Viewing page 380 of 440

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

YES, YOU CAN BEAT CITY HALL...BUT IT MAY TAKE 26 YEARS

YOU CAN'T BEAT CITY HALL

Sure, you can beat City Hall—but you have to have 26 years of perseverance—continue your fight with City Hall from the time one of your daughters was 6 months old until the present when she is in her 26th year; fight two Mayors, four Borough Presidents, and three Park Commissioners; receive funds from a cooperative outside donor; encouragement from Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall, and the spokesman and champion for a local group of concerned citizens.

The pictures on this page show what 26 years of perseverance on the part of Mrs. Hilda Stokely, a local mother and her band of loyal supporters did to make the City of New York rehabilitate their local area park known as Mount Morris. The battle began when Mrs. Stokely's daughter Brenda was a 6 months old baby whom she took daily for airing in the park. Mount Morris Park at that time was a historic spot in Manhattan in that during the Revolutionary War the Morris family entertained some British troops in the area while Washington crossed the Delaware but it had deteriorated into a ghetto garbage dump. Mrs. Stokely and a band of other mothers which included Mrs. Helen Bowman and Mrs. Gladice Coleman of the 119th Street Improvement Association and the Parents Association of P.S. 24 began their supplication to the City asking them to rehabilitate the park.

The first Borough Park President to listen to their appeal was Hulan Jack who got the Department of Sanitation to clear away the debris from the park and the Police Department to chase undesirables from the broken benches so that the mothers could use the park for themselves and their youngsters in safety.

The second Borough President to come to their rescue was Edward Dudley who, after a knockdown and dragged out meeting in his office, asked he [[the]] Board of Estimate to put some money into the Budget to plan for the rehabilitation of the park. 

The third Borough President to aid them was Mrs. Constance Baker Motley who carried on the fight Mr. Dudley had started naming Mount Morris Park as one of those areas for improvement

[[image]]


394