What: Emergency Rally to Stop the Demolition of 227 Duffield Street, a Black Landmark and Underground Railroad Stop
When: July 25, 2019 from 6:30pm to 8:00pm
Where: 227 Duffield Street in Downtown Brooklyn
Who: Equality for Flatbush & Circle for Justice Innovations, For more details see FACEBOOK
Why: 227 Duffield Street, located on Abolitionist Place in downtown Brooklyn, is the last known standing historic site in Brooklyn where well-known abolitionists lived . It was also a stop along the Underground Railroad, used by enslaved African peoples in their quest for freedom. After years of struggle to preserve its legacy, 227 Duffield is now in imminent danger of being demolished in 2019. Community leaders, historians, and elected officials are calling for 227 Duffield to not only be landmarked but to also be turned into a museum to preserve its significant historical contribution to the fight against racism in the US.
Along with the July 25th emergency rally, activists have created an online petition that over 2,500 people have signed within the last 2 weeks. There is also an online / call-in campaign directed at Lisa Kersavage, Director of Landmark Preservation Commission.
Endorsers to Preserve 227 Duffield Street:
- Anthony Beckford, Community Advocate / 45th City
- Council District Candidate
- Circle for Justice Innovations
- Bay Ridge for Social Justice
- Borough President Eric Adams
- Brooklyn Laundry Social Club
- Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions
- Congregation Kolot Chayeinu
- Congressmember Hakeem Jeffries
- Congressmember Nydia Velazquez
- Congressmember Yvette Clark
- Council Majority Leader Laurie Cumbo
- Council Member Adrienne Adams
- Council Member Andy King
- Council Member Antonio Reynoso
- Council Member Ben Kallos
- Council Member Carlina Rivera
- Council Member Carlos Menchaca
- Council Member Diana Ayala
- Council Member Helen Rosenthal
- Council Member Inez Barron
- Council Member Margaret Chin
- Council Member Rafael Salamanca
- Council Member Stephen Levin
- Crown Heights Tenant Union (CHTU)
- D.U.E.C.E.S. Inc.
- Equality for Flatbush (E4F)
- Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE)
- Five Boroughs to Freedom
- Friends of Hopper Gibbons UnderGround Railroad Site
- Four Borough Neighborhood Preservation Alliance
- Harlem Historical Society
- Jim Driscoll, Queens Historical Society
- Kevin Powell, Author and Activist
- Mi Casa No Es Su Casa: Illumination Against Gentrification
- Million Hoodies Movement
- NYC Freedom Trail
- People’s Power Assembly - NYC
- Public Advocate Jumaane Williams
- Respect Brooklyn
- State Assembly Member Jo Ann Simon
- State Senator Velmanette Montgomery
- The Bowery Poetry Club
- The Brooklyn Anti-Gentrification Network (BAN)
- The Queens Preservation Council
Questions? contact imani@equalityforflatbush.org or (646) 820-6039
#Save227Duffield #BlackLandmarksMatter #BrooklynIsNotforSale #BlackHistoryMatters #PreserveBlackHistory
Equality for Flatbush (E4F) is a people of color-led, multi-national grassroots organization that does anti-police repression, affordable housing and anti-gentrification/anti-displacement organizing in Flatbush, East Flatbush and Brooklyn-wide.