By 1963, the Civil Rights Movement had become a major fixture in American society. Protests and demonstrations in the name of racial equality were being held across the country. In New York, one of the greatest areas for discrimination was employment, and Brooklyn CORE took this issue seriously. The construction at Brooklyn's Downstate Medical Center in 1963 was supposed to be a major boost for Brooklyn's economy, providing years of employment for laborers and construction workers. Unfortunately, the majority of the jobs were given to unions that were "unavailable" to black workers. In response, CORE joined with the Black Ministers Coalition and other organizations to stage a major sit-in at the construction site. On July 15, 1963, fourteen of Brooklyn's African American ministers arrived at Downstate with over 75 parishioners to picket. In the weeks that followed, several hundred people, many of who were members of Brooklyn CORE, were arrested from picketing. Demonstrators made human chains in front of wrecking balls, lay down in front of bulldozers, and climbed on tops of cranes. The actions severely slowed work on the building and garnered significant public and media attention.

T Building of Kings County Hospital, 1929. Seen at left, from Clarkson Avenue, is what was known as the Acute Hospital of the the Kings County Hospital.

George W. Wingate High School, 1965. George W. Wingate High School was built in 1956. The mid-century design of the school included this circular building attached to a long rectangular structure, giving it the look of a banjo from above. Notable graduates of the school include Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Senator Barbara Boxer, and rapper M.C. Lyte. The school closed in 2006. The building is now home to four smaller schools.

In 1926 Europe's famed "Hakoah" (meaning: the strength, in Hebrew) team arrived here from their hometown of Vienna to play local soccer superstars "The Brooklyn Wanderers" well, it was front page news in the Forward..

Although many have heard of Kings County Hospital, the huge medical center that sits right in the middle of Brooklyn between New York and Utica Avenues, few now remember the name of the Kingston Avenue Hospital, which occupied a site bounded by Kingston and Albany Avenues to the west and east, and Rutland Road and Winthrop Street to the north and south. And the reason we have heard of it here in the Brooklyn Collection is that a doctor by the name of Boris Schleifer photographed the hospital and some of its inmates and staff during the 1930s. The resultant collection of over a hundred images somehow made its way to Brooklyn Public Library--with every photograph of the creator removed except those in which he is too small to be recognized. This story appeared in its original format here.

Maintained by the Department of Charities and Corrections of Kings County (Brooklyn), this almshouse shared a sixty-five-acre site with the Kings County Hospital and the Long Island Hospital for the Insane. While the grounds were beautifully laid out, the facilities were notoriously overcrowded and shabby. The women's almshouse was established in 1850, and a men's section was added in 1869.

118 East 40th Street, west side, adjoining Linden Boulevard, ca. 1928.