Nyack Record Shop Project

Oral histories that reflect on the African American community in Nyack were collected in a week-long public information gathering session in the window of a downtown record store, in cooperation the churches and families of the black community. The Nyack Record Shop Project was planned in conjunction with the Edward Hopper House exhibition, "Carrie Mae Weems: Beacon" and pays homage to Carrie Mae Weems' "Record Shop" (commissioned by David Ross and the Beacon Cultural Foundation).

During the span of Edward Hopper's life (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967), the African American community in Nyack, NY experienced many extreme reversals of fortune.

The founding of predominantly black Baptist and Methodist churches in 1875 and 1859 led to a period of social and economic stability. This achievement of middle class status was accomplished mere decades after the abolition of slavery, which was enacted in 1863 nationally, and in 1827 in New York State.

Black families occupied and sometimes owned homes along Jackson Avenue in downtown Nyack and along Piermont Avenue overlooking the river, blocks away from Edward Hopper’s home and his family’s dry goods grocer on South Broadway. The black community was undoubtedly a customer, and possibly an employee. Young Hopper attended Liberty Elementary School, which was fully racially integrated. From the earliest days of European settlement in what would become Nyack, the census included free and enslaved blacks. The 1810 census shows that John Green, the founder of the Steamboat Association and the Suffern Turnpike, was a slave owner. African Americans have consistently represented about a 25% of the population. This enduring and sustained racial balance in a community in the United States is somewhat rare. Normally a cycle of changing demographics and white flight are indicative for places with an interracial population. For reasons that only scholars can explain, the black population in Nyack has remained stable.

Kimberly Redmond, Published 6:00 a.m. ET Jan. 12, 2018 | Updated Jan. 12, 2018 https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/rockland/2018/01/12/nyack-voices-african-american-history/1012265001/
Director's Note: Rev. Dr. Willie L. Hairston, the earliest community supporter of this project will be unable to be the first person giving an oral history. His wife and the first lady of Pilgrim Baptist Church passed away early January 2018.

When King was assassinated 50 years ago this April “it wasn’t just an attempt to silence him,” Batson said, but also to silence an entire population and “the voices of many men and woman who endured and overthrew the Jim Crow tradition of racial discrimination in our country.” Now, he said, “Their voices may go silent. Not from the infamous act, but from our own failure to record their life stories.” Documenting the hardships, heartbreaks and highlights is a way to reverse that, he said. "There are too many stories and not enough storytellers," Batson said. "The only way to address this imbalance is to train more people to collect oral histories and encourage more people to share their life experiences with the underrepresented communities.
- Bill Batson, The Journal News, Jan. 15, 2018

Black families named Batson, Brown, Cooke, Easter, Fountain, Hesdra, Holland, Pratt, and many others have made significant economic and civic contributions to their communities and the public at large. When Cynthia Hesdra died on February 9, 1879 (three years before Hopper's birth) she was reportedly worth $100,000 - the equivalent of $2.3 million in contemporary dollars. As an African American female entrepreneur and reputed Underground Railroad conductor, Hesdra was a blazer on multiple trails. Today, she is remembered in Nyack by one of the Toni Morrison Society's "Bench by the Road" in Memorial Park located near a property once owned by Hesdra. The high water mark of black prosperity may have been when Hezekiah Easter, Jr. became the first African American elected to public office in Rockland County when he won a seat on the Village of Nyack Board of Trustees in 1965, two years before Hopper's death.

The end of this period of progress was precipitous. In the 1970s, an urban renewal program condemned and demolished much of the black middle class neighborhood in Nyack. Members of a community that had co-existed and thrived alongside their white neighbors since the Tappan Patent in 1687 were banished to surrounding towns like Spring Valley and Nanuet or public housing developments like Waldron Terrace and Nyack Plaza. Hopper and his family would have been witnesses to this tectonic shift. It is only fitting that a project sponsored by the Edward Hopper House record this turbulent history.

The Nyack Record Shop Project began on January 15, 2018, on the national holiday dedicated to the memory of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who, a year after Hopper’s death, was martyred for his efforts to establish a non-racial “beloved community” in America. For one week, individuals submitted their oral histories through recorded interviews. This material will be made available to local artists and historians to properly archive and interpret. This project pays homage to Carrie Mae Weems & the "Record Shop" (commissioned by David Ross and the Beacon Cultural Foundation, Beacon, NY). Rev. Hairston made a pulpit announcement on January 15th at the conclusion of the King service at Pilgrim Baptist Church in Nyack, urging others to participate.

Carrie Mae Weems, Company Housing from Beacon, 2003-05, Archival pigment print, 33.25 x 29.25 x 1.25 in.

CARRIE MAE WEEMS is the 2017 recipient of the Edward Hopper Citation of Merit in the Visual Arts.

This award is presented by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Council on the Arts in recognition of her significant artistic contributions to the state of New York. For this series of photographs, Carrie Mae Weems documented the changing landscape and culture of Beacon, NY, during her three-year artist residency there beginning in 2002. Considered one of the most influential contemporary American artists, Weems is celebrated for her photography, films, and videos that address social themes focusing on race, gender, and class. She has exhibited at major institutions throughout the world, and she is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the MacArthur “Genius” grant, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the Prix de Roma, and many more. She lives and works in Syracuse, NY. The exhibition "Carrie Mae Weems: Beacon" is on view November 10, 2017 - February 25, 2018 at the Edward Hopper House.

BILL BATSON is the director of the Nyack Record Shop Project.

Batson is a member of a family that were founding members of St. Philips, African Methodist Episcopalian Church. His grandmother was a civic leader and his aunt became the first African American Deputy Village Clerk of Nyack in the 1965. Through his Nyack Sketch Log, Batson has become one of Nyack’s archivists, chronicling the history of the village through his illustrations and essays weekly since 2011. He has a weekly column on a hyper local, NyackNewsandViews.com, is an author, artist, Trustee of the Historical Society of the Nyacks, artist-in- residence for the Nyack Farmers’ Market and the chair of the committee that brought a Toni Morrison Bench by the Road monument to Memorial Park in Nyack honoring Cynthia Hesdra.

Batson will help shape, promote and populate the Nyack Record Shop project that will be held in the window of Kiam Record Store on Main Street in Nyack. Kiam is the brick and mortar presence of Kiam Records, an indie label owned by recording artists Jennifer O'Connor and Amy Bezunartea. Bill will also work to ensure that the material gathered in the Nyack Record Shop Project will be properly collected, preserved, archived and made accessible. Material gathered during this project will be made available to the Historical Society of the Nyacks for an exhibit in their museum and in display cases in the Nyack Library in 2018. Collaborative Partners List in formation.

photos by Ray Wright

The health and well-being of our visitors, our community, and our team are important to us. Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center is compliant with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), New York State Department of Health (DOH) and local guidelines.