Four Corners: Harlem co-op supermarket, 1968

NARRATOR:

In an effort to do something for the children who live in the Harlem slums, some streets are closed off to traffic as playgrounds. A summertime spent here might not be much, but it's better than being confined to the footpath. In parts of Harlem, one single block can contain 3,000 children, all of them poor, all of them black, most of them without hope. Their motto could be 'Sufficient unto the day' for tomorrow offers nothing, anyway. Harlem alone has a population equal to Perth — adults who are unskilled or children whose education at best is only basic. And in America, the uneducated might just as well be deaf or blind. The handicap is as great. During the summer, the city gave 15-to-21 year olds whose parents are on welfare $45 a week pocket money. The plan was to keep them out of trouble. It worked. New York had no violent outbreaks this year. But this handout of money is, at best, a sticking plaster. It's no solution to the threatened ultimate agony. These blocks of apartments are not the same as housing commission flats, although they look like it. This is housing that only the middle classes can afford. Rents range up to $220 a month for a four-roomed apartment. In a big city, even the affluent cannot afford space. For 80% of blacks living in Harlem these apartments are a luxury to be dreamed upon. If black is beautiful then white must be ugly. Although the conscience of white America has now been stirred, many black Americans feel it's too late. Was it necessary to go this far before anyone would recognise a just cause? The answer, unfortunately, is yes. But now, because of the riots and the violence, the big issue in this election year is law and order. Why, ask many black people, don't the whites in this country talk about justice? To them, law and order means 'keep the black in his place'. And for many black people, this scene IS their place. They haven't any other. How, one asks, does this happen in the richest country in the world? Cora Walker is a lawyer. Some time ago, she thought it would be good if a co-op was started in Harlem to give better service to the community. In June, it became a reality.

CORA WALKER:

Oh, oh.

NARRATOR:

Basically, the reason for the co-op is to stop white exploitation of poor housewives. It's claimed that the shops, mostly owned by whites, bought inferior goods to sell at excessive prices in the ghettos. The co-op, owned by the people in the area, is a resounding success. In its first month of trading, it made a profit of $1,100, a position that they had not expected to reach for at least six months. How did she start it?

CORA WALKER:

Well, I didn't know where to start, but I thought it'd be good to start with going into the buildings and getting to the people who really had the problems. Which were the buildings right around here. And I got 17 teenagers and really made them understand what a co-operative was and what it would mean to the community. And they, in turn, took the literature and went door-to-door with it, explaining to the people what a co-operative was and leaving this with them and telling them if they were interested, they could fill out the card and send it in with the cheque or money order. And we found that at the end of six weeks, we had $10,000 and we were well on our way. At that point, the teenagers went back to school and the nucleus of us that had gotten together at that point went from that point on.