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The
Africans and The West Indians
Strength
in Numbers
The 2000 Census counted 69,425 people in Queens
who identified their ancestry as sub-Saharan African,
and 476, 563 who identified themselves as West
Indian of non-Hispanic origin.
Where
They Live
African-Americans have maintained a steady 10
to 12 percent borough-wide population since late
in the 17th century, with certain areas—like
parts of East Elmhurst and Corona and most of
Southeast Queens—mainaining black populations
of 70 percent or more.
Though parts of South Jamaica, South Ozone Park
and Far Rockaway are occupied by apartment buildings
and low-income housing and their corresponding
quality of life problems, much of Southeast Queens
is an area of middle-class prosperity confirmed
by neat houses—some of them small mansions—and
meticulously manicured landscaping.
How
They Got There
The contemporary identity of Queens as a major
destination for blacks began around the time of
the first World’s Fair in the 1939. After
the widespread development of northern Queens
for the Fair, and the opening up of access to
the borough with the Triborough Bridge, a significant
migration of blacks from Harlem began. Most of
those early intra-city migrants lived in the apartment
buildings and attached housing of that part of
the borough.
Incoming immigrants from West Indian, or Caribbean,
nations tripled between 1940 and 1990, particularly
between 1965 and 1980, according to the Immigration
and Naturalization Service.
African and
West Indian cultures share some roots,
and both have kept their cultures intact
through the years. Tribune photo by Ira
Cohen |
What
Makes Them Who They Are
When you ask Clarence Irving, founder of the Black
American Heritage Foundation and longtime St.
Albans resident, about African-Americans, he makes
the point that you’re speaking about people
of African descent from all of the Americas, not
just in the United States.
For Irving, the 2000 Census term “sub-Saharan
Africans” is something to laugh about. “You
mean black people?” he asks. “Well,
why don’t you say it that way?”
The
Good Life
Queens has always been a gold coast of sorts for
African-Americans in New York. Irving paints a
picture of a borough that was always seen not
as a first step or a last resort, but as a place
to move up into; many of Queens’ blacks
left cramped walk-ups or projects in Harlem or
Brooklyn for this borough’s open skies,
fresh air and green backyards.
The
Not-So-Good Life
Strained relations between native blacks and Caribbeans
with African ancestry still exist. The West Indies
are characterized by their unique mix of African
and Indian culture, and those two groups and native
blacks have always had some amount of culture
clash in Queens.
Still, today, amidst a level of tension, Caribbeans
and native blacks in Queens are closer than ever
to not only accepting but embracing each other.
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