From left, Jennifer Thompson, 29, William C. (Willie) Thompson, 84, and William C. Thompson Jr., 55, in Brooklyn Heights. All are going to inauguration of Barack Obama. (Photo: Michelle V. Agins/The new York Times)
"Three generations of Thompsons gathered around Grandpa’s dining room table in Brooklyn Heights the other day. They gave three distinct perspectives on the inauguration of Barack Obama. [Some of the Thompsons' direct comments can be heard throughout this podcast's audio.]
Let’s introduce this prominent black political family from Brooklyn.
William C. (Willie) Thompson was born in Harlem. He’s 84. He served in a segregated infantry unit in Italy during World War II. His father worked for a furniture store and was a city marshal, and remembered hearing Marcus Garvey preach his Back to Africa gospel on a Harlem street corner.
Willie Thompson himself is a former state senator — elected in 1964, the last time the Democrats controlled the Senate in Albany — a former councilman and a former state appellate judge.
In 1968, he lost a Congressional race by 200 votes to Shirley Chisholm, the Brooklyn-born daughter of immigrants. She was the first black woman elected to Congress. Four years later, Chisholm became the first black candidate for a major party’s presidential nomination.
Judge Willie Thompson’s son, Bill — William C. Thompson Jr. — is 55. He worked for a congressman one summer, became deputy borough president and president of the Board of Education. When he attended junior high school in Flatbush, he remembers some white students taunting him with racial slurs. He also recalls the stunned reaction when, as deputy borough president, he appeared before a mostly white audience of Brooklyn homeowners.
Bill Thompson is completing his second term as city comptroller. Instead of seeking re-election, he plans to enter the Democratic mayoral primary to challenge Michael Bloomberg next November. He would not be the first black mayor of New York, but faces daunting odds against a reasonably popular billionaire incumbent.
“Everything is possible,” his father says.
Bill’s daughter, Jennifer, is 29. She lives in the Bedford-Stuyvesant house that her great-grandparents bought. They were the second black family on the block in a neighborhood that is slowly becoming newly integrated by white homeowners. She says she has never felt the sting of racial discrimination.
Jennifer Thompson majored in political science at Wellesley, but has no desire to be a politician. So grueling, she said. So taxing. Instead, she took a real easy job: she teaches fifth-grade special education students at P.S. 256 in Bed-Stuy.
All three generations voted for Barack Obama in New York’s Democratic primary nearly a year ago (although Bill Thompson coyly describes his vote as a personal matter, and says only that he publicly endorsed the state’s favorite daughter, Hillary Rodham Clinton).
All three are going to Obama’s inauguration."
Read The Full Story Here: Cityroom.Blogs.NYtimes.Com
CHRIS LIVE AKA SHAKER SAYS: Avid readers of Livestyle are no doubt familiar with the name Mr. 401K and his much heralded role as my longest-running-friend-and-brother-from-another-mother. What most do not know though is that there is a direct female counterpart to Mr. 401K in my life - her name is Jennifer.
In what I now imagine must have been 1 H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks of a kindergarten class, I met both Mr. 401K and Jennifer and we bonded over milk and cinnamon graham crackers ... lol. Although, during various times of my life, I went months and sometimes years without having contact with both parties, sensory deprivation has never dulled the meaningful memories and times that I share with each. In fact, even in separation, GOD made it so that our respective paths would meet in sublime alignment. Case In Point: After losing all contact with Mr. 401K for over 4 years, when we did fatefully re-establish communication through a mutual friend, we both were knee deep in this music game. We've always seen eye-to-eye even when we weren't face-to-face.
Anyway, I've been meaning to post this New York Times article starring my-longest-running-female-friend-and-sister-from-another-mister Jennifer and her exceptional family for a few days, but, with the inauguration and all of the news surrounding that event, some coverage had to take precedent. Sorry J.T.! LOL.
Aside from just being a story that features my lovely and ganxta ass homie alongside her father (New York City mayoral candidate Bill Thompson) and grandfather, this article also grants us a great perspective of 3 generations of Black Americans and their individual take on the significance of the election of Barack Obama to the highest office in the land. Good shit.
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