1960 Ad

Ebinger's Bakery & Operation Clean Sweep

I was astonished to learn that Ebinger's Bakery whose products my family and so many others loved, was a company that discriminated against black people, Latinos, and Jews. Brooklyn CORE led a major demonstration against employment discrimination at Ebinger's, and creatively made discrimination real and visible to the public. They blocked trucks, picketed, boycotted, and stopped business as usual. As a result, Ebinger's was forced to change its prejudiced hiring practices.

Operation Clean Sweep was another success. Unlike surrounding areas, the entire neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant had garbage-filled streets. Arnold Goldwag, Brooklyn CORE's Community Relations Director, along with others, investigated the schedules of the Sanitation Department. They found that "Bed-Stuy" only received garbage pickups three days a week, while other neighborhoods--Marine Park, Bensonhurst, Sheepshead Bay--were served five days a week. Their research disclosed that Bedford-Stuyvesant was the most densely populated neighborhood in New York City, with the largest black population--700,000 by 1970. When the Department of Sanitation refused to issue emergency funds to increase the number of pickups, Brooklyn CORE decided: "We're going to show you what it's like to have garbage on the steps of your home." They brought the garbage to the steps of Borough Hall. Their point was made masterfully, out in the open for all to see, and this made for change.

It was change on behalf of a world more just and beautiful--which is what human beings of all races hope for. Another speaker on the library panel, Msemaji Weusi (then known as Maurice Fredericks), recalled: "My wife and I were walking down Fulton Street in the early 1960s and we saw a demonstration. It was strange to see whites and blacks on the same side and the same picket line, saying 'Brother, come and walk the line.' I was so impressed by their discipline, integrity and determination that I joined them."

"Authentic Reminiscences"

"There will come a time, here in Brooklyn and all over America," wrote Walt Whitman, "when nothing will be of more interest than authentic reminiscences of the past." (4) The truth of these words was vibrantly alive as the rapt audience continued to hear men and women, black and white, recall their work against racial discrimination, including Operation Clean Sweep.

Dr. Purnell showed a slide of a child walking on a garbage-strewn street, holding a sign: "Give Us a First Class Bedford Stuyvesant." Brooklyn CORE, he said, was one of the first chapters to implement the tactic of peaceful arrest by going limp, or lying down and refusing to move. Another slide showed Arnold Goldwag doing just that, as police officers carried him away. Mr. Goldwag was community relations director of Brooklyn CORE, and he made sure their protests were covered by the media. "We knew what we had to do," he said, "and we did it with pizzazz!" This was clear in slides of women with CORE-embroidered aprons, sweeping the streets during Operation Clean Sweep. One showed Marjorie Leeds receiving a summons from police officers--a $5 ticket. Dr. Purnell stated that at the hearing Mrs. Leeds said, "I refuse to pay--you can send me to jail right now." The judge banged his gavel, dropped the charges, and dismissed the case.