An effort by Davison Avenue Intermediate School social worker Martine Laventure and the Davison Avenue Ambassadors to have Lakeview Public Library designated as a state historical landmark has made significant progress in recent weeks.
The Library, the former Woodfield Road School, will mark the 61st anniversary of its role in civil rights history next month: On May 12, 1965, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a march from Rockville Centre to Lakeview, organized by the Lakeview chapter of the NAACP, which ended at the school.
Laventure and the Ambassadors, a children’s civic learning and advocacy group, have interviewed a number of children of significant figures in the New York civil rights movement in the 1960s. One of those they talked with was Michele Reed, the daughter of Rener Reed, a key figure in the campaign to integrate the Malverne school district and a member of the Lakeview NAACP.
“[Reed] was involved in getting Martin Luther King here, fighting for busing equality,” Laventure said, “and was part of the reason why the Princeton Plan was instituted in the Malverne district.”
The Princeton Plan was first developed in Princeton, New Jersey, in the late 1940s to address racial segregation by school districts. It divided elementary students by grade level rather than neighborhood.
Laventure and the Ambassadors also interviewed Glen Finley, the son of Robert Finley, who was instrumental in planning sit-ins at local restaurants “Their home was one of the focal homes that things were planned at, like sit-ins and protests,” Laventure said of the Finleys. They also have an interview planned with Desmond Lynch, son of Lincoln Lynch, who headed the Long Island Chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality.
Laventure and the Ambassadors have also interviewed a number of former Woodfield Road School students, including Renee Larrier, who attended the school in 1961 and 1962 and is now a professor of French at Rutgers University, and Barry Evans, a student at Woodfield Road from 1959 to 1962. Evans remembers the unique multicultural experience at the time of attending a school with both black and white students. “I still know some of the people I went to elementary school with,” he said. “One of the things that some of the white people say is that it really shaped their understanding of the world, and how to be multicultural.”
Larrier and Evans both remember Woodfield Road as a hub of the Lakeview community. “It was a place where a lot of meetings took place,” Larrier said. “The adults met there for their activities, and there were all kinds of clubs. I was a member of the Girls’ Club.”
In addition to collecting testimony, Laventure has been in contact with State Sen. Selia Bynoe, whose office has reached out to the state office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation Laventure sent a draft of a proposal for landmark status to the Park Preservation Committee “so we can prove criteria for landmark status as per the state of New York,” she said.
“You have to prove, ‘What was the significant event that occurred?’” Laventure added. “And what we’re trying to prove is that Martin Luther King came to Lakeview on May 12, 1965, at exactly 3:35 p.m. We have the actual flier that was going around when he toured Long Island, and we were on the list of the flier, and it exactly says Lakeview, 3:35 p.m.”
Laventure also had to prove that the library was the same building as the Woodfield Road School, which had simply undergone renovations, so she took photos of the interior to prove that the building had never been demolished. “If you go to the third floor, the original brick work and the classroom carve-out are still intact,” she said.
Another criteria for landmark certification is legal documentation that the history will be preserved. “The library just received a grant for renovation of the third floor of the old classrooms that they're going to utilize as an exhibit,” Laventure explained. “So they're going to maintain the original brick walls of that classroom, and use that as an exhibit that the public could come and see, and learn more about what happened when it was Woodfield Road School.”
Laventure has also been working with Hempstead Town Councilwoman Laura Ryder to have the library recognized as a landmark by the Town as well. “We’re actually ready for submission for both the state and the Town of Hempstead,” Laventure said. “We’re just waiting for direction on how to do so.”
Her initiative has received letters of support from State Sen. Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, Assemblyman Noah Burroughs, County Legislator Carrie Solages and Malverne Mayor Tim Sullivan.
