FROM THE GROUND UP: ORAL HISTORIES OF THE NEHEMIAH HOMES
RALLY AND EXHIBITION AT BROWNSVILLE HERITAGE HOUSE

Sunday, April 28, 2024
2:00 – 6:30pm
Rally at 2:00pm at 405 Watkins St, Brooklyn, NY 11212
Exhibit Opening Reception at 581 Mother Gaston Blvd, Brooklyn, NY 11212 (inside the Stone Avenue Branch Library)
RSVP HERE

Join Nehemiah homeowners, builders, and longtime community leaders in celebrating one of the most successful affordable homeownership initiatives in NYC history. They will rally at Nehemiah Park to hear from Brooklynites leading the ongoing fight for affordable housing, then march down the block for the opening of the From The Ground Up exhibit.

FROM THE GROUND UP

From The Ground Up celebrates the leaders and homeowners who have carried out an unprecedented effort to create safe, affordable community in East Brooklyn. 0Named for the 5th-century Jewish prophet who led his people in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, the Nehemiah homes were founded as a series of owner-occupied dwellings built on formerly-abandoned city land. This historic development was made possible by the deeply-rooted, neighborhood and congregation leaders of East Brooklyn Congregations (EBC), an affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), the nation’s oldest and largest network of non-partisan citizen’s organizations.

The first Nehemiah homeowners were largely working people of color, including a large percentage of recent immigrants, who were otherwise denied affordable housing opportunities. Owing to a legacy of racism in local housing markets and housing policies, these New Yorkers faced significant hurdles in their efforts to achieve the American Dream of homeownership. As an exemplary piece of organizing work, Nehemiah created equity where none existed before.In addition to capturing the overlooked history of Nehemiah’s formation, this project serves narrators’ active effort to preserve and expand NYC’s affordable housing stock. Through their ongoing organizing efforts, today’s Nehemiah leaders remain intent on passing the program’s benefits along to future generations.

This project was initiated and is being conducted by grassroots oral historian Phillip Normanunder the advisement of an intergenerational team of Nehemiah homeowners as well as other EBC leaders and organizers. The advisory team members include Eleanor Pinckney, Shantel Palacio, Jason Minnis, Anna London, Fr. Edward Mason, Alberto Hernandez, Rob English, Matilda Dyer, Patrice Jennings, Carmen Daniels, Zandra Brockman, and Julie-Rose Gould. Please visit its website to learn more about the project and listen to excerpts from the interviews.

OUR COLLABORATION

A collaboration between Phillip Norman and the Housing Justice Oral History Project began this Spring. As part of this collaboration we will process—transcribe, analyze, and index—the interviews already conducted and integrate them in the Housing Justice Oral History Projectplatform with the goal of connecting them with other housing-centered oral history narratives from Brooklyn and beyond. New School’s PhD Candidate Aneta Kohoutová and MA student in Historical Studies Gant Roberson are processing selected oral histories under the guidance of Lynn Lewis. You can already check out some of them in our online platform!