FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM FEBRUARY 6, 2020 • THE QUEENS COURIER 57
black history month
Building Futures: The honorable Archie Spigner and his place in Queens history
BY JAY HERSHENSON
Th ere is a large sign above the door of
the Guy R. Brewer United Democratic
Club in St. Albans, where Queens College
alumnus, Class of ’72, and District Leader
Archie Spigner regularly holds court. It
says, “Barack OBAMA for President.”
One cannot easily envision this meeting
hall fi lled with red “Make America Great
Again” hats, but it would come as no surprise
if someday a new fi rst name, like
“Michelle,” appeared on that sign.
Inside the club is a recently painted,
deceptively large, corner meeting hall. On
Dec. 18, 2019, Spigner sat attentively at a
table for about 90 minutes. He nursed his
coff ee to supplement the modest heating
system, and reminisced about his 91 years
of experience.
It began in the town and nearby farmlands
of Orangeburg, S.C., where Spigner,
the last of fi ve kids, was born on Aug. 27,
1928 — a birthday he shared with the late
President Lyndon Baines Johnson. If you
believe in numerology, then know that later
on in his life, Spigner represented the 27th
Councilmanic District for, you guessed it,
27 years (time to bet that number!).
“To say we were a struggling black family
is to put a good face on it,” he said, noting
that he was always hungry as a child,
and that he loved the way his aunt, a
school teacher, made sweet potatoes.
Th e family moved in shift s to the northeast
in the late 1930s and beyond, some
members living with relatives in Stamford,
Conn., and others staying behind on a
farm. Spigner migrated to Harlem, then to
the Bronx, and fi nally, to southeast Queens.
Along the way, he picked up loose
change shining shoes, helping out in local
barber shops (“dust the guys off and they
would give you a nickel or dime.”). He
would get married, then go on to work
in a shoe factory, a bakery, and as a bus
driver, juggling employment with raising
a family. He displayed the skills, fortitude
and persistence of a street savvy, transplanted
southerner. His number one hero
was Joe Louis, the great heavyweight boxing
champion.
Spigner enrolled in Central Needle
Trades High School (a “fashion high
school”, he calls it) in Manhattan, graduating
in 1947. He joined its co-op program
and went to work in a shoe factory, no different
than the average sweat shop at the
time. At the suggestion of a co-worker, he
enrolled in the Jeff erson School of Social
Science, a prominent left -wing institution
where he learned parliamentary procedure—
still one of the anchors of politics.
He became the factory shop steward and
thus began his long association with labor
and organizing.
Leaving the garment trade, Spigner
became a New York City bus driver and
in the mid-1950s, he joined the Negro
American Labor Council founded by the
late great labor leader, City College alumnus
A. Philip Randolph. Spigner organized
the Queens Branch of the Negro
From l. to r.: Stephen Weinstein, Jay Hershenson, Archie Spigner, Soraya Ciego-Lemur, and Bernard The exterior of the Guy Brewer Democratic Club.
Harrigan
American Labor Council. He had been
traveling to Harlem from Queens for
meetings, but there was enough of a critical
mass to merit a Jamaica presence.
He held the fi rst meetings in his living
room in Queens, “even before I had furniture,”
he recalls. He assumed the role of
secretary or assistant secretary. “I’m a joiner,”
Spigner has said. “Th at’s what I am, I’m
a joiner, and I became a volunteer. Who’ll
take the minutes? I’ll take the minutes!”
One night, Spigner met the late Kenneth
N. Browne, an assistant district attorney,
at Fuzzy’s on Linden Boulevard. Browne
was running for the New York state
Assembly. After Spigner
asked, “You need some
help?,” Browne invited
him to the local
Democratic Club.
Th ere, he met legendary
district leader
Guy R. Brewer,
who asked Spigner to
help organize some new
troops to gather petition signatures
to help Browne qualify
for the ballot. Browne won
the election.
Guy Brewer
Brewer was working as the liaison to
the African-American community for
Queens Borough President Sidney Leviss.
Subsequently, Browne became a civil
court judge and Brewer won the vacated
Assembly seat. Brewer was obliged to
give up his district leader position because
he could not hold it simultaneously with
the legislative seat. He asked Archie to
become district leader and Spigner moved
into Borough Hall to take Brewer’s place
there. Th e musical chairs were humming.
“When I met people like Guy Brewer
and Ken Browne, I recognized that I needed
some (more) education,” Spigner said.
He enrolled in classes at St. Monica’s
Church in Jamaica — where York College
stands today — to strengthen his academic
skills. He was admitted to an associate degree
program at Queens College in the mid-
1960s, earned a bachelor’s degree in political
science from QC in 1972 and went on to pursue
graduate studies at the college. (Spigner is
particularly proud of his several family members
who graduated from Queens College.)
In 1974, the New York City Council was
expanded from 35 to 51 members. Tired
of trekking to Albany, Brewer wanted to
join the Council and have Spigner replace
him in the Assembly. Spigner demurred.
Th e Democratic Club’s board of directors
voted — by secret ballot — to resolve
the dispute. Winning by one vote, Spigner
went on to become a City Councilman and
then deputy majority leader, appointed by
Speaker Peter Vallone. During his 27-year
tenure, Spigner chaired the Committees
of Housing and Buildings, and Economic
Development, and the Legislative Offi ce
of the Budget Review. A twoterm
limit was imposed on
Council members in a
1993 referendum and,
subsequently, Archie
left the City Council.
On May 6, 2005,
Borough President
and Queens College
alumna Helen Marshall
— many credit Spigner
for securing her nomination
by the Queens County
Democratic Party — proclaimed
“Archie Spigner Day” boroughwide.
At a ceremony that day, federal offi -
cials renamed a United States Post Offi ce
in St. Albans in his honor. Congressman
Gregory Meeks authored the bill. It passed
both the House of Representatives and
the Senate and was signed by President
George W. Bush. At the event in Queens,
Senator Charles Schumer thanked Spigner
and his club for strongly supporting him
when he ran against Alfonse D’Amato for
the United States Senate.
From l. to r.: Stephen Weinstein, Jay
Hershenson, Archie Spigner, Soraya
Ciego-Lemur, and Bernard Harrigan
“All of us stand on Archie’s shoulders,”
said Schumer, who, according to reporter
Amy Lotven, credited Spigner with
advancing the election of the fi rst African-
American state senator, congressman,
New York City mayor, borough president,
and county Supreme Court judge.
“David Dinkins would not have been
mayor if it was not for Spigner,” former
Manhattan Borough President Percy
Sutton reportedly stated.
Many there would have surely attested
to Spigner’s longstanding advocacy for
York College, including a key meeting he
organized with Governor Hugh L. Carey
and community leaders at a critical stage
in the process to help ensure the building
of the current campus in Jamaica.
At another occasion, New York state
Senator Leroy Comrie spoke about
Archie, his longtime mentor and close
friend. He stated, in part, “Archie is a person
that has a keen sense of the dynamic
of a situation. He does his homework and
is never underprepared. He’s willing to listen
to reason. He loves to debate. He loves
to write and truly loves the city. . . . He has
worked hard for equality to ensure that
all are given equal treatment. . . . He has
never backed away from an issue in which
he has believed.”
Still smarting a bit about the imposition
of term limits — especially the fact
that if you run for offi ce without fi rst
obtaining educational credentials, you can
fi nd yourself left out in the cold when
your fi nal term concludes — Spigner had
advice for young people. “Get a degree in
accounting or some other kind of degree.”
Th e exterior of the Guy Brewer
Democratic Club.
Speaking of the cold, outside the Guy R.
Brewer United Democratic Club, next to the
large “Barack OBAMA” sign above the door,
is a smaller sign. It includes Archie Spigner
as its district leader. Th e sign is a reminder
that in Spigner’s universe, another election
is always around the corner. Th e March
2020 special election for Queens Borough
President, to fi ll the vacancy caused by
Melinda Katz’s election as Queens District
Attorney, is heating up. Th is corner meeting
place will be humming again.
Jay Hershenson, Queens College’s
Vice President for Communications
and Marketing and Senior Advisor to
the President, conducted an interview
with Archie Spigner with the technical
assistance of the LaGuardia and Wagner
Archives of LaGuardia Community
College. Special thanks to Director Richard
Lieberman, Deputy Director Soraya
Ciego-Lemur, Assistant to the Director
Stephen Weinstein and Videographer
Brandon Calva. Background materials
from the Archives were helpful to the
preparation of this article.
Archie Spigner (l.)
with Gregory Meeks.
/WWW.QNS.COM
