"I Had Not Seen Women like That Before": Intergenerational Feminism in 's Tenant Movement Author(s): Roberta Gold Source: Feminist Studies, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Summer 2009), pp. 387-415 Published by: Feminist Studies, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40607974 Accessed: 18-12-2015 07:09 UTC

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This content downloaded from 128.6.218.72 on Fri, 18 Dec 2015 07:09:40 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions "I HadNot Seen Womenlike That Before": Intergenerationalfeminism in NewYork City's TenantMovement

RobertaGold

With the emergence of the women'sliberation movement in the late 1960sand early1970s, many young feminists went looking for a "usable past"of women'sachievement. In New York City,they did not have to look far.New York'stenant councils had, fordecades, operated under predominantlyfemale leadership. And in thelate 1960s,these organizations supporteda new wave of squattercampaigns aimed at relievingthe city's shortageof affordablehousing. As youngactivists rallied to supportthe squats,they encountered the seniorgeneration of femaleleaders who di- rectedlocal and citywidetenant groups. These older women became politi- cal mentorsto the young volunteers,providing them not only with expertiseon housingbut also with a modelof "actually existing feminism."1 This articleargues that the tenantstruggles of the 1960sand 1970s amplifiedthe women's liberationmovement in New York by linking youngfeminists with the Old Leftgeneration of female housing organiz- ers.Tenant campaigns served as a parallelspace, alongside other political movements,in whichwomen's leadershipcould and did flourish.The tenantstory adds to our understandingof Second Wave feminismby revealinga set of affectionatementoring relations between two genera- tionsof radicalfemale activists, thereby challenging many narratives of feministpoliticization that focus primarily on youngwomen's rejection of FeministStudies 35, no. 2 (Summer2009). © 2009by Roberta Gold 387

This content downloaded from 128.6.218.72 on Fri, 18 Dec 2015 07:09:40 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 388 RobertaGold what came before,be it postwardomesticity, liberal feminism, or New Leftsexism.2 The seniortenant leaders were not entirelyanomalous. Recent schol- arshiphas identifieda cohortof unsungorganizers of the mid-twentieth century,people who keptthe Popular Front flame from dying out during the cold war and passed it along to activistswho ignitedthe political upheavalsof the late 1950s,1960s, and 1970s.3But althoughtenant history extendsthese narratives, italso departsfrom them, particularly with regard to whatmight be called "politicalintentionality." In moststories of cold warconnections, the struggles young people took up werethe very strug- glesthe seniorcohort had intendedto foster.That is,postwar civil rights activistspaved the way forsubsequent civil rights campaigns, cold war feministstrategies informed Second Wave feminism, and so forth.In New York'stenant arena, by contrast,senior organizers did not set out in a programmaticway to advanceone of the major developments-women's power-that would inspiretheir young recruits. Instead, they were con- cernedwith housing-both a universalneed and, ironically,an entity locatedin the "domesticsphere" of conventionalgender ideology. But theirwork nonetheless presented a model of "on-the-ground"women's activism,which complemented the more self-consciouswomen's libera- tionmovement that exploded on theU.S. politicalstage just as thesquatter actionscaught fire. Thus, older tenantleaders' contribution to Second Wavefeminism was largelyan unintendedconsequence of theirwork on thefront lines of struggle over tenant rights versus property rights. The older tenantorganizers had picked up a torch,or at least an ember,from the working-classand antiracisttradition that Dorothy Sue Cobblehas dubbed"labor feminism."4 Many of these organizers had been activein Left-wingunions during the 1940s,and as mid-centurytenant leadersthey had continuedto place poor people'sneeds, along with New York'spioneering antidiscrimination laws and ghettohousing struggles, at the top of theiragenda. The squatteractions of the 1970scarried on thesetraditions: the movementwas genuinelymultiracial, and squatter familieswere virtually all poor. Such demographicscreated another contrast between the squatter campaignsand more typicalwomen's politics, often characterized by a

This content downloaded from 128.6.218.72 on Fri, 18 Dec 2015 07:09:40 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions RobertaGold 389 mutuallyfrustrating split between predominantly white, middle-class feminists,on theone hand,and minorityand working-classfeminists, on the other.The parallelspace of New York'ssquatter movement offered local feministsan alternativeto suchpolitical fragmentation. Here, young activistsnot onlyinherited a set of older,class-conscious feminist men- tors,they also came into a fieldof organizingthat centeredon low- income,racially diverse participants. And theirdemand for renters' rights challengedone ofpostwar America's most powerful class and racialstrati- fyingmechanisms: the real estateindustry.5 Squatter struggles thus be- came both a trainingground in whichPopular Front veterans nurtured the next generationof activistsand a venue in which these activists pursueda remarkablyintegrated vision of class, racial, and genderjustice.

The Postwar Tenant Movement Manytenant leaders of the early1960s had been schooledin the Popular Frontstruggles of the 1930sand 1940s.During those years, tenant organiz- ing was closelyconnected to a densenetwork of laborunions and leftist politicalformations, especially the CommunistParty (CP) and, in New YorkCity, the (ALP). Although tenant associations did not usuallyestablish formal ties with these larger groups, they often sharedcadre and politicalagendas. The basicunits of tenantorganization were local ones: buildingand neighborhoodcouncils, which thrivedespecially in highlypoliticized areassuch as the LowerEast Side and Harlem.These groups,often led by women,mobilized rent strikes and staffed"rent clinics" where knowl- edgeablevolunteers helped individualtenants assert their legal rights. Such activitiesmeshed with the work of the largerLeft. Communists, for example,regularly provided street muscle to forestallevictions during the Depression,and ALP veteransstaffed many 1940srent clinics.6In the formalpolitical arena as well,early postwar tenant groups joined labor, liberal,and leftistorganizations to lobbyfor three critical policies: rent control,public housing, and buildingcode enforcement. The 1950sbrought a new threatto cityresidents: "urban renewal." This federallysubsidized program was billedas an answerto tenantand leftistgroups' longstanding call for"slum clearance," that is, the develop-

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mentof affordable modern housing in lieu ofdecrepit tenements. But due to bothconservative provisions in the 1949federal statute and themachi- nationsof New York'spublic works czar, , "urban renewal" projectsin New York did nothingto improvepoor people's housing. Instead,they led to thedemolition of many working-class neighborhoods; thedislocation of 500,000 New Yorkers;and the replacementof their low- renthomes with highways,middle-income housing, and elite cultural facilitiessuch as Lincoln Center. Moses's wreckersshowed a special penchantfor razing black and integratedareas, prompting critics to dub theprogram "Negro removal." Tenants' power to resistthese projects was limited,as urban renewaladvocates successfully promoted redevelop- mentas "progress,"and McCarthyitepolitics decimated the city'sleftist unionsand parties.7 But ultimatelythe wave of urbanrenewal evictions galvanized the city'stenant movement. By the late 1950s,local organizers,mainly women, were rallyingresidents against urban renewal in severalneighborhoods. Theseorganizers began meeting to planstrategy, and in 1959they formally constitutedthemselves as a citywidecoalition, the MetropolitanCouncil on Housing("Met Council"for short). Met Councilleaders would playa criticalrole in supportingthe squatter actions that broke out in 1970.

Practical Feminism At firstMet Council's founderstook turnsleading meetings, but soon theychose a chair,Jane Benedict. A childof liberal German , she had studiedEnglish at Cornell,joined the Book and Magazine Guild, and therefallen in witha crowdof idealistic Depression-era Communists, the mostdashing of whom she married.Through the 1940sshe held leader- shippositions in her union. Then she steppeddown to care forher two youngchildren but beganvolunteering with the local ALP club to keep one footin politics.Making the partyrounds in blue-collarYorkville, toddlersin tow,Benedict learned firsthand about the conditions-heat- lessapartments, shared toilets-in New York'stenement housing.8 But somethingworse was in storefor Benedict's neighbors. In the mid-1950s,local tenantsstarted "coming into the ALP saying,'Oh my God, the landlord says he's going to tear the house down.'" Urban

This content downloaded from 128.6.218.72 on Fri, 18 Dec 2015 07:09:40 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions RobertaGold 391 renewal had arrivedin Yorkville. With thousands of local people facing eviction,Benedict organized the YorkvilleSave Our Homes Committee to resistthe wreckingball.9 A few miles downtown, tenants were also girding for a fight.The was a leftiststronghold-a working-class, integrated, largely immigrant neighborhood where international and homegrown traditionsof struggleenjoyed a symbioticrelationship. Frances Goldin had moved there fromQueens in 1944,and she "feltlike [she] had moved into heaven." A daughter of Russian Jews,Goldin had befriendedCommunists at her shippingjob, joined the party,and studied Marx at the CP's Jefferson School. "And I was hot to trot.I was going to have in my time." Aftermarrying a comrade and setting up housekeeping in , Goldin visitedthe Lower East Side Tenant and Consumer Council (which shared officeswith the local ALP) to check on the legalityof her rent.The volunteers asked her to help with other cases, and Goldin became a respectedtenant organizer.10 Goldin worked alongside Esther Rand, another downtown Com- munist whose passion, legal brilliance, and ornery disposition became legendaryin housing circles. "Oh, could she be nasty!" recalled Benedict. "But she was the spiritof that East Side branch." A housing judge once chided a landlord's attorney, who had disputed Rand's knowledge of housing statutes,by declaring, "If Esther Rand says that's the law, that's the law!"11 In the late 1950s,Goldin and Rand led the charge against an urban renewal proposal to raze six blocks of the Lower East Side's and replace them with a middle-income housing development. Or- ganizersformed a committee; invitedbroad participationby residentsand businessowners; and, with guidance froma maverickcity planner, hashed out an alternativeredevelopment plan that promised to re-house all origi- nal residentsin sound but affordableunits on the site.12 Goldin and Rand helped found Met Council.13At the nascent coali- tion's meetingsthey were joined by yet another Old Leftveteran, Chelsea organizer Jane Wood. Wood was a St. Louis native and Smith graduate who had moved to New York in 1930and joined the ALP.HGoing door to door for the partyin the 1940s,the young volunteer found dismal condi-

This content downloaded from 128.6.218.72 on Fri, 18 Dec 2015 07:09:40 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 392 RobertaGold tionsin local tenementsand began talkingwith people about housing. Her collegeSpanish helped her forge especially close tieswith the many Latinossettling in Chelsea.An activistneighbor later recalled, "We in the Latinocommunity felt she was one ofus." Quietlyand tenaciously,Wood builta neighborhoodtenant network.15 Benedict,Goldin, Rand, and Woodformed the core of leadership that wouldguide Met Councilthrough its first decade and beyond.All veteran Communistsor "fellowtravelers," they imparted to the organizationa beliefin grassrootsstruggle and a criticalview of the capitalisthousing industry.Rand's signature saying was, "Landlords are not thelords of the land;they are the scum of the earth." They also broughtto Met Council a creedthat was less fullydevel- oped in the Marxiantradition, something that might be called "practical feminism."Battling landlords in citycourtrooms and leadingdemonstra- tionsin thestreets, these women did not conformto thedomestic model offemininity promoted by cold warpundits. Although the object of their struggles-people's homes- might count as "women'ssphere," the terrain on whichthey fought lay squarelyin the politicalarena. These women did not takeup feminismexplicitly, or as theirprimary political affiliation. But none of them doubted theirfitness to take action in the "man's world"of politics. How had theyarrived at this unorthodoxsense of capability?All adventurousas young adults,they had foundunusually fertile soil for theiractivist impulses in the world of leftistpolitics. The CP was no paragonof sex equality,but it did devotetheoretical attention to "the woman question" and fostereda practicalarena forwomen's political activism.Historian Ellen Schreckersuggests that women in the party's orbit"constituted a kind of missinggeneration within American femi- nism."Moreover, most of the core Met Councilwomen had beenushered into masculine arenas of work or union leadershipas a resultof the "manpowershortage" during World War II. In a sensethey belonged to thelarger saga of Rosie the Riveter. But unlikethe many Rosies who were firedin 1945,these leftistwomen maintainedtheir political trajectory throughthe cold war-ashousing organizers.16

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Community and Its Contents During the 1960s,New Yorkersmounted a seriesof new tenant and communitystruggles that partook of nationwideradical movements but also reflectedNew York's unique tenanthistory and resilientOld Left. Two suchstruggles in particularpresaged the squatter movement. The firstunfolded uptown in responseto yetanother bulldozer plan, thisone forMorningside Heights. Here, however, the tenants' chief antag- onistwas not citygovernment but a consortiumof educational, medical, and religiousinstitutions led byColumbia University, which had foryears beenbuying up and convertinglocal properties.In 1961,tenants in seven buildingson MorningsideDrive receivedeviction notices, and one of them,Marie Runyon, began urging her neighbors to fightback. At firstglance an unlikelyorganizer for a multiracialneighborhood- she hailedfrom a conservative,poor, whitefamily in NorthCarolina- Runyonhad been "leaning"toward social change since her 1930sstint at the progressiveBerea College. In 1946she came to New York,which she lovedimmediately, and founda job in journalism.After a marriage,child- birth,and divorceleft her in need of moreincome, she becameassistant membershipdirector at the AmericanCivil LibertiesUnion. There she learnedthe skills of organizing and continuedto gravitatetoward the Left. Despite"strong socialist leanings," she neveractually joined the CP but added,"Don't say that,because it's none of anybody'sgoddamned busi- ness."17By 1961,Runyon had joinedMet Council. Now she forgeda tenant-studentalliance to fight"institutional ex- pansion"throughout Morningside Heights. Through amateur sleuthing she learnedthat her real landlord(hidden behind a paper corporation) was ColumbiaUniversity and won a courtorder to haltdemolition. How- ever, because MorningsideHeights tenants (unlike Cooper Square activists)were fighting against private owners, they could exertlittle lever- age, usuallywinning eviction delays rather than lastingvictories. But as Columbia'scampus Left gained steam, Runyon directed students' atten- tiontoward the university'sexpansionist plan to build a privategymna- sium in MorningsidePark, a cityproperty that lay betweenthe campus and Harlem.18Students for a DemocraticSociety and the StudentAfro- AmericanSociety escalated protests at Columbia in the springof 1968,

This content downloaded from 128.6.218.72 on Fri, 18 Dec 2015 07:09:40 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 394 RobertaGold denouncingthe "GymCrow" plan and scufflingwith police guarding the constructionsite. The protestand the media attentionit garneredper- suaded administratorsto abandon the park plan and build a gym on campus- a heartening,if largelysymbolic, victory for Morningside Heightstenants. As local activistsflexed muscle, they also advanceda creativeideology of urbancitizenship and rights.Runyon, like the Cooper Square leaders, spoke of New York'sneighborhoods as "communities"that possessed a moralright to securehousing. This diction challenged postwar America's prevailingrhetoric of "urbanblight" and "slums"with a depictionof low- incomeneighborhoods as vibrant,organic social formations. Runyon also counteredthe postwar ideology of homeownership as thebasis of citizen- ship.At one meeting,she describedher neighbors'years in the area as "a lot of investment,a lot of roots,"which in turnentitled them to stable homes in MorningsideHeights.19 Here tenants'historical investment of livingtogether as neighborsfigured as a kindof "investment"that went deeperthan owners' outlay for land. The second prefigurativecampaign involved a seriesof takeovers stagedby young radicals of color. The Black Panthersand Young Lords partiessaw theurban ghettos of the United States not justas communities but as "internalcolonies" striving to liberatethemselves, as Africa'sinde- pendentnations had recentlydone. New York'sBlack Panthers chapters organizedin 1968and providedfree breakfasts, health clinics, and support forthe burgeoning"community control" movement among parentsof schoolchildrenand otherpublic service recipients. Extending this strategy into the sphereof housing,Black Panthersthen went into crumbling Bronxneighborhoods, where many landlords had abandonedproperties ratherthan pay forupkeep, and organizedresidents to take chargeof buildingsand theirmaintenance. Finally, with the aid of progressive doctors,the group raisedthe alarm on a little-publicizedbut urgent ghettohousing problem: lead poisoning from peeling paint.20 The Young LordsParty was a kindred-spiritorganization of Puerto Ricanradicals, many with experience in Waron Povertyprojects. In July 1969they made their street debut with a "GarbageOffensive," sweeping up EastHarlem's street refuse and dumpingit at a local highwayentrance to

This content downloaded from 128.6.218.72 on Fri, 18 Dec 2015 07:09:40 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions RobertaGold 395 call attentionto the city'sdismal sanitation service. Their subsequent "Lead Initiative"took on both officialsand landlords,as partymembers "liberated"forty thousand lead-testing kits that the cityhad warehoused and took them door to door in to publicize the poison epidemic.21 Notwithstandingtheir macho iconography,both the Black Panthers and Young Lordsorganizations in New Yorkfeatured a numberof wom- en leaderswho focusedon housingactions. Prominent Black Panther AfeniShakur organizedtenant takeovers in neglectedbuildings in the Bronx,as didCleo Silvers,a fellowparty member who had begunhousing work as a War on Povertyvolunteer. Amid turmoilin the local Black Pantherschapter, she was "transferred"in 1970into the Young Lords, whereshe joinedIris Morales, Denise Oliver,and GloriaCruz, all strong feminists,in workingon leadpaint and healthcareproblems.22

Casa Libre Sound healthcare,clean streets,safe walls, and open parks: together thesemade up a sum of wholesomeliving conditions that New York's ghettoresidents, through their late 1960sprotests, claimed as a basic right.But thoseactions did not addressthe linchpinof slum economics: New YorkCity's dearth of affordable housing. In 1970that changed when a new breedof activists,organized squatters, embarked on the "libera- tion"of housing itself. The casusbelli was a new wave ofevictions that reached crisis propor- tionsin the late 1960s.As slumlords'abandonment of ghettohousing startedto garnerheadlines, sharp-eyed New Yorkersdiscerned something elsebelow the radar: a surprisingnumber of sound, rent-controlled build- ingsin New Yorkstood vacant,notwithstanding the shortage.Far from abandoned,these properties were being deliberatelyemptied by their ownersin preparationfor luxury renovation or institutionalrazing. Because rentcontrol applied only to unitsbuilt before 1947, landlords could oftenboost their profits by wrecking older buildings and replacing themwith new structures.They could also breakfree of rentcontrol by convertingto co-ops,which sold at handsomeprices. Meanwhile they mighthold apartments vacant for months or evenyears.

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These conditions set the stage for the squatter movement that seemedto eruptsuddenly in the springof 1970.Yet the movementwas not quite as spontaneousas it appeared.Although most squattershad littleexperience in tenantpolitics, they drew on the precedentof recent ghettotakeovers and on supportfrom seasoned tenant leaders, maverick povertywarriors, and dissidentcity officials. Withits strong visceral appeal- putting homeless people into vacant homesmade common sense-the wave of break-insserved to dramatize the dearthof low-costrentals in New York.And whereunusually mili- tantorganizing combined with exceptional proprietary circumstances, squatterscould createlasting homes. Where these factors were absent, however,property rights prevailed and squatterswere forced out. On MorningsideHeights the movement was jump-startedby Runyon and herallies in thestudent Left. Runyon knew about warehousing first- hand:by the late 1960sshe was thelast holdout at 130Morningside Drive. In 1968and 1969,Runyon led protestsover the hundredsof apartments she believedColumbia was holdingvacant. Then she brokeinto a large apartmentin her buildingto attractfurther publicity. Some months later,the United Bronx Parents- a militantpublic school alliancethat was loosely linkedwith Cleo Silvers'sBronx tenantgroups and the Black Panthers-put Runyon in touch with Juanita Kimble, an African Americanmother of ten whose familyhad been subsistingin dismal Bronx housing foryears. With Runyon's orchestration,the Kimbles movedinto 130Morningside Drive in May 1970,while neighbors helped and a newscrew filmed. "More important than anythingelse," Runyon recalled,"was thatthey had maybea halfa dozen kidswho looked like Black Panthers.Big, tough, shades, berets.Scared the bejesus out of Columbia!"After two months,Columbia finallyagreed to turnon the gas;a yearlater it offered Kimble a lease.23 As Morningsiderscourted the media, another group of homesteaders movedquietly thirty blocks downtown. The area betweenWest 87th and 95thstreets had becomean urbanpolicy battleground after vocal protests promptedofficials to designateit for a "progressive"form of urban renewalin 1958.Through the late 1960s,a varietyof local voiceshad vied fora say in the neighborhood'sfate, particularly its share of low-rent

This content downloaded from 128.6.218.72 on Fri, 18 Dec 2015 07:09:40 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions RobertaGold 397 housing.Met Council's WestSide affiliatescalled on the cityto declare receivershipof deteriorated buildings rather than knock them down. But the low-rentadvocates made littleheadway, and in the springof 1970 someof them took matters into their own hands.24 They called it OperationMove-In. Under cover of night,organizers froma local "anti-poverty"group installedlow-income families into sound but vacant buildingsthat the citywas planningto raze. These activistswere War on Povertymavericks- people like Silvers and theother Young Lords-who had concluded that the urban poor could not win theirwar by followingcity rules. Operation Move-In's leader, Bill Price, had tiesto Met Counciland knewRunyon. Asked what the tenants' most effectiveorganizing tool was,he responded,"a crowbar."By summerthe grouphad 150families in place. Most were AfricanAmerican or Latino; some had been doubled up or otherwiseprecariously housed foryears. Breakingthe law, one motherof eleven explained, "was the only way our familycould stay together."25 OperationMove-In proceeded under relatively green leadership, but the networkof veterantenant organizers quickly offered support and instigatedsimilar actions around the city.In Chelsea, Met Council founderWood helpedmore than fiftyPuerto Ricans settle into a vacant buildingon West15th Street where luxury conversions were under way. Acrosstown, Met Counciland CooperSquare leaderGoldin did thesame witha multiracialgroup. A fewblocks north, Goldin's friend,William Worthy-a longtimeradical and the New York correspondentfor the BaltimoreAfro- Ameri can- let fourfamilies of squattersinto the building wherehe servedas tenantchair. Meanwhile, Benedict established a "We Won'tMove" committeeto fightevictions, and Met Councilput aspiring squattersin touch with sympathizerswho could guide them toward vacancies.The old-timers'neighborhood networks allowed them to call out troopsat criticalmoments, and landlordsbecame overwhelmedby blockparties and communityrallies supporting the squats.26 The movementalso won supportfrom networks of radicalyouth of color. Kimblewas helpedinto her MorningsideHeights apartment not onlyby Black Panthers but also byYoung Lordsand a cadreof high school students,one ofwhom fixedthe lightsand plumbing.27Down in China-

This content downloaded from 128.6.218.72 on Fri, 18 Dec 2015 07:09:40 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 398 RobertaGold town the radicalChinese American party, I Wor Kuen ("Righteousand HarmoniousFists")-an ally of the Black Panthersand Young Lords- placedsquatters into vacant units that had beenbought up and purgedby theBell Telephone Company.28

Squatters, Sisters, and Seniors Squatteractions sparked particular interest among young white feminists. On theUpper West Side, a feministcollective "liberated" a storefrontand setup a women'scenter where local squatterscould "rap,exchange infor- mationon variouswomen's issues, exchange clothing, enjoy free dinners, and meettheir sisters to organize."Meanwhile, New York'sunderground feministjournal, Rat, devoted extensive coverage to the squattermove- mentand the largerhousing crisis. Photos showed the bannerson occu- pied buildings:"Territorio libre" "Hell no! We Won't Go." Editorsinvited readersto assistsquatters, organize rent strikes, and compilea "shit-list"of negligentlandlords.29 To youngfeminists, the move-inswere not just an objectof sympa- thybut also a sourceof inspiration.Founders of the WestSide Women's Centerconsciously followed the squatters'example of "liberating"space forthe people. Similarly,a Raí reporterwho interviewedKimble argued thatthe black woman's ties with local militantsunderlined "the need that we as whitewomen have to definea communityfor ourselves in which we can fighttogether and supporteach other."Kimble, a veteranof many battleswith housing, school, and welfareauthorities, described women's rolein thestruggle this way: "I justfeel that a womanis morestronger She can takemore, she can do more,a man . . . don't have the abilityto fight.. . . Womenare beingturned down, but we demand."The reporter quoted Kimbleat lengthto drivehome the lessonsfor Rat's predomi- nantlywhite female readers.30 These squatter-sisterinteractions cast lighton a subtlepattern of connectionbetween New York'stenant history and itsfeminist upsurge of the early1970s. Although women's liberation sprang from many sources, its New York incarnationdrew strength from the city'sunique tenant infrastructure.Local tenantgroups had maintaineda predominantly femaleleadership in the 1950sand early1960s. Thus, theyhad carvedout

This content downloaded from 128.6.218.72 on Fri, 18 Dec 2015 07:09:40 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions RobertaGold 399 an exceptionalpolitical space where Old Leftistscould carryon theirwork, and women'sauthority was not only tolerated but seen as normal. Then the 1960sinfused new blood fromthe civilrights and commu- nitymovements, complicating the racial, gender, and generational dynamicswithin the tenantstruggle. Relations between the new ghetto organizersand olderMet Councilleaders did not takethe form of simple intergenerationalsuccession: anticolonial radicals like the BlackPanthers and the Young Lordshardly saw themselvesas JaneBenedict's protégés, and, ifanything, they believed they could teach the older,mostly white "housers"a thingor two about makingrevolution. And women like Silversand Oliverwere more likely to turnto age-peersisters than to elders forsupport in demandinggender parity.31 But thenew ghetto movements nonethelessbenefited from the legal and political-culturalgroundwork- rentcontrol, receivership law, broad notions of housing rights- that New York'sOld Leftistshad laid, and thesemovements in turnproduced a second generationof femaleorganizers such as Silvers,Oliver, Shakur, and Morales.Meanwhile, in slightlylater multiracial tenant mobilizations of the 1960sand 1970s-theredevelopment struggles on Morningside Heightsand in CooperSquare, the squatter struggles in Chelseaand on the LowerEast Side- young, racially diverse activists both emulated the Black Panthersand Young Lordsand accepted the leadershipof seasonedwhite womenorganizers such as Runyon,Wood, Goldin, and Rand. As youngwomen across the countrysought new avenuesof struggle in the early 1970s,many of New York's nascent feministsgravitated towardthe tenantmovement. The intensityof the city'shousing crisis made tenantstruggles a "natural"object of interest for politicized youth. And themultiracial character of those struggles appealed to youngwhite feministswhose political touchstonewas the civil rightsmovement. Indeed,the Rafsadmiration for Kimble can be seen as a northernanalog ofthe awe thatyoung white women in theSouth felttoward courageous black"mamas."32 Runyon encouraged this identification when she called forvolunteers to fixup "Ma Kimble's"apartment on Mothers'Day. One hundredstudents showed up.33 Beyondfeeling such visceralties, young feminists discerned economic connectionsbetween housing and women'sstruggles. A Ratarticle enti-

This content downloaded from 128.6.218.72 on Fri, 18 Dec 2015 07:09:40 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 400 RobertaGold tied "WhyHousing Is a Women'sLiberation Issue" arguedthat the city's housingshortage weighed most heavilyon women,who rarelyearned enough to afforddecent accommodations on theirown. Consequently, theywere hard pressedto leave bad relationshipsor, ifsingle mothers, provideshelter for their children.34 Through housing activism, the West Side Women'sCenter collective sought to forgea feminismthat went beyondwhite, middle-class concerns. Thus,attracted by ideals and encouragedby Rat, a newwave of young, mostlywhite women becameinvolved with Met Council and its neigh- borhoodaffiliates.35 In turn, these Old Leftstrongholds provided a kindof feministapprenticeship that touched the young recruits both emotionally and politically.Benedict, Goldin, Rand, and Wood were a unique set of exemplars."I thoughtthey were amazing,"says Marge DuMond, who driftedinto Met Council in 1971,"and I recognizedthem as- almost anotherworld. ... In theway that they would tanglewith authority, and the way that theywould masterthe ins and outs of the law, and the history,just in such a rationaland bold way.I had not seen women like thatbefore." Claudia Mansbach, another 1970s recruit, recalls, "It was very inspiring,to see theseolder women with gray hair. . . . [Beforejoining Met Council],I didn'thave very many models of older women who werevital and powerfuland unafraidto standup at meetingsand saywhat had to be said."Susan Cohen, who cameinto Met Council while attending graduate school in the late 1960s,echoes thesethoughts: "They were wonderful role models,all of them.And theykind of showedyou what could be done. In the academicsetting, there I was beingtold thatI was a bad risk becauseI was a woman.And nobodyin housingtalked about that.They just did it. Here were these women that were doing thingsthat were makinga difference."36 The pragmaticnature of the olderwomen's modus operandi-their "just doingit"- should not obscureits feminist dimension. Unlike "maternal- ist" communityactivists of theirday, New York'ssenior tenant women did not shyaway from confrontation with gender norms. That is, they did not claimpolitical legitimacy because they were mothers or because community-basedstruggles were somehow "nonpolitical." Instead, they recognizedhousing as a thoroughlypolitical arena and took forgranted

This content downloaded from 128.6.218.72 on Fri, 18 Dec 2015 07:09:40 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions RobertaGold 401 theirfitness to do battlethere. They had met the political,and she was them. If Met Council's old guard thoughtand spoke littleabout gender, theywere more consciousof race.Indeed, nobody who had been awake throughNew York'sdecades of fair-housingand urbanrenewal battles couldignore the intertwined relationship between racial justice and hous- ing,and the olderwhite tenant leaders had long historiesof supporting civilrights. Further, Met Council's leadershipwas integratedfrom the start.37However, by the 1970s,Harlem organizer (and formerCommunist) BillStanley was theonly remaining charter member of color. He and Bess Stevenson,a church-basedHarlem activist who had come aboardlater, werehighly respected senior leaders; but neitherwas closelyconnected to the 1970squatter organizing, most likely because Harlem was not thena siteof warehousingand upscale redevelopment.Thus, the intergenera- tionaldimension of the squattermovement unfolded largely as an in- stanceof predominantlywhite older women's mentoringa somewhat more mixed group of young organizers,who in turn worked with a diversesquatter population. Availableevidence indicates this interracial movement proceeded far moresmoothly, even joyously,than did manyother such effortsof the day.Tito Delgado, a youngPuerto Rican LowerEast Sider,tells of first comingto Met Council forhelp withhis family'seviction case, "and we werehome" Having stayed on as an organizer,he proudlycasts himself as a political descendantof Esther Rand. Norma Aviles and many other Spanish-speakingChelsea tenantssimilarly considered Jane Wood to be family.Brooklyn Congress of Racial Equality director (later congressional representative)Major Owens,a blackactivist who cut his teethon rent strikeswith Met Council,beamed years later as he proclaimedhimself "a proudbearer of the philosophical DNA ofJane Benedict."38 This interracialcomity seems to reflecta pragmaticcombination of "not talkingabout" and recognizing the centralityof race.In recounting his firstmeeting, Delgado emphasizes that some other white people "talkedabout racism,but these[Met Council] people reallyfelt it." That thewhite women lived out ratherthan simply articulated their solidarity appearsto havebeen critical to Delgado'ssense of fellowship. On theother

This content downloaded from 128.6.218.72 on Fri, 18 Dec 2015 07:09:40 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 402 RobertaGold hand, Wood famouslyinsisted that all Chelsea tenant meetingsbe conductedbilingually, thereby doubling their length. Her readinessto countercalls forbrevity with an articulateddefense of racialinclusive- ness-that is, to talkabout race-was equallycritical to the fellowshipshe built.In a similarvein, Frances Goldin recallsdeliberately recruiting a raciallydiverse lineup of families for the takeoversshe organizedand for theleadership of the Cooper Square Committee.39 Also importantwas the older,predominantly white cohort's willing- nessto playsupporting rather than leading roles in caseswhere people of color had takenthe initiative. This happenedwith the UpperManhattan squatsas well as theHousing Crimes Trial described below. Delgado notes a similardynamic within Met Council: "[The older leaders]wouldn't preachto [theyoung organizers]; they would justkind of guide them and letthem make their mistakes."40 As youngpeople took up tenantorganizing, senior leaders endorsed theyounger women's feminist concerns, expressing support for abortion, welfarerights, and the women'smovement in general.41Several young activistswere recentlyout lesbianswho would soon createone of the city'sfirst rights organizations, and they,too, foundacceptance among olderMet Council women.Benedict's and Goldin'sown daugh- terscame out,one ofthe latter using her skill as an electricianto turnon thelights in several"liberated" buildings.42 Yet,although the olderwomen supported women's liberation, they stoodapart from the younger cohort in their"practical" style. "They were certainlyfeminists, all of them,"recalls Cohen. "But theylived it rather than talkedabout it, and studiedit and analyzedit. ... The people who werein the [feminist]support groups, I think,were a littlemore theoreti- cal ... theywould readbooks, they would discussthem, they would talk abouthow to changethat politically, and at somepoint they took action." Goldin reflectson thissubject in remarkablysimilar terms. One of her own modelsin the CP was a womanwhose organizing position was chal- lengedafter World War II "becausethe guys came back,and theythought theywould take over the leadership. And she said, 'No, you won't.'So, she didn't thinkof herselfas a feminist,but she was a feminist...." Yet Goldinstresses that she and herpeers did not explicitlyaddress the topic.

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"Feminism?We wereit. I mean,we didn'tstrive to do [feminist]things, we justdid them."43 The olderwomen's feet-first approach to actionprobably owed lessto a lack of theoreticalapparatus (as CP members,these women had read theirshare of theoretical texts) than to an ideologythat cast feminism as one frontin a broaderstruggle. Thus, when a statecommission invited Met Council leadersto testifyat hearingson women'srights in 1970,the boardvoted "to participateto an extentto includeall housingproblems relatingto women." Similarly,Met Council regularlyendorsed other 1960sstruggles, particularly the effortto end the VietnamWar thatwas devastatinghousing funds as wellas lives.44 Whatis the significanceof thisweb of connections?It would be too much to saythat New York'stenant politics "drove" Second Wavefemi- nism;after all, feminismflourished in manyother towns, none ofwhich had a tenanthistory on the orderof New York's,and it also clearlygrew out ofsuch nationwideantecedents as the civilrights and antiwarstrug- gles.But New Yorkwas a leadingsite of early 1970s women's liberation. It was theplace wherethe Redstockingsmet; where the National Organiza- tionfor Women and Ms. and the NationalBlack FeministOrganization werebased; where Stonewall erupted and the Radicalesbianstook form; and wherefeminist mobilizations were larger and smallwomen's libera- tion groupsmore numerousthan anywhereelse. Clearly,New York's feministmovement sprang from the city'slarger Left, but thatlocal Left had, in turn,been sustainedand reproducedin part throughthe city's extraordinaryinfrastructure of female-ledtenant organizing. In other words,feminism and housingactivism had interactedin symbioticfashion overmany years. The early1970s tenant campaigns propelled one more revolutionin the symbioticcycle, providing a realityof "on-the-ground" women'sleadership that inspired and supportedthe nextgeneration of femaleactivists. Overtime, Met Council affiliatesamplified the local women'smove- mentby servingas a kindof parallelspace, a venue forpeople who had developeda feministconsciousness but did not necessarilysee women's liberationas theirprimary political project. Although Ratsupported tenantstruggles, Susan Cohen believesthat few people took partconsis-

This content downloaded from 128.6.218.72 on Fri, 18 Dec 2015 07:09:40 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 404 RobertaGold tentlyin bothfeminist and tenantorganizing. "There just wasn't enough time Peoplewho didthe feminist stuff. . . mightcome out fora [hous- ing]demonstration if you calledthem. But theirthing, the thingthey put theirtime into, was the feministstuff. I wasn't part of that.I was the person who put my time into the housing stuff."Yet fromhousing Cohen reaped a markedlyfeminist experience. "My [other women] friends,who becameinterested in radicalpolitics, they went to all their meetingsand stuff,and . . . [theysaid] everything was veryequal, except theyalways got to getthe coffee Andthey would say [of the male radi- cals],'Underneath it, they're all sexist.'And theywould complain.With [housing],it did not happenthat way, I have to tellyou. We did not have thatproblem."45

Our Neighborhoods, Our Buildings As theyamplified feminism, veteran tenant radicals also informedthe squattermovement's class and racialideology. Squatters and organizers expresseda distinctiveNew York view of housingthat braided together severalideological threads: a broadvision of stateresponsibility, a labor theoryof value, and a notionof tenants'"community rights" (similar to BlackPower's concept of "communitycontrol"). Frances Goldin, chair of Met Council'sSquatters Committee, articulated the stateprovision ideal clearly.She called on the cityto takeover the privatelyowned squatter buildingsand convertthem to "publicownership with tenant control," pointingout thatcity agencies had worsenedthe low-rent housing short- age bysponsoring urban renewal and luxuryredevelopment.46 Thus, she drewon the leftisttradition of political economy to show thatthe hous- ing crisiswas not just a consequence of privatemarket forces but a creationof the state. Squatters,for their part, implicitly revived the Marxian"labor theory of value" by carrying out themselvesthe extensive repairsthat many vacant buildings required and usingthat labor invest- mentto strengthentheir moral claim to long-termresidency. "Communityrights" had developedover a decade of local struggles againstredevelopment. Sally Goldin (Frances'sdaughter) drew on this notionwhen she pointedout thatwarehousing was a matterof community interestbecause vacant buildings served as "an open invitationfor junkies,

This content downloaded from 128.6.218.72 on Fri, 18 Dec 2015 07:09:40 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions RobertaGold 405 thieves,and drunksto starthanging around." Similarly,squatter sup- portersasserted, "we won't let the landlordstear down our buildingsin orderto build luxuryhousing that we can't afford."47Here, Lower East Sidersasserted moral ownership- "our buildings"- as a rebuttalto conven- tionalunderstandings of private property. The largestsquatter action of 1970 took place on MorningsideHeights, whereColumbia's ally, the Cathedralof St. Johnthe Divine,announced plansfor a luxuryold-age home, which called forrazing six structurally sound buildingsat 112thStreet and AmsterdamAvenue. With support fromMarie Runyon, tenants fought the evictionorders and won several reprieves.But by July 25th, the cathedral had removedmost holdouts and poisedits wrecking ball. That Saturday evening two young men strolled by the siteand struckup a conversationwith the guard.Suddenly hearing noisesbehind him, the guard turned to findthat two hundredpeople had materializedon 112thStreet and were purposefullyentering the con- demnedbuildings. He simplytold thedecoys, "Fuck Columbia; I wantan apartment,too." By the timeSunday servicesstarted at St. John's,fifty familiesof mostlyDominican and PuertoRican squatters had encamped in twobuildings on thesite.48 These squattersdid not have ties with Runyon or other tenant groups;they had beenorganized in a matterof weeks- in some cases,from the OperationMove-In waitinglist- by a handfulof young Latinosin nearbyManhattan Valley. But Runyon'spublicity efforts had doubtless contributedto the action,and the squattersquickly became a causecélebre amongher allies. Met Councilled a supportrally while students gathered endorsementsfrom politicians, neighborhood groups, and the Young Lords.The ColumbiaSpectator ran a long sympatheticfeature that culmi- natedwith the reporterasking the Episcopalcanon, "WouldChrist have evictedthe [formertenants]?" (Canon Chase promisedto prayfor them.) As a religiousinstitution, St. John'swas an easytarget for such questions. Indeed,a groupof Episcopalians began to pressthe bishop to compromise, and an insiderreported that the bishop's own staffunderstood the conflict as "therich against the poor."49 Equallyimportant, the squattersshowed themselves to be a resolute and resourcefulcommunity, carrying out major repairs,developing a

This content downloaded from 128.6.218.72 on Fri, 18 Dec 2015 07:09:40 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 406 RobertaGold democraticcouncil, sanctioning abusive members, and displayingsolidar- ity.These successesreflected hard work and probablyshared political precepts."All of us workingin thatneighborhood had a politicalcon- sciousness,"recalled one organizer."We didn'tsee thingsnecessarily in racialterms anymore, but in economicterms. We werevery conscious of all these middle-classpeople livingvery comfortably in Morningside Heights-in apartmentsthat a lot ofpoor people could actuallyafford." A rank-and-filernoted, "Our people here are very political-the Dominicans, especially.They're all in some kindof movement-or have been,in the Dominican Republic."With the memoryof the 1965U.S. invasionstill fresh,Dominicans may have drawnparticular satisfaction from "liberat- ing"space in New York.50 The St. John'ssquatters also provedadept publicists. Speaking of the grimdwellings they had fled,Ana Lopez explainedto reportersthat the familiesdid not objectto payingrent but were "tiredof payingfor rats, roachesand junkies."51An anonymouswriter posted this verse:

The doorwas notopen It was locked,tinned, cinderblocked, nailed, spiked cemented. Theythought in thisway to keepthe house empty and silent And to keepus in thestreet and in thegutter. Butwe came-quietlyin theevening- Boldlyin themorning- Throughthe tin- the cinderblocks- the nails- thespikes and thecement Throughthe locked door. Andthe house welcomed us- It shelteredand embracedus. The laughterof our childrenechoed in the - hallways Loveentered the house, and thehouse rejoiced - To hearagain the long forgotten words Mi casa.Home!52

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Resonatingwith the nascentNuyorican poetry movement, these lines cast the break-innot only as expedientbut also as rightand just. The imageof an inanimateobject "embracing" humans suggested a deepforce, akinto naturallaw, at workin thetakeover. The breadthof the housingcrisis and itsorganized opposition could be seen againthat winter in the HousingCrimes Trial, a publicevent that broughtyoung militants together with older activists from Met Council, the Cooper Square Committee,and Runyon'sMorningsiders United. Small tenantgroups, progressive unions, and blackclergy also signedthe indictments.Racial inclusivenessand femaleleadership wTere on full displayas Met Council'sBenedict, the BlackPanthers' Durie Bethea,and the Young Lords'Morales sat on the bench,along withrepresentatives fromtwo otherPuerto Rican groupsand I Wor Kuen. Spanishspeakers testifiedthrough translators. Intergenerational alliances were similarly visible,with Benedict, then around sixty,serving alongside the young judges, and Goldin and Rand leading the prosecution.Judge Bethea schooledolder witnesses in currentargot and expressedjudicial approval bysaying "right on."53 Significantly,the People's Court heard testimonynot only from scoresof squattersand tenantsbut fromseveral housing professionals as well. One formercity official acknowledged that urban renewalplans made littleprovision for the low-income tenants they displaced. Bill Price, theOperation Move-In leader, took thepoint further: "The waythe City can do thisis by not acquaintingthe people in the communitiesof what the plans are in storefor them." He himselfhad spentmonths futilely askingofficials for a copyof the city'sMaster Plan, until in desperationhe had stolenone. (JudgeBethea correctedhim: "You liberatedit forthe people.We don'tsteal.")54 Such strategicallyplaced sympathizers sometimes affected the fateof squattersites. Thus, it was importantthat the EpiscopalChurch was not onlyconcerned with outward appearances but was filledwith staffers and parishionerswho supportedthe squattercause. The St. John'ssquatters also benefitedfrom a twistof statefinancing law thatultimately made it cheaperfor the old-agehome to relocateto a vacantlot in the Bronx-a move Met Council had been advocatingsince 1968-than to engage in

This content downloaded from 128.6.218.72 on Fri, 18 Dec 2015 07:09:40 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 408 RobertaGold lengthyeviction proceedings in Manhattan.55The law, the widespread sympathy,and the squatters'own determinationfinally convinced the churchto scaleback its plan and allow threeapartment houses and their tenants-now grown to 400-to remain.56 Two hundredOperation Move-In families also won a major conces- sion when officialsannounced that the WestSide squatterscould stayas long as theybegan paying rent to the city.Further, the cityadded nine hundredlow-rent units to theWest Side's renewal plan.57 Here, the size of thesquatter community, combined with the city'sstatus as landlordand its growingembarrassment over the failureof "progressive"renewal, workedin thesquatters' favor. In some buildingson the LowerEast Side and in Chelsea, as well, squattersreached lasting agreements with landlords.58But in general, propertiesowned by individuals,schools, and hospitalsturned out to be the leastsuccessful squats. Some Chelsea and LowerEast Side squatters wereevicted in a matterof days.59 Uptown, meanwhile, Columbia ousted thousandsof legaltenants through property conversion over the years. Runyon and Kimblewere exceptionswho probablywon out as much throughgood fortune(Columbia's unstableplans forthe Morningside Drivesite) as throughtheir organizing efforts.

Echoes in a Post-Radical Age New York'ssummer of squatters,however, produced lasting effects that reachedbeyond the severalhundred poor familieswho securedhomes in 1970and 1971.One involvedhousing policy. Starting in theearly 1970s, city and statehousing officials established several programs to provideloans and othersupport for low-income tenants who wishedto rehabilitate theirneglected buildings and convertthem into low-equity co-ops. These programsrested on the ideologicaland practicalgroundwork laid by tenantactions over the precedingdecade. The buildingtakeovers organ- ized bythe BlackPanthers in the Bronx;the Garbageand Lead Offensives conductedby the Young Lords; the "Battleof Morningside Park"; and the 1970squatter move-ins all had made tenantseizure of physical resources a dailyreality in poor neighborhoods.Further, the rhetoricthat went with theseactions-"our community," "our buildings"-had disseminatedthe

This content downloaded from 128.6.218.72 on Fri, 18 Dec 2015 07:09:40 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions RobertaGold 409 notion of moral ownershipto the largerpublic and even mainstream politicians. In keepingwith tenant history, women predominated among leaders of the successfulco-ops, where many residents reported that their build- ings were "like a family."Researchers theorized that the "household skills"women weresocialized to develop-conflict resolution, listening, patiencewith ongoingtasks- were essentialto good tenantand co-op organizing.60City-subsidized co-op programshave survived,in weakened form,to thisday. The secondlong-term consequence of the squatter wave appearedin the largersphere of leftistand feministpolitics. Squatter mobilizations drewa newgeneration of activists into contact with the Old Leftcohort at Met Council, which welcomed the newcomersand groomedthem to becomeleaders in theirown right."In youngerpeople takingleadership in Met Council,"Benedict wrote to theExecutive Board in 1970,"lies great encouragement."61 Thisis not to saythat intergenerational relations were always smooth. One area of conflictinvolved what mightbe called political lifestyle. Benedict,Rand, and theircontemporaries came froman Old Leftculture in which the struggleabsorbed virtually every waking hour. As a CP sloganput it: "EveryEvening to PartyWork."62 The seniorMet Council womencontinued to livethat way, devoting every night and weekendto tenantpolitics well into theirsixties and beyond.But the young folks could not keep up. Mansbachspeaks of "a huge burnoutfactor" among youngerMet Council workers, especially those seeking to balancepolitical activitieswith family life.63 Over time, the oldergeneration's expectations fueleda large turnoveramong young volunteersand staff.Benedict wantedto pass the torch,but she was lookingfor successors who would keep it burningat her intenselevel. Young people who could not meet thatstandard drifted away. Thispattern produced several ironic effects. For one thing,it delayed bymany years the changingof the guardthat Benedict wished to effect. Foranother, it meant that while Met Council served as a linkbetween two generationsof feminists,the organizationalso imposedon its members one of the veryburdens that latter-day feminists sought to throwoff: a

This content downloaded from 128.6.218.72 on Fri, 18 Dec 2015 07:09:40 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 410 RobertaGold standardof full-time work that left few moments for home and family.64 YetMet Council'shigh turnover rate may also haveincreased the organiza- tion'samplifying effect on feministconsciousness by causing the group to churnout scoresof youngpeople who had developedmentoring rela- tionshipswith senior women.65 The turnoverrate made these"alumni" morenumerous than they would havebeen if a singlebaby-boom cohort had simplycome aboardand stayed. Over time,these individual experiences in Met Council and itsaffili- atesadded up to a largerprocess of political reproduction that transmitted Popular Frontprecepts to the childrenof postwarprosperity. When Benedictand Wood died recently,their memorials ran for hours as three generationsof activists-including grassroots organizers and severalof New York'sleading progressive politicians and pioneeringwomen- paid tributeto theirmentors. Owens's remarks on Benedict's"philosophical DNA" resonatedwidely. Ruth Messinger,former city council member and thesecond woman to serveas ManhattanBorough president, added, "Janetaught me as much about organizingas about tenants'rights, and was a modelfor all ofus."66 At Wood's service,dozens of Chelsea residents,including original squattersand theirchildren and grandchildren,lined up to testify,in Spanishand English,to Wood's courage,compassion, and monumental stubbornness.67"She got thatbit in her teethand she did not let go," re- membersCohen. "Andshe was verydynamic and verycharismatic. And peoplefollowed her. It was amazing:one minuteI was thisnaive little shy kid,and thenext minute I was gettingarrested! What happened to me?It was veryliberating to finallyput yourbody where your mouth was. And shegave you thecourage to do that.. . . Somehow,you gotinto it with her . . . , andyou justfollowed. And then you learnedthe stuffand you led."68

Notes 1. This is a takeoffon "actuallyexisting socialism," a phrasevarious Marxists have used to discusslife in communistEurope, in contrastto abstractand speculativenotions ofwhat socialist society might be like.

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2. See, for example, Ruth Rosen, The WorldSplit Open: How theModern Women's Movement ChangedAmerica (New York: Penguin Books, 2006), chaps. 2, 3, and 4; Alice Echols, Daringto Be Bad: Radical Feminismin America,1967-1975 (Minneapolis: University of Min- nesota Press, 1989), chaps. 1, 2, and 3; and Sara Evans, PersonalPolitics: The Rootsof Women's Liberationinthe Civil Rights Movement and the New Left(New York: Vintage Books, 1979). 3. "PopularFront" refers to the alliance among Communists,some labor unions,civil rightsgroups, artists, and liberalsthat developed in the late 1930s,after the Com- munistParty instructed members to build a unitedfront against fascism with such potentialallies. Popular Front participants might disagree over the role of the Com- munist Party,but they shared such goals as empowering workers and fighting racism.On the unsungmid-century organizers, see, forexample, Maurice Isserman, If I Had a Hammer:The Death of the Old Leftand the Birth of the New Left(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987); Charles Payne, I've Gotthe Light of Freedom: The OrganizingTradition and theMississippi Freedom Struggle (Berkeley: University of CaliforniaPress, 1995); Irwin Kubaner, Conscienceof a TroubledSouth: The SouthernConference Educational Fund, 1946-1966 (Brooklyn,N.Y.: Carlson Publishers,1989); Barbara Ransby,Ella Bakerand the Black FreedomMovement: A RadicalDemocratic Vision (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003); Martha Biondi, To Standand Fight:The Strugglefor Civil Rightsin PostwarNew YorkCity (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003); Susan Hartmann,The Other Feminists:Activists in theLiberal Establishment (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998); and Dennis A. Deslippe, "Rights,Not Roses": Unionsand theRise of Working-ClassFeminism, 1945- 1980(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000). 4. Dorothy Sue Cobble, The OtherWomen's Movement: Workplace fustice and Social Rightsin ModernAmerica (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004). 5. Kenneth T. Jackson, The CrabgrassFrontier: The Suburbanizationof the UnitedStates (New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1985); Thomas Sugrue, TheOrigins of the Urban Crisis: Race andinequality in PostwarDetroit (Princeton: Princeton UniversityPress, 1996); Lizabeth Cohen, A Consumers'Republic: The Politicsof Mass Consumptionin PostwarAmerica (New York:Alfred A. Knopf,2003). 6. Mark Naison, "From EvictionResistance to Rent Control: Tenant Activismin the GreatDepression," and JoelSchwartz, "Tenant Power in the LiberalCity, 1943-1971," both in The TenantMovement in New YorkCity, 1904-1984, ed. Ronald Lawson and Mark Naison(New Brunswick,N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1986). 7. Norman I. Fainsteinand Susan S. Fainstein."The Politicsof Urban Development: New York since 1945,"City Almanac 17 (April 1984):1-25; Joel Schwartz, The New York Approach:Robert Moses, UrbanLiberals, and Redevelopmentof the Inner City (Columbus: Ohio StateUniversity Press, 1993). 8. JaneBenedict, interview with author, 1 June2000. 9. Ibid. 10. FrancesGoldin, interview with author, 8 Jan.2001. 11. Benedictinterview; Edwin "Tito" Delgado, interviewwith author, 16 Apr. 2004.

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12. Cooper Square Community Development Committee and Businessmen'sAsso- ciation,An AlternatePlan for Cooper Square (New York: Cooper Square Community DevelopmentCommittee and Businessmen'sAssociation, 1961); Goldin interview,8 Jan.2001. 13. Goldininterview, 8 Jan.2001. 14. Wood and her husbandmay have belongedto the CommunistParty as well. (Susan Cohen, interviewwith author, 14 June 2004.) 15. JaneWood, interviewwith author, 10 Oct. 2001; Norma Aviles,conversation with author,6 June2004; Tim Wood, testimonyat JaneWood memorialservice, 6 June 2004. 16. Ellen Schrecker,Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism inAmerica (New York: Little,Brown, 1998),386; Wood, Goldin interview, 8 Jan.2001, and Benedictinterview. 17. MarieRunyon, interview with author, 7 Feb.2001. 18. Runyon interview;"Morningside Park Chronological History," box 3, Morningside Park folder,Christiane Collins Collection, Schomburg Center, New York Public Library,New York,N.Y. (hereafterCCC). 19. Morningsider,30 Jan. 1964, box 6, MorningsidersUnited folder, CCC. 20. HistoricalNote to the Black PantherParty, Harlem Branch Collection,Schomburg Center; (hereafter NYT), 28 July,5 Aug.,5 and 6 Sept. 1968;5, 6, 7, 9, 15, 18 and 23 Mar., 18 Aug. and 25 Nov. 1969.See also TheAmsterdam News, 15 and 29 Mar. 1969;Rat, 25 Apr. 1969;Sundiata Acoli, "A BriefHistory of the Black Panther Party,"www.thetalkingdrum.com/bla2.html; and Cleo Silvers, interviewwith author,30 Jan.and 28 Feb.2004. 21. JohannaFernandez, "Between Social ServiceReform and RevolutionaryPolitics: The Young Lords,Late SixtiesRadicalism, and Community Organizingin New York City," in FreedomNorth: Black FreedomStruggles outside the South, 1940-1980, ed. Jeanne Theoharisand Komozi Woodard(New York:Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 258-60; Iris Morales, Palante,Siempre Palante! The YoungLords (New York: Columbia University Station,1996); Jack Newfield, "Young Lords Do City'sWork in the Barrio,"Village Voice,4 Dec. 1969;NYT, 21 and 26 Dec. 1969. 22. Silversinterview, 28 Feb. 2004; this apparent paradox (women's leadership amid machismo)was not unique to the New York chapters.See TracyeMatthews, "'No One EverAsks, What a Man's Role in the RevolutionIs': Genderand the Politicsof the BlackPanther Party, 1966-1971," in TheBlack Panther Party Reconsidered, ed. Charles E. Jones(Baltimore: Black ClassicPress, 1998); and Rhonda Y. Williams,"Black Women, UrbanPolitics, and EngenderingBlack Power," in TheBlack Power Movement: Rethinking the CivilRights-Black Power Era, ed. PenielE. Joseph(New York:Routledge, 2006). 23. Runyoninterview; Tenant News, September-October 1968, 2; NYT, 3 and 4 May 1969; Flyer,"500 Vacant Apts,"all in box 6, folder14, CCC; Flyers,"We JustTook One Vacant Apartment,"and "The Storyof thisApartment," 2 May 1969,box 1,folder 8, CCC; ColumbiaSpectator, 4 May 1970; New YorkDaily News,2 May 1970; MorningsideSun, 18 May 1970; NYT, 22 July1970; ColumbiaSpectator, 10 May 1971.

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24. RobertStern, Thomas Mellins, and David Fishman,New Yorki960: Architectureand Urbanismbetween the Second WorldWar and theBicentennial (New York: Monacelli Press, 1995),725-30; NYT, 21 July1970; Tenant News, January -February 1967, 4; March-April 1967,4; May-June1967, 4; November-December1968, 2; May-June1969, 2; April-May 1970,6. 25. ManhattanTribune, 23 May 1970;Tenant News, November-December 1968, 2; April-May 1970,6; NYT, 21, 22 July,11 Oct. 1970;Society, July/August 1972, 51. The 1968Tenant Newsarticle notes Met Council's supportfor "Community Development, Inc.," likely an erroneousreference to Price's "CommunityAction, Inc." See JaneBenedict to ExecutiveBoard, 29 June 1970,box 4, ExecutiveBoard no. 4 folder,Metropolitan Council on Housing Records,Tamiment Library, New York University,New York, N.Y. (hereafterMCHR); Housing Crimes Trial transcript,13-14, box 8, Housing CrimesTrial folder,MCHR. Price'sacquaintance with Runyon can be deduced from hisplan to move sixteenfamilies into 130Morningside Drive. 26. NYT, 21 July1970; 22 July,3 Aug. 1970;16 Dec. 1969;22 July1970; WIN Magazine,15 Sept. 1970,4-5; TenantNews, May-June 1969, 2; October-November1969, 3; June-July 1970,4; Goldininterviews, 8 Jan. and 11Feb. 2001 ; Cohen interview. 27. Rat,29 Oct. 1970. 28. William Wei, TheAsian American Movement (Philadelphia: Temple UniversityPress, 1993),212-14; Silvers interview, 28 Feb. 2004;Carmen Chow, "I Wor Kuen in China- townNew York,"Hawaii Pono Journal 1 (April 1971): 61-63, and "I Wor Kuen: Righteous HarmoniousFist," Gidra 6 flune1971): 12; Rocky Chin, "New YorkChinatown Today: Communityin Crisis,"Amei asia Journal 1 (March 1971): 13-14;"Chinatown and Its Problems,"and "Servethe People,"in GettinoToaether, February 1970. 29. Raí,6 Feb.,5 June,15 July, 6 and 29 Oct.,and 17Nov. 1970. 30. jRai,29Oct.1970. 31. These women nonethelessdrew on the examples of strongolder women in their communities;Silvers, for instance , was influencedby her mother and grandmothers. Silversinterview, 30 Jan.2004. 32. Evans, PersonalPolitics, 74-76. 33. Flyer,"Columbia University #3," topical box 2, MCHR; ColumbiaSpectator, 13May 1970. 34. Raí,17 Dec. 1970. 35. Met Council minutesshow a spikein new membershipsaveraging more than 100per month in the early 1970s.See box 1, assemblies2 folder,MCHR. Cohen, interview, recalleda largecohort of young women joiningMet Council and the Chelsea coali- tionsduring these years. 36. Marge DuMond, interviewwith author,28 Feb. 2005;Claudia Mansbach,interview withauthor, 19 Apr. 2004; Cohen interview. 37. See administrativebox 4, ExecutiveMinutes folder 1, MCHR. 38. Major Owens,Jane Benedict memorial service, 22 Oct. 2005. 39. Delgado interview;Goldin interview, 31 Oct. 2005. 40. Delgado interview.

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41. AssemblyMinutes, 18 Dec. 1967,box 1, Assembliesno. 1 folder;Executive Board Minutes,28 June1971, box 4, ExecutiveBoard no. 5 folder;box 12,Legislation 1974/ TenantsBill of Rights folder, all in MCHR. 42. BarbaraLearnard, interview with author, 1 Mar. 2005;DuMond, Learnard,Benedict, and Goldininterview, 11 Feb. 2001. 43. Goldininterview, 31 Oct. 2005. 44. ExecutiveBoard Minutes, 24 Aug. 1970,box 4, ExecutiveBoard no. 4 folder;Assembly Minutes,18 Dec. 1967and 15 Mar. 1971,box 1, Assemblyfolders; Executive Board Minutes,6 Aug. 1966,28 Sept. 1970and 17 Apr. 1972,box 4, ExecutiveBoard folders, all in MCHR. 45. See PatriciaYancey Martin, "Rethinking Feminist Organizations," Gender and Society 4 (June1990): 193-94. Martin's "outcomes" criterion, in which an organizationtrans- formsmembers' sense of power and possibility,particularly with regardto political activity,aptly describes the feminism of Met Council. See Cohen interview. 46. WINMagazine, 15 Sept. 1970,6. 47. WIN Magazine,15 Sept. 1970,4-5. "Our" also appears frequentlyas a modifierfor "land" and "neighborhood"in all of FrancesGoldin's discussionsof the LowerEast Side. 48. TheMorningside Sun, 4 Oct. 1969,1; 18 May 1970,7, box 6, folder14, CCC; the guard's commentis in MaryAnne Brotherton,"Conflict of Interests, Law Enforcement,and Social Change: A Case Studyof Squatters on MorningsideHeights" (Ph.D. diss.,Ford- ham University,1974), 61-64, Brotherton notes thatfor local residents,"Columbia" came to symbolizeall theexpansionist institutions. 49. Brotherton,"Conflict of Interests,"67, 90; NYT, 1 Aug. 1970;Connection, 12 Nov. 1970; Runyoninterview. 50. Brotherton,"Conflict of Interest,"66, 135; U.S. marineswere dispatchedinto the Dominican Republic's civil war to thwartthe ascension of popular socialist and would-beland reformerJuan Bosch. 51. NYT,27 July1970. 52. Quoted in Brotherton,"Conflict of Interest," 61. 53. Housing Crimes Trial flyersand transcript,9, 10, 14,box 8, Housing Crimes Trial folder,MCHR. 54. Ibid.,5, 13-14. 55. Brotherton,"Conflict of Interest," 155. 56. TheWashington Post, 21 Nov. 1971;Tenant News, September-October 1968, 2. 57. NYT, 14June 1971. 58. TenantNews, September-November 1970, 6. 59. NYT,21 and 22 July,3 and 23 Aug.,6 Sept.,6 Oct. 1970;and 13June 1972. 60. Jacqueline Leavitt and Susan Saegert, FromAbandonment to Hope: Community-householdsin Harlem(New York:Columbia University Press, 1990), 130. 61. ExecutiveBoard Minutes, 23 Feb. 1970;and JaneBenedict to ExecutiveBoard, 29 June 1970,box 4, ExecutiveBoard no. 4 folder,MCHR. 62. Schrecker, ManyAre theCrimes, 8.

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63. Mansbachinterview. In herinterview, Cohen also recalls this pattern. 64. Mansbachinterview. oj. òign-msheets rrom Met Council s monthlyassemblies between iyo9 and iy/4 revealover 400 different names, many appearing at multiplemeetings. See box 1, Assembliesfolders, MCHR. 66. MajorOwens and Ruth Messinger, Jane Benedict memorial service. 67. JaneWood memorial service. 00. eoheninterview.

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