Roger Williams University DOCS@RWU Office of Intercultural Center Staff ubP lications Office of Intercultural Center 1-1-2007 "I Was the One Percenter": Manny Diaz and the Beginnings of a Black-Puerto Rican Coalition Ande Diaz Roger Williams University, [email protected] Sonia S. Lee Follow this and additional works at: http://docs.rwu.edu/intercultural_staff_pub Part of the Community Engagement Commons, and the Education Commons Recommended Citation Diaz, Ande and Lee, Sonia S., ""I Was the One Percenter": Manny Diaz and the Beginnings of a Black-Puerto Rican Coalition" (2007). Office ofn I tercultural Center Staff Publications. Paper 3. http://docs.rwu.edu/intercultural_staff_pub/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Office of Intercultural Center at DOCS@RWU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Office of Intercultural Center Staff ubP lications by an authorized administrator of DOCS@RWU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. < en 0-0 r-:!;! C:z S:cu mN NO .......C') 0 z - c: s: a::I 93 w I Lee and Viaz S3 The rest of the ci ty had va ri ous re sponses to such an interracial demon­ "I Was the One Percenter": stration of grievance. "When East Harlem turued out for the integrati on Manny Diaz and the Beginnings boyeou, it was the first time in the community'S history, or the city's, that Puerto Ricans joined with Negroes in protest and pursuit of a w mmo n l of a Black-Puerto Rican Coalition goal," proudly claimed Patricia Cayo Sexton, a social worker in cast Harlem . Bayard Rustin boasted that th e most significant fac t in thi, protest was tJlat "Negro and Puert o Rican communities had j oined SONlA S. LEE A.."ID ANDE D1AZ together to work for common objecti ves.'" Many Puerto Rican leaders, however, did not sharc Sexton and R ustin's cnthusiasm. A month later. when Gercna organized a subsequent march from City Hall to the Board lNTROUUCTlO~: THE DlLE~1MAS OF A NE\" AI.I.IANCE of Educati on offi ce to focus all ention on the plight of Pu"rto Ri" an chil­ dre n a mo nth after the boycott., numerous Puerto Riean leaders de­ On [he morning of Fe bruary 3, 1964, Manny Dial woke up wondering nounced his decision. Pentecostal ministers from East Harle m tltoclarcd. how many Puerto Ric'an , [ud"ms would not go to school that day. Puerto "Politics and Christ don ' t mix," while others claimed that Gerena was a Ri cans were known for having thc highest high school drop-our and sus· "Communist."5 Gerena la ler confessed that he "received vicions auacks pension ra t.e in New York City, but the reasons for stu dents' absences that. by some of our racist Puerto Ricans" for his collaboration with blacks, day were de liberate. premeditated, and volunt. ary. for more than t. wo while Diaz revealed that somc Puerto Ricans told him that "he was too decades since urban renewal pruj et: ls ~cgn!gatcd th em into increa <o illgly close to blacks."6 poor and racialized neigll borhoods. hundred, of Ihou, ands of PUC I10 R i­ If so many Puerto Ricans felt th at joining black protest would jcopar­ can mi grants had wimes>ed their children's schools detcriorate under the dize Puerto Ricans' own precarious status in th e city. why did Diaz pur­ leadershi p of racialJy prejudiced whi le tc achers and admini strators. B) sue alliances with black leaders so eagerly') Did his darker skin make him 19(,4. however, their moral indignation ripl:ncd, aud they were ready t.o more prone to id entify with black politics? Or did his working-class p ublicly voice their anger. Diaz, who bad been leacli ng a juvenil e de li n­ background lead him to id entify with blacks because th ey held the mosl quency program wit h Puerto Rican youth in the Lowcr East Side, and politicall y radical voice in th e 19605'7 Why was he so successful ? Despite Gilherto Gerena- V:J..Ientfn , who had be~n organi/lng Puerto Ricans in the the political risks involved iu imitating black prOtes t, more th an 1,800 ci ty through lahor and community org'UliL<ltions, decided to join hands Puerto Rican parents showed up to march to th e office of the Board of with bl ack educmors who had been fighling racial segregation in the ci ry Education in March of 1964. Whether it was Diaz's physical features or for many dec ades.' They allied with black civil rights leader Bayard class politics which drew him to the black civil rights movement, he be­ Ru> tin, who aimed to dramatize black children's inferior education in th~ came a dynamic PLieno Rican leader at the height of the civil rights strLlg­ cIty b~ boycouing the entire puhlic ,chool sy'tem one duy. gle in New York City because he appealed to a sentiment common to Diaz and Gerena probably wondered about the political ramifications of many other Puerto Ricans-kinship with working-class hi ack Americans. making such an alliance with bl ack Ameri cans. Would black Americaru; The life and career of Manny Di al. embodies the multiple ways in treatl'ueno Rican migrants any bene I' t.han \I hire Americans had') Were they whi"h Puerto Ricans related and identifIed with blac k Americans in the fri ends 10 be trusted or e nemies to he feared? To their ~urpr ise. and the >Uf­ postwar era. To many who look back on the hi story of the civil rights prise of m,my others, the hoycort wa~ very ~ucce"ful. Despite the stigma struggle, it may seem obvio Li s that Puerl o Ricans would join black of engaging in civil disobedience, studellts stayed out or New York 464.361 Americans in the .struggle toward racial equality because th ey were poor City'S public scboob oIl that morning. More than three· fO Ut1h, of the stu­ and most of them were nonwhite. Puerto Ricans' self-identifi"ati on as a dent- from the heavily blad.-populated ncighborhooth of CC lll rnl Harlem minori ty group alongs ide bl ack Americ<Jfls rather than an immi gran t and Washington Heighls, as well as the Pll~ 11 0 Rican·dominant Lower East gro Llp . llOv.cver, was th e result of a deliberate decision. There was nothing Side and East Ilariem neighborhoods diu not go to ,dlOOI.; 54 Journal or Amcricflll F.llmi(' lI i "ll)r~ I Spring 2007 Lee. •md Djaz 55 "natural" about the ir decision to coalesce forces; rather they came to­ FROM ISLAND nOY TO CO)1MUNITY ACTIVIST: gethe r through a comlllon be li ef th at a coalitio n woul d stra tegicall y TnE FORMATION OF A POLITICAL AND RACiAL lDEl\'TITY serve the interests of both groups. The IllOSt significant barrier th at separate d bl ack and Puerto R ican Born in 1922 in Humacao. Puer10 Rico, DiaL felt comfol1able socializing communities initiall y was th e differe nce between lh e ir rac ial consc ious­ with li ght and dark -skinned Puerto Ricans since hi s childhood . Son of ne sses. Black racial conscio usness taught them that the world was Filome na Zoe Ve lazquez. a SC8l11slress. and Manuel Diaz Gomez. a m u­ stric tly divi ueu between whites and b lacks. Pue rto R ican racial con­ sic ian ancl bodega owner. DiaL was born in a family thm had experienced sciollsness, however, provided a m uch more fluid syste m of social hi e r­ generati ons of interrac ial mix in g. Diaz's hometown, H um.aeHu , wa ~ an arc hy. As poli tical scientist Mark Q. Sawyer and others argued, Pueno Ricans, as weJJ as their neighboring islanders, such as C ubans and Do­ minicans. developeu a -system of "inc1 usionary disc ri mina ti on ," in which a rcal system o f discrimination based on shade gradations functioned in tande m with a per("c i l'cd system of incl usion.' Puerto R icans made diffe renti ations between " li ght" and "dark" physical complexion, suc h that the majority of the Puerto Rican upper class was "bia nco" (white) and the m ajority o f the lower class was "negro" (black) or "mil /oro " L (mixecl). Tlh' percep tion, however. thaL one coul d " white n" oneself through intcrracial marring(; or sLl cialmo bi li ty, leu all of Ih em. wheUler "hlan co" or "l1eg ro," tu bd icvc llml tht'y beloogeu Lo a raciall y inclusive, clCTllOcral ic socicly. Pue T1 0 Ri cans who rni gr ~l cd 10 New York City in the postwar rcaliLe<.i that. they conld no 1011£" , holu llrliO their P llCrlO Ri can rueial , cnsibilities once They CO " fronted ll1C more bi nary ~yslC m orAr neri (: an rac ia l segrc­ gat ion A, sociologist Sa muel Bc:(anccs nrgucJ. li ghter Puerlo Ricans sa\v that th eir privileged statlls as "blallco" (white) in Puertll Rico became un­ certai n amon g whi le AIllt:r1ean s who migh l nmv view them us belonging 1.0 an iT1ferior " PlI cno Rican race:' " hile uar!"er P uerto Ricans saw tbat t. heir social stigma as "negro" in Puerto R1CO wuuld dete riorate if they heca l11 e "black" in tire U.S.' As a group of mib'Tltll ts witb a ntcially am­ higuous identit.y.