Prospect Park

The Daily Plant : Monday, June 17, 2002

PARKS PAYS TRIBUTE TO TWO CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS

The Civil Rights Movement produced many great leaders, two of which were honored last Thursday, June 6, 2002 in Dorrance Brooks Square. Two benches were named in honor of Dr. Mamie Clark and Ella Baker. The ceremony, a quiet and dignified one, drew many notable people, including Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, former Mayor David Dinkins, and former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton. Neighborhood residents, Parks employees, and friends celebrated the lives of Clark and Baker despite looming rains from above.

Dorrance Brooke Square is a part of the Parks Department’s Greenstreet Program that turns traffic triangles and islands into landscaped areas by planting trees, shrubs, and flowers. The square is named after Dorrance Brooks, an African-American and a distinguished and brave soldier who died at the end of World War I. It recently underwent a renovation totaling $145,000 in mayoral funds which included extending the square, dedicating the benches, adding plantings, and a steel picket fence.

The residents of the St. Nicholas section of Harlem take much pride in this park and are active in the Edgecombe Avenue Block Association. The benches line the small park and provide a nice view of the brownstones on Edgecombe Avenue and the grassy hills of St. Nicholas Park.

Dr. Mamie Clark (1917-1983) and Ella Baker (1903-1986) together helped found "We Care," a Harlem-based organization that helped area youth obtain employment and provided job training, health care, and legal assistance. Now, the group is called "We Care Media Arts" and is headquartered just steps from Dorrance Brooks Square.

Dr. Mamie Clark was an esteemed psychologist and the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University. Her studies were used as the scientific basis for the 1954 Supreme Court decision regarding segregation in schools. She also headed the Northside Center, a Harlem facility for children with developmental and learning disorders.

Ella Baker was a strong leader in the Civil Rights Movement. As a founder of the Students Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, Baker sought social change through peaceful organizing. Baker’s niece, Jackie Brockington, was on hand to celebrate her aunt’s life and the accomplishments of these two women.

In his remarks, Commissioner Benepe said, "these benches serve as a history lesson. The legacy of Dr. Mamie Clark and Ella Baker will live on and inspire today’s youth to always remember to work for equality through non-violent means." The benches’ new home, in Dorrance Brooks Square, is an inviting greenstreet in a neighborhood where the women played a crucial role.

(Monday, June 26, 1989)

Hand-carved carousels, which had their heyday around the turn of the century, have dwindled to a handful in recent years. But thanks to the Prospect Park Alliance, New York City will soon have one more working merry-go-round. The Alliance announced recently that it will restore the Prospect Park Carousel at a cost of $550,000 beginning next fall.

The restoration is one of the first initiatives undertaken by the Alliance, a non-profit organization named by Mayor Koch two years ago to raise private funds for Brooklyn’s flagship park.

"We can chart our future clearly and wisely

only when we know the path which has led to the present."

Adlai E. Stevenson

(1835-1914)