The African American Experience 

Commissioner Hecksher, Courtney Callender, and Alfred Shapiro at Community Presentation, Lower East Side, 1967

Courtesy of New York City Parks Photo Archive. At this meeting at a Lower East Side Puerto Rican community center, Courtney Callender (1937-1983), the Parks Department's first director of Community Relations, holds a model for a vest pocket park, as Alfred Shapiro (at right) explains plans, and Parks Commissioner August Heckscher (far left) looks on. Callender was later promoted to Deputy Commissioner of Cultural Affairs, and also served as director of the Studio Museum of Harlem and WNET's educational programming. A playground in Harlem is named in his honor.