Building the Brooklyn machine: Irish, Jewish and black political succession in central Brooklyn, 1919-1964.
Item
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Title
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Building the Brooklyn machine: Irish, Jewish and black political succession in central Brooklyn, 1919-1964.
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Identifier
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AAI9029935
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identifier
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9029935
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Creator
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Gerson, Jeffrey Nathan.
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Contributor
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Adviser: John Mollenkopf
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Date
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1990
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies | History, Black | American Studies
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Abstract
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Unlike Chicago and other well researched cities of the Northeast and Midwest, Brooklyn, New York was the scene of a comparatively fluid political succession for Jews and blacks in this century. Several factors differentiate Brooklyn from the others. I hypothesize that swift demographic change (and legislative reapportionment that reflects it), interparty and intraparty competition, a decentralized party structure, and astute ethnic and racial group leadership, all contribute to the machine's ability to incorporate, rather than exclude, new immigrants groups. When these conditions hold, a machine can foster ethnic and racial change in party organization.;Throughout the twentieth century, the Brooklyn Democratic machine sought to include Jews and blacks within its ranks. Few attempts were made to prevent their participation and advancement in the local political party organization. Rather, ethnic and racial competition involved a degree of conflict between the Irish, Jews and blacks, a situation that was contained and then resolved by party adaptation to the new demographic reality. In the end, the machine weathered several transitions of political power. Its longevity was due in no small measure to its ability to find ways of accommodating ethnic and racial change. Given the experience of the first two succession experiences for Jews and blacks, the Brooklyn Democratic machine was able to favorably incorporate them both at the local level of the party organization.;This dissertation studies the unique case of Brooklyn in the context of New York City politics. It focuses on three Central Brooklyn communities: Brownsville, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Crown Heights. Brownsville and Bedford-Stuyvesant witnessed the first shifts of political leadership from the Irish to the Jews and later from the Irish, Jews and Italians to the blacks. Crown Heights is important not only because it housed the most powerful clubhouse in Brooklyn for nearly 50 years, the Eighteenth assembly district Madison Club led by Irvin and Stanley Steingut, it also saw the blossoming of the Unity Democratic Club (UDC), the second political organization to bring blacks into district leadership positions. At UDC a progressive interracial alliance took over power from the regular, interracial clubhouse.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
