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Flashback Friday Archive 2019-20: Flashback Friday: Week of September 25

September 24, 1870 – 150 YEARS AGO
Rockland County Journal

MOTHERS, SPEAK KINDLY
       Children catch cross tones quicker than parrots, and it is a much more mischievous habit. When mother sets the example, you will scarcely hear a pleasant word among the children in their plays with each other. Yet the discipline of such a family is always weak and irregular. The children expect just so much scolding before they do anything they are bid, while in many a home, where the low, firm tone of the mother, or the decided look of her steady eye is law, they never think of disobedience, either in or out of sight. O mother! is it worth a great deal to cultivate that “excellent thing in women,” a low, sweet voice? If you are ever so much tried by the mischievous or willful pranks of the little ones, speak low. It will be a great help to you even to try to be patient and cheerful if you cannot succeed. Anger makes you wretched, and your children also. Impatient, angry tones never did the heart good, but plenty of evil. — Read what Solomon says of them and remember that he wrote with an inspired pen. You cannot have the excuse for them that they lighten your burdens any; they make them only ten times heavier. For your own, as well your children’s sake, learn to speak low. They will remember that tone when your head is under the willows. So, too, will they remember a harsh and angry tone. Which legacy will you leave to your children?

September 24, 1920 – 100 YEARS AGO
Rockland News

INPSECTION BY ERIE R.R. CAUSES MUCH EXCITEMENT
[Image: Sparkill RR Station, ca. 1905, courtesy of the Nyack Library, via NYHeritage.]
       Much excitement was caused in Sparkill recently when an engineer of the Erie R.R. made an inspection of property and land on both sides of tracks and then secured additional information as to the owners of land and tax valuation. Many rumors have been started but nothing official has been given out, up to the present time, as to what it may proceed.
       The possibility of the double tracking of the Northern Railroad from Sparkill to Nyack and the taking over of that branch by the New York Central was among the most prevalent gossip to be heard. Visions of the future Sparkill filled many heads and dreams of great mercantile industries soon came to the foreground, and of course a real estate boom is surely to follow shortly.

SUFFERN VOTES $41,000
       At a special election held last Wednesday taxpayers of Suffern voted to appropriate $20,000 to improve its water system and secure an increased water supply and $21,000 to pay a part of the cost of grading and paving Lafayette Avenue.

September 24, 1970 – 50 YEARS AGO
The Journal News

STATE BARS TOKENISM
       A representative of the state Human Rights Commission said last night it will not accept “tokenism” by a developer as a means of getting around the anti-discrimination law in the sale or rental of housing and that it is investigating a “situation” in Rockland.
       Frank Ferro, the representative, said he did not feel free at this time to reveal the developer's name.
       Ferro spoke at a panel discussion on discrimination in housing at a meeting of the Nyack Branch, NAACP.
       Other panel members were Msgr. James Cox, chairman of the county Human Rights Commission, and Norman R. Baker, chairman of the housing committee of the Rockland County Association, who recently retired as editor and vice-president of The Journal-News.
       Leonard Cooke, a member of the county Human Rights Commission and chairman of the branch's housing committee, was moderator.
       Ferro said the state commission has instituted a procedure under which developers are required to file information on minority groups living in the area of a development and the number of sales or rentals they have made to minority members.
       If the information he supplies indicates discrimination, a review board lodges a complaint against the developer, then attempts to work out a conciliation with him under which the practice is ended. A public hearing is held only if conciliation efforts are unsuccessful.
       “If you have 375 apartments and there is a large minority population living no more than half a mile away, your apartments are desirable enough and your rents low enough and you have only three black tenants on that basis alone you are discriminating and we are going to lodge a complaint.”
       He said the commission is increasingly concerned with enforcement and is hoping for better laws in fighting discrimination. One proposed law would allow appeal of zoning decisions directly to the courts, Ferro noted.
       When one man present said he had been given five days in which to get a mortgage when he bought a home, Ferro said he should have brought the matter to the attention of the commission.
       Msgr. Cox said that of the 14 formal complaints of discrimination lodged with the county commission during the first six months of this year, only four deal with housing.
       “I believe there is a great deal of discrimination in housing which never comes before us or the state. Complaints about other forms of discrimination, such as that because of sex, are beginning to dominate,” Msgr. Cox said.
       Cooke said that within the last few days he received complaints from two black girls who had answered an advertisement for an apartment on Broadway, South Nyack. When they telephoned the owner, they were told it was available but when they went to see it, it was not. It subsequently was rented to a white girl, Cooke said.
       A resident of the Tappan Zee Apartments, where tenants have been having a rent strike, said reverse discrimination was practiced there. A white girl had been unable to rent there allegedly because the owner would not have to fix up the apartments for blacks.
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This Week in Rockland (#FBF Flashback Friday) is prepared by Clare Sheridan on behalf of the Historical Society of Rockland County. To learn about the HSRC's mission, upcoming events or programs, visit www.RocklandHistory.org or call (845) 634-9629.

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