February 2025
Each year we share the historic accomplishments of amazing individuals in celebration of Black History Month. This year our focus is on the intersection of civil rights and real estate, and people who challenged restrictions and promoted fair housing.
Our first feature is Philip A. Payton, Jr. (1876 – 1917). Known as “The Father of Harlem,” Payton was a Black businessman with an interest in real estate. When white property owners started abandoning Harlem buildings, he bought and managed them, helping make Harlem a home for Black citizens who faced housing discrimination. His work helped transform Harlem into a center of Black culture and commerce.
Our next individual is a man who was a member of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Black Cabinet” and a Harlem Renaissance poet.
Frank S. Horne (1899-1974) began his government appointments in 1936, and in 1938 began working for the U.S. Housing Authority, eventually becoming Director of the Office of Race Relations. He served in various positions until 1955, after which he became the Executive Director for the New York City Commission on Intergroup Relations. In 1957 the organization developed the country’s first laws against discrimination in public housing.
Horne is also credited with contributing to the Open City Housing Project to promote racially integrated neighborhoods. He was also one of the founding members of the National Committee Against Discrimination In Housing, and became a member of the New York City Housing Redevelopment Board in 1962.
Known as the “Pioneer of Community-Based Development” our next profile celebrating Black History Month shines on Dorothy Mae Richardson (1923 – 1991). A Northside Pittsburgh resident, Richardson advocated for safe, quality, and affordable housing for residents of her community. In the 1960s, Black Americans faced significant hurdles to homeownership, neighborhood stability, and affordable housing due to discriminatory lending practices and urban renewal.
As her community faced an urban renewal threat, Richardson founded the resident and all women-led Citizens Against Slum Housing (CASH). She championed pressuring landlords to be accountable for maintaining properties instead of having them torn down. She also believed that government officials and financial institutions should be active in revitalizing neighborhoods and responsible for the negative results of redlining.
CASH became Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) in 1968, and Richardson’s work with NHS served as a foundation for @NeighborWorks America, an organization that works to “create opportunities for people to live in affordable homes, improve their lives and strengthen their communities.”
The final profile is about Carl B. Stokes (1927- 1996) who became the first Black mayor of a major metropolitan city when he won the Cleveland mayoral election in 1967, and served for two terms. Later in his life he became a news anchorman, judge, and a United States Ambassador.
While Mayor of Cleveland Stokes used his position to draw attention to how communities of color are hurt the most by environmental problems, advocating for laws and programs to improve people’s living conditions. He and his brother Congressman Louis Stokes, are cited as being decades ahead of the environmental justice movement which bloomed in the late 1980s.
After deciding not to run for a third term, Stokes lectured throughout the country and in 1972 became the first black anchorman in New York City working for WNBC. In 1980 he returned to Cleveland and served as general legal counsel for the United Auto Workers union, and then from 1983 to 1994 he served as municipal judge in Cleveland. Stokes became a U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Seychelles at the appointment of President Clinton, representing the United States on numerous goodwill trips abroad. Learn more about Carl B. Stokes here.
