Strong Island Page #2

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Transit Authority

to become a motorman...

but he could still go to school.

Then you were born.

When Lauren was born,

he was overjoyed.

He was overjoyed.

But as you guys grew,

you were so rambunctious.

We were looking for an apartment.

We looked in Brooklyn.

Nothing that we found

did your father like.

He did not like anything that we found.

I must not have spoken to him

for a month, OK?

I would put pillows

in the middle of the bed,

because it meant that

we had to keep looking,

and at the time, I did not know

how dead set he was

on moving to Long Island.

My father drove the J Train,

which ran on a loop through

some of the

toughest neighborhoods

in the city.

From his motorman's

cabin, he saw a

very different New York

than my mother.

He saw poverty, and crime,

and violence,

and a rapidly declining city.

My father was not a fearful man.

He was a realist.

He had already gotten out

of the Jim Crow South in one piece,

and he didn't want to put

his family or our future at risk.

We came out one Saturday,

and met Sam McCollough.

Nice, you know. He lived in the community.

He was the agent for the company

that bought this land

and built the houses.

I was told later

that they wanted to attract...

people who were employed

by the city, you know,

whom they thought could afford the homes.

A lot of... African Americans

were moving out to Long Island.

Civil servants, like bus drivers,

police officers, correction officers...

and they would put them in pockets,

or neighborhoods in the different towns.

You could go to certain towns...

go to Deer Park and find the same "new D,"

Amityville, find the same "new D,"

but all the rest of Long Island

was, you know, predominantly white.

So in that one neighborhood,

it was a haven.

When you would go out, you know...

you might be running back for your life,

you know?

Growing up

in a new development, a "new D"...

was beautiful.

It was wonderful.

It was safe.

I really,

really did not like it.

Everybody was black.

- You think that

was an accident?

- Of course not.

But...

I guess...

not having grown up...

in a home that belonged to us as a family,

I wanted to ensure

that you guys had it differently.

This has been our home:

147 Cone Avenue, Central Islip.

When they moved to the neighborhood

where I grew up in Central Islip,

it was essentially moving back

into a segregated community.

Segregation draws a line

around not just your neighborhood,

but your life.

"Sorry, you can't have more.

Sorry, you can't earn more.

You can't shop here.

You can't live here. You can't move here.

This is it for you."

While the houses were

affordably priced, it was deceptive.

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