What was The Tenants Committee to End Discrimination in Stuyvesant Town?
The Tenants’ Committee was an organization formed in 1948 after black veterans returning from the war were denied rentals in Stuy-Town. The newly-created “suburb in the city” housed 25,000 families; according to the New York Times, two-thirds of them opposed the segregation of the complex.
Amy Fox is a screenwriter working on a movie about this, and you can find the story of her grandparents’ integration efforts — which led some fellow tenants to lose their jobs and their apartments — here.
The story is also mentioned, briefly, in The Real Pepsi Challenge, the new Stephanie Capparell book that outlines how some 1940s and 1950s-era civil rights battles were fought one house, and especially, one soft drink, at a time. Highly recommended.