By Nelson A. King
Haitian American legislators Assemblywoman
Rodneyse Bichotte and
Councilwoman Farah N. Louis on Monday
applauded Mayor Bill de Blasio’s
announcement that a new recreation
center will be built at Nostrand Playground
in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
“For the people of Flatbush, the new
community recreation center at the
Nostrand Playground will serve as a
center for economic growth and youth
development,” said Bichotte, who represents
the 42nd Assembly District in
Brooklyn. “The large Haitian and Caribbean
American community in Brooklyn
has been adversely and disproportionately
impacted by the COVID-19
pandemic, which has highlighted racial
disparities in our neighborhood.
“This investment in our community
and in future generations is a crucial
step toward reducing those disparities,”
added Bichotte, who is also chair of the
Brooklyn Democratic Party. “I thank
Mayor de Blasio and Commissioner
(Mitchell) Silver for seeing this project
through.”
Louis, who represents the 45th
Council District in Brooklyn, said: “Our
youth, families and seniors have waited
with much anticipation for a safe space
that they can call their own – a hub for
learning, recreation, community and
civic engagement.
“This state-of-the-art recreation
center will be a beacon of inspiration
and innovation, where people of all
ages and backgrounds can connect and
prosper with expanded access to muchneeded
resources in a centralized location,”
she said. “Our youth have been
met with extraordinary challenges, lifealtering
and traumatic experiences that
no child should ever have to encounter.
“This center is how we Occupy the
Block, this is how we stop the shooting
and save lives, by taking this critical
step forward,” Louis continued. “My
predecessor, former Council Member
and current Public Advocate Jumaane
D. Williams brought this idea to life,
and I am proud to build upon this
framework and carry it across the finish
line together.
“I want to thank Mayor de Blasio
and NYC Parks Commissioner Silver
for working in partnership with my
office and the residents of District 45
to formally announce a new recreation
center at Nostrand Playground in East
Flatbush,” she said.
The mayor said that the recreation
center will include an indoor pool and
kitchen for cooking classes, using capital
funding shifted from the New York
Police Department (NYPD) to Parks in
the Fiscal Year 2021 Adopted Budget.
Caribbean Life, July 31-August 6, 2020 3
People pray around the casket of Congressman John Lewis (D- GA) as he lies in state on July 27, 2020 in the Rotunda
of the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. where he lies in state after a memorial service. Matt McClain / Pool
Eugene honors John Lewis’ legacy
By Nelson A. King
Brooklyn Democratic Council Member
Dr. Mathieu Eugene on Sunday honored
the life and legacy of civil rights icon
and Congressman John Lewis, saying
that Lewis “empowered all of us with his
vision of respect and the betterment of
our society for generations to come.”
Lewis, who was born on Feb. 21, 1940
and died on July 17, succumbed to Stage
4 pancreatic cancer. He was 80.
The outspoken Democratic congressman,
who represented Georgia’s 5th district
in the US Congress for 34 uninterrupted
years, was chairman of the US
House of Representatives’ House Ways
and Means Oversight Subcommittee. He
was considered “an apostle of nonviolence.”
“Today, the world paid tribute to an
icon of the civil rights movement, Congressman
John Lewis, who was honored
in Selma, Alabama for the personal sacrifices
he made towards achieving human
equality,” said Eugene, the first Haitian to
be elected to New York City Council, on
Sunday, when a memorial service was
held for Lewis in Selma, Ala.
“He truly embodied the spirit and bravery
of a freedom fighter and a noble public
servant, who believed that we can only
achieve progress when we work towards
a common goal as human beings,” added
Eugene, representative for the predominantly
Caribbean 40th Council District
in Brooklyn. “I join mourners across
the United States and around the world
in paying tribute to Congressman John
Lewis and his place in history as an
impassioned proponent for equality and
human rights.
“As someone who was born and raised
in Haiti, and the first Haitian-American
elected to the government in New York,
I stand on the shoulders of John Lewis,
because of his unrelenting determination
to end discrimination and injustice,”
Eugene continued. “I am truly humbled
by the immense struggle that he underwent
to make my journey, and the journey
of so many of my colleagues possible
in the United States.
“On the several occasions when I met
with John Lewis, I was moved by his
resolve in the pursuit of justice for all
people,” he said. “His wisdom and sagacity
were deeply inspiring and continue to
influence my advocacy for equal rights.
As a culture and society, let us continue
to further his legacy of pursuing human
equity.”
A cross-section of influential US legislators
on Monday paid their respects to
Lewis in the Capitol Rotunda before his
flag-draped casket was moved the Capital
building in Washington, D.C. so he could
be honored by the public.
In paying tribute to Lewis, Caribbean
American Democratic Congresswoman
Yvette D. Clarke said “America has lost
one of its greatest heroes.
“He was a great patriot who put his
very life on the line in the pursuit of justice
in the nation he loved,” said Clarke,
the daughter of Jamaican immigrants,
who represents the 9th Congressional
District in Brooklyn. “He made it his duty
to disrupt the status quo, to ‘get in the
way’ and to demand civil rights and justice
for Black people of the South (United
States) and by extension the poor and disenfranchised
across the country.”
Clarke, vice chair of the US Congressional
Black Caucus (CBC), of which
Lewis was a long-serving member, said
Lewis often referred to his penchant for
civil disobedience as “good trouble.”
“His courage and bravery in the face
of violence and cruelty was truly heroic,”
she told Caribbean Life. “Growing up as
the son of Alabama sharecroppers, Representative
John Lewis saw and experienced
the pervasive impact of racism in the
Deep South firsthand.”
Clarke said Lewis’s experiences compelled
him to reach out to slain US civil
rights leader the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. and become fully engaged of the
Civil Rights Movement, staging sit-ins in
Nashville, Tennessee, as a Fisk University
student, rising to become chairman of
the Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC), taking part in the
Freedom Rides to desegregate the South
and “leading one of the most prolific and
effective protest movements in American
history.”
via REUTERS
Children pose for a photo as they
wait in line to view the late U.S. Congressman
John Lewis, a pioneer of
the civil rights movement and longtime
member of the U.S. House of
Representatives who died July 17, as
he lies in state at the Alabama State
Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama,
U.S. July 26, 2020. REUTERS / Elijah
Nouvelage
Recreation
center for
Flatbush