Brooklyn
fromBrownstoner
2 weeks agoBrooklyn News: Memories of Bed Stuy's Jefferson Avenue
Brooklyn highlights: historic homes and renovations, listings from $269K to $3.995M, Bertram L. Baker family story, and Prospect Park–facing co-op.
Here I am, 76 years old, grandson of the late Bertram L. Baker, the political pioneer who in 1948 became the very first Black person elected to office in the history of Brooklyn. Many tens of thousands of Blacks had lived in Brooklyn through the 1800s and into the first half of the 20th century. But it was this immigrant, born on the then British colony of Nevis in 1898, who made Brooklyn history, as the Black political pioneer.