FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com february 19, 2015 • The Queens Courier 3 Historic Flushing church that once played a role in freeing slaves slated for replacement BY ERI C JANKIE WICZ [email protected]/@ Eric Jankiewicz A historic 19th-century Queens church that once served as a stop on the Underground Railroad could be facing the wrecking ball as leaders in the Flushing congregation consider a proposal to replace the aging structure with a new sanctuary. The African Methodist Episcopal Church on Union Street dates back to the 1800s and today remains one of the borough’s two surviving stops on the Underground Railroad, a network of people and buildings used to shuttle slaves out of the South before the Civil War. Flushing’s John Bowne House is the borough’s other surviving remnant of the network that brought an estimated 100,000 slaves to freedom in northern states and Canada. But church officials, concerned about structural problems in the building, are considering building a new church on the site. Revered McEachern confirmed that they are in the “developing stage” of tearing down the church so that a new worship site could be built. He said that the various historic elements of the building, like the church’s vaulted roof, would be preserved and used in the new building. But he declined to comment on the decision, which was made by the church’s board of trustees. The African Methodist Episcopal Church on Union Street was established in Flushing during the early 1800s by a black and Native American congregation. During that time, escaped slaves were being shuttled through Flushing, a base for Quakers, who were fierce abolitionists and instrumental in the operation of the Underground Railroad. Serving as a link between the South and the North, the railroad was a series of friendly establishments and communities that harbored runaway slaves as they made their way north to Canada. The railroad proved to be so effective that even George Washington complained in 1786 that one of his slaves ran away to a society of Quakers. The possibility of tearing down the church has some members of the congregation upset that a vital link to an important part of African-American history will be lost. “They’re going to tear this church down for absolutely no good reason,” said Mandingo Tshaka, who is a longtime member of the church and an activist for the community. “Sure, there’s a problem with the foundation, but it can be fixed. They just don’t want to do it and that’s a crying shame.” The original church was rebuilt in 1931, with much of the structure preserved. According to Tshaka and others familiar with the issue, the foundation is failing, and this prompted the trustees to make the decision to replace the structure. Tshaka was born in Queens and remembers visiting the church often during his childhood. The Flushing area was home to a large black community during the early 1900s. But the neighborhood soon changed and many of the original houses in the area were bulldozed for new development. The black community was displaced but the church, one of the few structures to be spared, remains. “A way of life was destroyed as members of the African-American community were scattered,” the church wrote on its website. “Leaving only their church as a reminder of their former existence in the area.” But if the new plans to destroy the church go through, Tshaka said, this small piece of history will be destroyed, too. THE COURIER/Photo by Eric Jankiewicz AME Church members in the mass room. The church is a link to the historic black community in Flushing. SUNNYSIDE AND WOODSIDE PARENTS PETITION FOR A NEW MIDDLE SCHOOL Map courtesy of Sunnyside Woodside MSP Parents in Sunnyside and Woodside have started a petition asking for the DOE and School Construction Authority to build a middle school in their neighborhood (shaded in green). BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO [email protected]/@aaltamirano28 A group of parents from Sunnyside and Woodside have started a petition calling on city and school officials to bring a new middle school into District 30, which is known for its overcrowded schools. Debra McGowan, a parent of a first-grader at P.S. 11 in Woodside, presented the petition during a “State of Our Schools Town Hall” meeting on Tuesday organized by Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan, chair of the state Assembly Education Committee. The petition, started on Feb. 12, comes after the parents starting calling on the School Construction Authority and Department of Education last year for a new middle school in the area which serves elementary schools P.S. 150, P.S 11 and P.S. 339, slated to open in the fall. McGowan said since last year, parents have come up with potential sites and have presented them to the SCA. However on Feb. 6, the parents were told by the agencies that according to the latest census there are not enough children in the area to justify a new middle school. “The children in District 30 are zoned to I.S. 125, which is in technically District 24, but there are 1,700 children in that middle school and that is a thousand too many,” Nolan said. “So to suggest that situation should continue is ridiculous, to say there are not enough kids, when there are going to be more.” Along with having to attend middle schools that are overcrowded, McGowan added that students from Sunnyside and Woodside have to cross dangerous thoroughfares such as Queens and Northern boulevards to get to their designated middle schools. McGowan said she is trying to get as many signatures as possible by the end of the month and will present the petitions at the next Panel for Educational Policy meeting scheduled for Feb. 25. She added that the goal is to not miss out on the 2015-2019 capital plan, which would look to build three middle schools in Queens. “We’re here and I need signatures to prove that we’re here,” McGowan said. “I feel that we need to let them know that we need to build a school in the area.” More information about the petition can be found on the Sunnyside Woodside MSP Facebook page. The DOE did not immediately respond to request for comment. Along with the petition, during the town hall meeting, Nolan and education advocates described how the state owes the city school system $5.9 billion as a result of underfunding, and they criticized Governor Cuomo’s education agenda. Some of the issues voiced by those present at the meeting included problems with the emphasis on high stakes standardized tests, lack of funding for arts and music, and asking to keep the current cap on the number of charter schools in the city. “There may be some bad things happening but we do have a chance to make some good things happen,” Nolan said.
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