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WEEKSVILLE        BANKS

work that set a white standard Weeksville was placed in the position of having to de-mythicize Blackness, or accept the standard. Blackness, therefore, was a condition to be overcome and Black pride an anomaly. This conflict led to factionalism, allowed the Blackness in different terms and rendered the community politically impotent. 

In the new school building issue in 1892 identity was not at issue. The community presented a united front in their attempt to secure an adequate school building. So insignificant was the identity issue, in fact that the community agreed to integrate. In the absence of conflict Weeksville was successful in its effort to win a new building but only after waging a relentless battle with a Board prepared to use any means to prevent the community from having it.
Quality education, in reality then, played a secondary role to political and social expediency. The Board was charged by white society with perpetuating separate and unequal schools "in the interest of the Black themselves." 26 They effectively side-stepped community efforts to improve school conditions while "resolving" each Board-community confrontation. But more importantly, Weeksville, as a community, was willing to sacrifice quality education for social expediency. Both in 1869 and in 1873 the community lost sight of its goal in light of the overwhelming conflict around its identity. Within such a framework quality education became a salable commodity for the political expediency of maintaining the status quo and for a "positive" identity on white America's terms. 

The common denominator, that factor critical to the turn of events and the decisive factor in each of these relationships, is identity. It was only when the community "set aside" identity as an issue that they presented a political force to be reckoned with.
 
implications
If we are to draw conclusions from this tiny sample of life in nineteenth century Brooklyn we would have to say that Weeksville as a politico-historical model demonstrates primarily that the community's political strength, or its ability to make meaningful change, is inextricably interwoven with the struggle for identity. This fact is no less true today than one hundred years ago in Weeksville. Our 

26 Ibid., March 2, 1869. 

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Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-20 01:44:52