Norman Coombs
Rochester New York
Rochester, the seat of Monroe County, N.Y., is a city and port on the Genesee River and Lake Ontario. The city's population according to the 1980 census is 241,741, and its Black population is 62,332.
Rochester's first white settler was Ebenezer Allen, who built a flour mill at the Genesee Falls for the local Seneca Indians. His land was purchased by Colonel Nathaniel Rochester, and the settlement was incorporated as the village of Rochesterville in 1817. A mulatto, Asa Dunbar, had, in 1795, opened a clearing on Irondequoit Bay which would later become the North East corner of the city. The building of the Erie Canal by 1825 gave the local flour mills a boost, and the town grew rapidly. In 1840, Rochester had a population of 20,191 persons, of which 410 were Blacks. While most were laborers, their number also included tailors, shoemakers, blacksmiths, masons, stone cutters, cabinet makers, merchants and clergy.
Austin Steward was probably Rochester's first Black businessman. He had come to town in 1816, and, two years later, he opened his own meat market which, in spite of harassment from the White butchers, soon became prosperous. In 1830, he was approached by Blacks from Cincinnati who asked him to assist them in establishing the colony of Wilberforce in Ontario, Canada. When he returned to Rochester five years later, he had lost most of his savings. After his new store in Rochester burned down, he moved to Canandaigua, New York where he later died.
In 1823 the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Society, the third church in Rochester, was founded. It grew out of the sabbath school founded in 1818 by Stuart. One of its first pupils was Thomas James who had been born a slave in Canajoharie, New York. He had run away and came to Rochester. He studied for the ministry becoming ordained in 1833, and he became the church's minister. The church became the focal point of the Rochester African American community. Rochester Blacks held a celebration on July 5, 1927 to recognize the final abolition of slavery in the state. James joined with William Bloss and Dr. J. W. Smith to hold antislavery meetings.
In 1847, when Frederick Douglass settled in Rochester, the city became a national antislavery center. His famous paper, the North Star was located in the basement of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church on Favor St. Some Rochesterians were embarrassed to have the North Star located in their city, but a month after it began, Douglass and Neil were warmly welcomed at a meeting of the local printers. Douglass was disappointed by the limited support of his paper by the Black community. In 1848, it had five White subscribers to every Black subscriber. Besides proclaiming the rights of African Americans, the North Star spoke out for women's rights. Susan B. Anthony, another citizen of Rochester, and Douglass were close friends and fellow crusaders. Douglass was one of the few men who attended the 1848 national women's rights convention held at nearby Seneca Falls.
Before his arrival in Rochester, the school board had set up a separate school for Blacks on Spring Alley. Douglass had his daughter tutored privately rather than send her to this segregated school. In 1857, the entire city school system was finally desegregated.
Rochester, because of its location on Lake Ontario, was an important center on the underground railroad. Douglass was only one of the local citizens who were actively involved in hiding runaways and in raising funds. In his autobiography, he tells of aiding two ex-slaves who were also wanted for murder as they had killed their master. In transporting them from his house to the Canadian ferry, Douglass admits to going armed himself. While disliking violence, he had grudgingly come to believe it would be necessary to overthrow the slave system. In 1858, John Brown spent time visiting Douglass while he developed his ideas for undermining the Southern slave system with a string of guerilla camps in the Allegheny mountains. While Douglass supported the general concept, he opposed the raid on Harpers Ferry. Nevertheless, he raised funds for Brown and introduced him to a local Black, Shields Green, who was one of three Rochester Blacks to join Brown in the attack.
With the start of the Civil War, Mayor Nash convened a public meeting in the City Hall, and he read Lincoln's call for volunteers. Parades of eager recruits marched through the central streets during the first enthusiastic weeks. By May 3, eight local companies were ready to join the 13th Regiment of New York State Volunteers. They participated in the first battle of Bull Run in which 12 were killed, 26 wounded, and 27 were taken prisoner. Rochester's Blacks were eager to join the fighting but Lincoln did not accept any Black volunteers. Nevertheless, many did serve as civilians in the Union army. When Lincoln finally did permit Blacks to join, Douglass became a vigorous recruiter, and two of his sons fought for the Union. There had been three Black New York State regiments, but only one Rochesterian, Stephen F Hamet, served in the New York regiments. Most served with units from other states. By the end of the war, the city had sent forth approximately 5000 mostly White recruits, roughly a tenth of the population, and there were 650 casualties.
After the war, the number of Blacks in Rochester grew slowly. In 1872, Rochester almost had a lynching when William Howard had been accused of raping a White girl. When a crowd threatened to break into the jail the militia was called. Before peace was restored, several persons were shot, and two were killed. Such events inspired the growing Black community to develop more institutions for self help. In 1903 the Presbyterian Church opened a mission, Trinity Chapel, and Mount Olivet Baptist Church was founded in 1908. In 1919 a local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was established.
Between 1900 and 1920 the Rochester Black population rose significantly to 1,579 out of a city population of 295,750. In spite of the Depression, the number of Black Rochesterians in the 1930s grew further to 3,262 out of an urban total of 324,975. This was an increase from less than .4% in 1900 to just over 1% in 1940. In 1938, a New York State commission studying discrimination held hearings in Rochester. Dr. Mordecai Johnson, who had been the first Black to graduate from the local divinity school and who went on to be the head of Howard University, returned to Rochester to criticize it for permitting racism to invade its school system and to hold sway in its commercial establishments. The crowding of increasing numbers of Blacks into the inner city continued as more Blacks came North during the Second World War to fill war industry jobs.
In 1950, the Rochester population was at 332,488 of which 7,590 were Blacks. In 1960 it grew to 318,611 with Blacks numbering 23,586. However, in 1970 Rochester's population diminished to 295,022 while the Blacks jumped to 49,647 which brought the percentage of Blacks in the city to nearly 17% of the total. Like most cities in the post-war era, White population had begun to move to its neighboring suburbs.
The Rochester economy was prosperous and seldom felt much pain during national economic down-turns. It continued to be dominated by hi-tech industries like Kodak and Xerox. However, these companies relied primarily on skilled labor, and their prosperity meant little to the Black community which continued to be a pocket of poverty in the midst of a vigorous economy. Whites found Rochester a nice place to live in spite of its climate. Local jobs paid above the national average, and large numbers of people owned their own homes. The city was unusually blessed with cultural activities. The Eastman School of Music, the Rochester Philharmonic and the International Museum of Photography had national reputations. Whites assumed Blacks were sharing in these benefits.
On July 24, 1964, the underlying discontent in the city exploded into a three day long riot. It had an innocent enough beginning. The Northeast Mothers Improvement Association sponsored a Friday evening street dance, and one of the chaperones had complained about an intoxicated youth to a police officer who arrested him. When the crowd interfered, The officers called for back-up help, and a K-9 unit was brought in enraging the crowd. When Chief Lombard tried to calm the crowd, his car was overturned and burned. This was the beginning of a very expensive three days of looting and burning for Rochester. Property damage was estimated at well over $1,000,000.
The city responded by calling in all off-duty state troopers, sheriffs, and policemen. The next evening, the crowds resumed, and the rioting spread. On Sunday, the governor was asked for help, and Rockefeller sent more than 1,500 members of the National Guard. Gradually, as the soldiers patrolled the streets the rioting subsided.
Rochester officials were shocked and hurt that such an event had occurred in their city. While they still refused to look at underlying problems, others wanted to address such issues as employment and housing. Believing that help was needed to organize the city Black citizens, a meeting at the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church issued an invitation to Saul Alinsky and his Industrial Areas Foundation to come to Rochester. FIGHT became the organization Alinsky helped develop to represent the Rochester Black community, and its president was the Rev. Franklin Florence. FIGHT immediately set forth a series of demands including more Black representation on neighborhood and city organizations, better schools and more and better employment opportunities. Kodak, as the city's largest employer, became an early target. FIGHT bought Kodak stock and brought its demands to a stock holders meeting. After a period of posturing and confrontation, Kodak did increase its minority hiring. In 1966, two more organizations took up the struggle for Rochester Blacks: the Urban League and Action for a Better Community. FIGHT complained that both worked too closely with the establishment and were intended to undermine FIGHT's effectiveness.
The 1980 census lists Rochester with a population of 241,741 with Blacks numbering 62,332, 25% of the city. The total population has continued to diminish as people move to the suburbs and to the states in the South and the West. Rochester, like the rest of the country, has seen a continuing growth of Blacks in the professions. Major corporations, urged on by Federal legislation, began hiring Blacks into middle management. Small Black businesses grew and WDKX, Rochester's first radio station aimed at the African American community came on the air. Nevertheless, Black employment is still concentrated in the unskilled and semi- skilled fields. 36% of all Black workers in the five county Rochester area are in the service industry. The highest percentage of unemployed Black workers is among the youth. The unemployment rate for all Blacks in 1980 stands at 14.3%, compared with white unemployment of 4.8%.
High rates of unemployment correlate with high rates of crime. The Rochester police reported that in 1989 there was an increase in serious crime of 3.3% compared with 1988. Before 1989, there had been six straight years of decrease in overall crime in the Rochester area. The arrest rate, however, for 1989 in Monroe County showed an increase of 18.7% over the arrest rate of 1988. Deputies took $1,326,140 in illegal drugs off the streets. Local authorities stated that the increased crime in Rochester was comparable to national averages for 1989 and attributed the increase in arrest rates to better services. An earlier study done by the Monroe County Youth Board in 1971 reported that Blacks were involved in 58.8% of the arrests in Monroe County. The Board determined that the majority of the Blacks were young, perhaps in the eleven to fourteen year old range. Black males were arrested twice as often as Whites. In fact, the actual statistics showed 48.3% of the arrested males were Black and 22.5 % were White. Not only are Blacks over- represented among the criminals, but they predominate among the victims. In 1987, 45 men and women were homicide victims in rochester. Of these 45 victims, 15 were Black males and eight were Black females.
Education is often seen as the most likely way to break this cycle of unemployment and crime. However, many schools feel that their efforts are doomed because of the overwhelming negative pressures from the outside society. The Rochester School Board, to the contrary, has made a commitment to quality education for all its students in spite of this problem. It has embarked on a variety of programs to involve the community in the educational system. Corporate executives work as unpaid consultants, and they have given more than one million dollars to market the campaign designed to encourage young people to stay in school. The Board has also led the way in including a multi-cultural perspective in its curriculum. Rochester Schools are made up of 70% minority students with 55 to 58% being Black. In fighting segregation, the Board insists that each school must maintain at least a 60 to 80 % minority representation.
The Rochester colleges have only a small number of African American students in attendance. Monroe Community College has the largest number, nearly 10%, while the University of Rochester has approximately 5% and the Rochester Institute of Technology has almost 4%. The Rochester Divinity School was one of the first in the country to establish a Black Church Studies program, and Crozer Seminary, which Martin Luther King had attended, moved from Chester Pa. to its campus.
In recent years, Blacks have played an increasing role in local elected offices. The first Black elected to the Rochester City Council was Ronald Good in 1966, and the first Black woman, Ruth Scott, in 1967. This number has risen in 1990 to three Blacks and one Hispanic out of a membership of nine. The School Board presently has a membership of three Blacks, one Hispanic and three Whites. If Rochester does face hard times from hi-tech competition from abroad, as some believe, the minority voice in local government may help diminish its negative impact on the Rochester African American community.