I served as second national vice president of the Congress of Racial Equality under Jim Farmer for several years (and for a short time with Floyd McKissick) and later became the president of Bronx C.O.R.E. On numerous occasions I traveled to Baltimore, Maryland to participate in demonstrations, sits ins and other forms of direct action taken against the city and local institutions/businesses in an effort to break their Jim Crow policies. We worked closely with Walter Brooks, among others, who was C.O.R.E.'s field representatives in Baltimore. I also traveled to Washington, DC frequently to support the DC chapter's direct action campaigns, working in this case with folks like Rowena Martin, who was DC chapter president at the time.
Along with several other C.O.R.E. members from the Bronx, including Herb Calendar, one of the early Freedom Riders, we initiated what was to become the first direct action/civil disobedience efforts outside of the south (during the modern day Civil Rights Movement) when we sat in at the White Castle restaurant chain to break their discriminatory hiring policies. The attention our actions brought to the cause helped generate interest in the Movement throughout the region and I believe in large part were responsible for the proliferation of C.O.R.E. chapters across the North East.
I remained active with C.O.R.E through the approximately two years McKissick headed the organization, but left about the time he departed because of the direction the group took at that time.
My involvement in the Civil Rights Movement was one of the most exhilarating, enlightening, emotional and empowering experiences of my life. It set me on a path of service to our community that I am still on to this day. After my involvement with C.O.R.E. I went on to establish and run several programs for disadvantaged youth, and later got into the publishing business. Today I publish and edit Black Meetings & Tourism magazine, which addresses the needs of African- Americans and other people of color in the travel/tourism/meetings/hospitality industry.
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