The brothers pictured in the exhibit are the Bates brothers not the Sampson's. That's my cousin Frank and Tommy kneeling in front of the rest of the family. It would be nice if a correction could be made to honor the memory of my cousin Frank Bates

My father we know, was in Hempstead as early as 1923. My mother came in the early 30's during The Depression. She had at least one sibling here before she arrived. Others followed later on. KKK parades were commonplace in Hempstead, Freeport & other communities. Malverne had a school & street named after a Klan leader. At that time, Blacks, Poles, Italians, Germans & Gypsies, lived next to each other. We were all poor & striving to get ahead. My parents rented rooms in their home. My father built a rental house & after he died in the early 60's, my mother bought other houses which she rented out. The Blacks that came after the wars (WWII & Korea), were able to move into new developments in Hempstead, but kept out of Levittown & other areas. My father wasn't able to buy in Suffolk County at all. A Hempstead doctor, Dr Richards, was able to, with the help of a straw buyer. Sag Harbor was the place Dr. Richards bought land & named streets after his children. White flight became common in the 60's because of blockbusting by unscrupulous realtors. Vigilant Realty was one firm that was doing this and was targeted by local Black organizations like CORE & NAACP. Now, there's a "black belt" from Hempstead to Lakeview, Baldwin, Uniondale, Roosevelt & Freeport. Other enclaves are in Elmont, New Cassell, Manhasset, Roslyn Heights in Nassau County. Political representation came in Hempstead in the 60's, with Russell Service, a Republican Village Trustee. The Republican machine held a tight grip on local politics back then & still does today, though Hempstead has a Democratic Black Mayor ( the first) currently. The first Black Mayor was James Garner, who still is in Republican political circles & is a Deputy County Comptroller. Freeport elected a one term Black Mayor a few years ago. Most judges that are Black, are Republican & were backed by the machine. That picture you show, is of the Bates brothers, not the Sampson family. They, as well as my family & others, planted roots here & raised children, started businesses & later retired. Some moved South, as one of my uncles & his family did & were replaced by West Indians from Brooklyn, El Salvador natives & other central & South Americans.

IN THE 50'S AND 60'S, MY HIGH SCHOOL YEARS, HEMPSTEAD WAS AN AWESOME PLACE TO LIVE. IT WOULD BE DIFFICULT TO NUMBER ALL THE POSITIVE THINGS HEMPSTEAD HAD TO OFFER--IT WAS MAINLY ALL ABOUT THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE , THE MANY GOOD FRIENDS, THE HEMPSTEAD VILLAGE, THE SCHOOLS, THE MYRIAD OF THINGS TO DO JUST AN WONDERFUL COMMUNITY!!!!!

This is a picture of the "Bates Brothers" Standing from Left to Right: James, Howard, Mack, Marion ( my father) Walter Kneeling: Thomas & Frank Their parents Frank & Frances Bates had 17 children - 12 lived through adulthood. Their background is Black & Native American (Cherokee) They migrated from Aiken, SC in the late thirties or early forties. This picture was taken at 117 Marvin Ave. Hempstead, NY. The event was a Bates Family Reunion. Howard had reconnected with the family after 40 years.

My parents bought a home in Amityville in Suffolk County in 1950 it was through my whole childhood and into the 1980's segregated by sunrise highway Blacks lived in North Amityville and Whites lived in South Amityville. Period!

You wrote a great blog and it explains a lot about the racial patterns in Nassau County. This is a terrible legacy for Long Island. Several years ago, testers were sent to local real estate agencies in Nassau and they were fined for racially steering African-Americans into predominately black areas. But as you are aware, racial animosity has become very sophicated. Real estate agents will get "exclusive listings" therefore, assuring that only a select group of people are allowed to see the house. No signs are posted outside the house. They determine with the blessing of the seller that only the ethnic groups that they want see the house are white. it is critically important that before African-Americans buy a house on Long Island, that they do research.

Mine is a long Long Island story. My grandparents came from Roanoke, VA to work as cook and chauffeur for millionaires living on what is known as part of the "Gold Coast". The town was Great Neck and it was the mid 1940's. They lured my mother and her newlywed husband (my dad) to come up north in the 1950's and first they settled in neighboring Roslyn in the housing projects there and quickly moved to Great Neck. My mom, a college graduate unable to get work, became a housekeeper and my dad did odd jobs. But eventually mom and dad got gainful employment (mom an administrator for Nassau County Department of Social Services) dad was active in the Democratic party and worked related to this and also became a landlord). My parents were able to buy a house in a neighborhood in Great Neck that was one of the few non-wealthy streets. The streets surrounding our house were initially inhabited by Polish elderly people who sold out, and as you know, once a black family moved in, the property around it was quickly downgraded according to white buyers, so our street included black families and working class whites. We lived the American Dream: house, big yard, two or three cars, vacations, good food, good schools. Yet most of the black people in Great Neck were there as domestic servants, and a small black community sprung up around my house. A church, of which my family were lifetime members, a few bars, mom and pop stores, and even a restaurant, became the hub of the tiny black neighborhood in Great Neck anchored by Steamboat Road. I had a love-hate relationship with black suburbia, or suburbia at all. I felt sheltered, but safe. I felt camaraderie from my church and doting family friends but felt like I was not in touch with the black experience. However, my parents, always touting themselves as proud southerners and beneficiaries of the Great Migration, held onto and preached black consciousness, and I was never unsure of the beauty of being black and the struggle. But I had outgrown the suburbs and knew I had to hit the big city to live out my culture. I did not want my children, who are die hard New York City boys, to live the quiet isolation I often felt. The suburbs and the people who chose to live in it, always prided themselves on being smarter, safer, classier....I don't know this for sure. But I do know that "Keeping Up With The Joneses" was a part of daily living for both white and black in Nassau County, and that taxes and other fees were always being enforced and increasing to consistently keep "others" out. My parents always said they did not want to die in the north, and my sisters and I watched them sell the house and build a small mansion in the "suburbs" of Atlanta in 1999. By 2009 they were both in Heaven, their wishes actualized, and upon their dying request, brought back to the soil of their native Virginia.

I've always felt that Nassau was a lot more segregated than Suffolk. Besides a few exceptions, Western Suffolk has done a decent job at keeping it's school systems well-integrated. While in Nassau, you get a lot of stark differences like the Hempstead-Garden City gap, Roosevelt/Freeport-Merrick gap and so-forth. You would think that people would be more open-minded as you get closer to NYC!

I went to Jackson Street School and lived four blocks away on Pennsylvania Ave. Although none of our immediate area hosted Black families, our school was totally integrated, about 50/50 -- one of the most fortunate times of my life, since each class was kept together through the grads and we all got to know each other very well. I remember in particular Dorothea McKnight, who had a daily fight with 5th-grade teacher Miss Caldwell over the pronunciation of her name, Billy Williams, who had the most beautiful handwriting, and Frances Bates, a quiet but very intelligent girl who I greatly admired. When my family moved to Massapequa in 1959, I was shocked to have no people of color as my classmates! and also at the incredible ignorance of racial tolerance and real interaction among people of diverse racial backgrounds.

The first black families in Lakeview West Hempstead since 1899 was the Chapman's family, the Cooper family, the Walker family and the Bell families ,all owned land West of Champlain ave,. Near alleys pond. It separate Malverne and Lakeview.Lakeview Gardens property was own by Levi Chapman my Grandfather it was a pig farm.ostego rd woods was own by my mother Annie Chapman Cooper In the 50s-60s and 70s Lakeview was a Beautiful place to live everyone looked out for one another .now it's a low class place to live . The original families of Lakeview kept Lakeview beautiful. We all went to woodfield Rd school and Malverne Jr and sr.high my oldest Sister Catherine Cooper was Malverne first Black cheerleader 1938 . My mother brother Huryerd Chapman Trophies is in Herber (Malverne Jr high) trophy case Since 1925that sits in hallway by the front entrance doors of the gym .history says he was the greatest all around athlete Malverne ever had. (Football, Baseball, Track Wrestling, If any one want to know about the real truth of Lakeview please let me know. It's very sad when I ride thru ,and the damages of my home town.