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Story by Charu Kasturi
A small neighborhood in Washington Heights that boasted some of the biggest African-American names of the 20th century as residents is now lobbying to name a street crossing after boxing legend Joe Louis.
George Preston looked wistfully at the corner of 159th Street and Edgecombe Avenue, where as a boy of nine, he first saw boxing legend Joe Louis, wearing a long coat and hat, walking out of his next-door residence.
“It was right here,” said Preston, now 72, as a car rushed past, a popular hip-hop number blaring from its music player. “I remember clearly – I was walking from 159th towards 160th Street, and he was coming the other way.”
Today, the corner is known simply as the intersection of 159th Street and Edgecombe Avenue, shorn of any hint that Louis, widely regarded the first African-American to emerge a national hero in the US, lived barely 20 yards away.
But that could change soon.
Community Board 12, which represents Washington Heights and Inwood, voted this past Wed., Oct. 23rd in favor of naming the crossing of 159th Street and Edgecombe Avenue as Joe Louis Plaza. The community board’s recommendation will now go before the City Council approval.
The proposal to name the crossing after Louis came from a tiny community stretching four blocks along Edgecombe Avenue where Washington Heights and Harlem meet.
Once home to some of the best-known African-Americans of the 20th century, this community is now battling fading memories to try and keep its history alive for today’s youth.
The man leading the proposal is Jacob Morris, director of the Harlem Historical Society, who over the past five years has successfully lobbied for 29 streets to be co-named after African-American heroes across New York.
“The idea is to bring history to life and to connect history to the place where it was made,” said Morris.
Louis, the world champion between 1937 and 1949, lived at 555 Edgecombe Avenue from 1948 to 1952. An awestruck Preston said he never tried to talk much with Louis. “It was enough for me just to see him on the streets,” Preston recalled. “I would say: ‘Hello Mr. Louis,’ and yeah, he would respond.”
The address is today named Paul Robeson Home, as a tribute to the actor-activist who also lived there – as did jazz legend Count Basie, composer Duke Ellington, musicians Coleman Hawkins and Johnnie Hodges, singer Lena Horne and social psychologist Kenneth Clark.Just four blocks down stands 409 Edgecombe Avenue, which boasted singer Julius Bledsoe, poet William Braithwaite, the first African-American Supreme Court judge Thurgood Marshall, muralist Aaron Douglas, and civil rights leader W.E.B. DuBois among its residents.
“Today, most people living in the neighborhood don’t know these guys lived here,” said Morris.
The Joe Louis proposal is the latest initiative in a quiet movement that started two years back, and has gone almost unnoticed outside the neighborhood. In September 2009, the crossing of 160h Street and Edgecombe Avenue was co-named after Paul Robeson and Count Basie.
“This (series of initiatives) definitely matters to the community,” said Ken Moss, community veteran and director of the Morris-Jumel Mansion, George Washington’s headquarters during the Battle of Harlem Heights in the fall of 1776 and another symbol of the neighborhood’s history. “It’s particularly important for those who grew up here not knowing the history they grew up in.”
Moss said even he didn’t know that Louis lived in the neighborhood till he was contacted. “Here I am, immersed in the community’s history, and I didn’t know Joe Louis lived here till now,” he said. “It’s so important to know the history of the community you live in.”
Part of the reason remembering that chapter in the neighborhood’s history is important is because of what the legends living there meant to the African-American community at a time when it faced discrimination, neighborhood residents said.
“These were people who were able to break through glass ceilings and represent their community,” said Audra Moore E. Din, a resident of 555 Edgecombe Avenue. “They were great hopes of light for African-American people and for people of African descent in general.”
The subject evokes emotions, and Preston’s eyes flash with passion when asked whether living in the company of legends like Louis and Count Basie gave him a sense of pride during the race-divided 1950s.
“It was not just a question of pride,” Preston said, stuttering briefly with emotion. “It is easy to forget the social sacrifices others made for you to get where you are.”
Audra and her husband George Goss E. Din are also excited about participating in the process of naming the crossing next to their home after Joe Louis.
“Imagine we come here decades later with our great-grandchildren,” George said. “And we can tell them that we lived here when this crossing was named after Joe Louis.”
At the community board meeting, when the time came to vote, the decision was unanimous. “It’s a knockout,” said the first board member called upon to vote. The next board member was equally emphatic.
“In the first round,” he said.
“After all, what does 159th Street and Edgecombe Avenue tell you about this place? Nothing,” George said. “Naming the crossing after Louis would give the place its identity.”
It would also mean that six decades after Louis left the neighborhood, a 9-year-old walking down the street would once more be able to look up and see ‘Joe Louis’ standing at the corner – just as Preston did.
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