Demographic shift transforms Corona’s culture, politics
by Laura Isensee
Corona, a community in the heart of Queens, once earned the nickname “Little Harlem.”
Jazz greats like Louis Armstrong lived there. Its residents formed one of the city’s strongest black voting groups. Through that political activism, Corona fought for its own library and City Council member.
Today Corona is known more as a Little Latin America.
Mexican mariachis often play at local parties. Spanish-speakers learn computer skills at the black heritage library. And Hiram Monserrate, the first Latino elected to public office in Queens, holds the City Council seat.
“We really have a global community,” said Denise Pease, 54, who grew up in Corona and works in city government. “You see it in every facet of life here.”
Hispanic minority assumes majority
Over the last two decades, Hispanics have surged in the neighborhood. At the same time, the African-American community in North Corona and the Italian-Americans in the southern section have decreased dramatically.
In 1980, whites made up nearly half of Corona’s population of 67,495. Blacks made up about 30 percent and Hispanics 15 percent, according to the U.S. Census.
By 2000, Hispanics were 64 percent of a population of 98,841. Blacks accounted for 15 percent and whites, 8 percent. The Asian community had increased to almost 10 percent.
Corona’s new majority includes immigrants from diverse countries—Mexico, Peru and Ecuador—who join more established groups like Dominicans.
How that demographic shift affects daily life for Corona’s residents depends on whom you ask.
Hispanics tend to keep to themselves largely because of the language barrier, said Adán Espinoza, a native of Mexico who’s lived in Corona for more than 15 years.
For some residents, tension lies below the surface. A finisher for a construction company, Derrick Wilson, 56, said employers prefer to hire immigrants who work hard for less pay.
“It’s not really the different races’ fault,” Wilson said.
Local numbers paint bigger picture
The white and black migration out of Corona reflects a wider shift in New York City. The city’s black population recently declined for the first time since the Civil War era, according to the New York Times.
The African-Americans who move tend to leave beyond the boroughs and exit the entire region.
Many of Corona’s black residents have returned to southern states, like Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, their homes before they came to New York City in the 1950s.
Black community leaves legacy
In the 1960s, Corona and East Elmhurst became a vibrant area. It was home to a cross section of judges and doctors, teachers and artisans. It had a variety of faiths, from Baptists to Catholics and the Nation of Islam. Both the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Black Panthers fought for change.
Born out of the civil rights and black power movement, the Langston Hughes Community Library is perhaps the greatest achievement of Corona’s black community.
The library holds the state’s largest circulating collection on the black heritage. It also was the first public institution named for Langston Hughes, a poet in the Harlem Renaissance.
A local action committee started the library. They demanded not simply a library, but a black library run by the black community, said Andrew Jackson, the library director.
After decades inside a cramped, former Woolworth Department Store, the library moved in 1999 to a new building with a theater and classroom, a testament to the black community’s activism.
Library: witness to change
Today the Langston Hughes Library shows Corona’s changing face.
Shelves with books on how to speak English stand next to works on the library’s namesake, Langston Hughes.
Yet the library’s mission has not changed, Jackson said. It is still Queens’ black heritage branch. But more programs focus on the shared African roots of American-born blacks and Latin Americans, Jackson said.
“All of our cultures are intertwined with that rhythm,” he said. “We’re distant cousins.”
Political power shifts
In 1991, Corona’s black voting blocks helped elect Helen Marshall—a founding members of the Langston Hughes Library—to the newly drawn 21st District Council seat for Corona, East Elmhurst and Jackson Heights.
When term-limits forced her off the council, she became Queens’ first African-American borough president.
Now Hispanics are becoming more politically active, just like African-Americans before them, said Enrique Lugo, a member of Community Board 4.
In 2001, Hiram Monserrate became the first Latino elected to public office in Queens.
“The political leadership was always a tight ring,” Lugo said. “Hiram broke the pack.”
In 2008, Monserrate himself faces term limits. While there is no heir apparent, observers say his successor must be bilingual.
“Whoever is the representative has to go to a meeting and talk to you in your own tongue,” Jackson said. |
