BlackLives Matter, Mosaic, and the Great Society

   MLK Day 2015,  41 Piedmont St.

The Great Society, Black Lives Matters, and Mosaic

The building at 41 Piedmont St. (now Mosaic) has a long history of use for neighborhood programs and progressive causes. This history dates back at least to the 1960s and the Great Society. Mosaic use of the building for Wellness Testing and the empowerment of neighborhood people is just the latest iteration. Hopefully it will not be the building’s last.

The Great Society was the many government programs aimed at ending poverty and eliminating inequalities, especially racial inequalities.  The programs came into effect as a result of the old civil rights movement. Although gutted, the Great Society still exist to some extent as the social safety net.

The building was originally used by YMCA as place where in the early 1960s children from the neighborhood could experience nature in the city. There were stuffed animals on display, lectures about nature, and travel to the countryside.

Mary Bonina who grew up across the street at 42 Piedmont St. Remembers the Nature Center.

"I remember the Nature Center from when it was the Nature Center run by Mr. Bascom who had all sorts of creatures in taxidermy.”

Ms. Bonina went on to write a prize winning book about her dad who was slowly growing blind, “My Fathers Eyes”.

Anne (marie) Harreden was an activist during the 1960s and 1970s. She remembers the Free Breakfast for Children program that was in the “Piedmont Opportunity Center”.  One of the interviewee said that Justice Clarence Thomas occasionally served eggs and oatmeal to the children.

          “I remember the Piedmont Center well! All kinds of great activities 

           happened within those walls. I was not the "manager" of the Free         

           Breakfast for Children but certainly worked side by side with others 

          cooking and serving breakfast to the kids.’

Ms. Harreden also talked about organizing Worcester Welfare Rights group with other progressive people. The Piedmont Center, 41 Piedmont St. is where it met.

“…ready to do battle with social workers downtown. Jill Watts, Malinda Lusk, Marylou McCarthy and I organized a Worcester chapter and our members met in that building”

The building and group have an indirect connection to City Councillor Toomey; Melinda Lusk was her mother.

The National Welfare Rights Organization fought for the welfare rights of people, especially women and children. The organization had four goals: adequate income, dignity, justice, and democratic participation. The membership was estimated at 25,000 members (mostly African American women).  

My most vivid memory of 41 Piedmont St. was when I was living around the corner at 16 Castle St. There was a young black man unjustly beaten by the police. This was a common occurrence in the 1970s and today.

I was a member of the Black Coalition Party then. Immediately after the incident we sent out word that the community should meet at the Piedmont Center. A lawyer friend of ours Harvey came and took our affidavits about what we witnessed.

Harvey at some later time became enamored with a lady organizer, Dora, who had five children. They were married. Even I, in my youth, saw that it was a bad match. Needless to say the marriage did not last. They were both good people with their hearts in the right places.

Carolyn Packard worked at Worcester Housing Information with Dora. Ms. Packard has vague recollections of the Piedmont Center.

“…this happened at the Housing Information Center on Millbury Street. I remember going to a building on Piedmont Street for some reason, but can't remember.”

The Housing Information Center began as a tenant's rights organizing group and grew in its well-known location on Millbury Street to provide an array of services including tenant/landlord housing counseling and elder home repair programming.

The tenants organization from which the Information Center came was the Worcester Tenants Association that at one time operated out of a store front on Main St. near Castle called “Your Place”

Susan Lazaraitis has a better memories of the Piedmont Center.

“  I remember when the Piedmont Opportunity Center was there and it was a very active place where hundreds of community members used the space to help folks all day long......and received lots of help with food stamps; housing issues, daycare, childcare, health and safety issues in the 'hood. “

Living in Worcester most of her life Ms. Laizaraitis has been outspoken activist before I came to Worcester in 1968. She is advocating today the keeping of 41 Piedmont as a community space, the original intent for the building.

“I just want to remind you and the rest of Worcester that there is a history to the building there.....This building has been a "community" use space for many decades.......and if the city is really selling it.it should not happen. This space belongs to the community whether it remains as what it is now or not”

The Piedmont Center, Your Place, and other organizations were a part of the urban Great Society known generally as “Model Cities” I thought its moniker of “Bridging the Gap” was expressive of its purpose.

The Model Cities Program was an element of U.S. President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society War on Poverty. In 1966 new legislation led to the more than 150 five-year-long, Model Cities experiments to develop new antipoverty programs and alternative forms of municipal government.

Ms. Lazaraitis has a clear memory of Justice Thomas and the Free Breakfast for Children program at the Piedmont Center.

“After all........it was the Piedmont Opportunity Center. Where hundreds of folks received services to help and change their lives......It was a place where I served FREE BREAKFAST Program with Clarence.....and all the others at that time.....It is a very important space........for the community!"

 I worked in the Free Breakfast for Children program at Our Lady of Fatima Church and I cannot with certainty say I saw Clarence Thomas at the Church. This program was run by Edward P. Jones who went on to write a Pulitzer Prize winning novel.

The Free Breakfast for School Children Program was a community service program run by the Black Panther Party as an early manifestation of the social mission. Although there was no Black Panther Party organization in Worcester, there was a group called the Black Coalition Party of which I was a member. 

We helped with the Free Breakfast for Children program in Worcester.

We in the Black Coalition Party also worked with the City Health Department to do Sickle Cell Anemia Testing. One of the testing site was the Piedmont Center.

According to Ms. Lazaraitis, VISTA, another part of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, had connections to Piedmont building.

“I remember that the place was an active community space when I was in the VISTA program in 1967 and later lived with my VISTA host in a house on Piedmont Street”

VISTA is an acronym for Volunteers in Service to America and is now also known as Americorp.

Performing Arts were located in the Piedmont Center.

“… Leslie Greene. Her nickname was "Blue"....a fun and brilliant. African -American woman who lived on Benefit St. She graduated from Clark University and stayed in Worcester for a while after she graduated and she taught "African Dance Class" there and had performances…”

Parents met at the Piedmont Center and an indirect connection to School Committee person Jack Foley.

“Later, .I think that the city used to hold Special Education PAC/Parents Action Committee meetings there too....Jack Foley's wife led those mtgs at one time....”

Mosaic has continued the long tradition of providing services to those in need and a meeting place for civil rights advocacy. It provided wellness testing and a meeting place for BlackLives Matter.

Unfortunately some City Councillors have been conducting a war on the poor. A war that many people consider to be racist, at least in terms of the disparate impact it has Black, Latino, Asian, and other communities.

 Anne Harreden laments in her interview about having to fight the same battles.

“Funny how some things don't ever change with time. Our convictions, our values, our knowledge of right and wrong. All that remains with us. I hope the future will not have us fighting the same battles of injustice”

Change for the better is coming. I think that somehow 41 Piedmont St. or someplace like it will again be in the center of that change.  Value comes from the good work of people and the people of Worcester will continue to do good work and effectuate social and economic justice.