, with an overly naive business plan, and their ultimate success, is an inspiring tale.” —Ken Grossman, founder, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

In this book, the authors “revisit” two iconic Brooklyn neighborhoods, Crown Heights-Prospect-Lefferts Gardens and Greenpoint-Williamsburg, where they have been active scholars since the 1970s. Krase and DeSena's comprehensive view from the street describes and analyses the neighborhoods' decline and rise with a focus on race and social class. They look closely at the strategies used to resist and promote neighborhood change and conclude with an analysis of the ways in which these neighborhoods contribute to current images and trends in Brooklyn. This book contributes to a better understanding of the elevated status of Brooklyn as a global city and destination place.

Winner of the 2014 Robert W. Peterson Award for Excellence in Negro League Research from the Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference, sponsored by Negro Leagues Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research Roberta J. Newman and Joel Nathan Rosen have written an authoritative social history of the Negro Leagues. This book examines how the relationship between black baseball and black businesses functioned, particularly in urban areas with significant African American populations—Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Newark, New York, Philadelphia, and more. Inextricably bound together by circumstance, these sports and business alliances faced destruction and upheaval. Once Jackie Robinson and a select handful of black baseball’s elite gained acceptance in Major League Baseball and financial stability in the mainstream economy, shock waves traveled throughout the black business world. Though the economic impact on Negro League baseball is perhaps obvious due to its demise, the impact on other black-owned businesses and on segregated neighborhoods is often undervalued if not outright ignored in current accounts. There have been many books written on great individual players who played in the Negro Leagues and/or integrated the Major Leagues. But Newman and Rosen move beyond hagiography to analyze what happens when a community has its economic footing undermined while simultaneously being called upon to celebrate a larger social progress. In this regard, Black Baseball, Black Business moves beyond the diamond to explore baseball’s desegregation narrative in a critical and wide-ranging fashion.

As an avid biker, photographer Martin Dixon has gained unprecedented access to the predominantly African-American motorcycle clubs in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Manhattan. Through his spectacular insider perspective, readers enter a world straddling the customs and trappings of traditional biker culture and the rituals and pastimes of the urban biker, the likes of which no outsider has ever documented. 70 duotones.