Carlos Figueroa, one of the first residents and later a UN staff member, remembered being friends with children from Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Growing up together, they tried cuisines, learned about their cultures, and picked up small bits of their languages.
In 1952, nearly 500 United Nations families resided in the Parkway.
“It was enlightening to see children from countries and cultures that are traditional rivals – Indians and Pakistanis, Arabs and Jews, for example – play together, attend the same schools and, if not learn to love and trust each other, at least find a way to get along in an atmosphere of cooperation and understanding,” Mr. Figueroa said.
Parkway Village in New York was the city’s first racially integrated housing development.
Among the Parkway’s quaint low-rise homes, winding paths, and open gardens lived employees from more than 50 countries, including Nobel laureate Ralph Bunche.
“Since its inception, the United Nations has sought to be a leader in eliminating racial discrimination around the world,” said Rula Hinedi, chief U.N. tour guide, who recently led a fact-finding mission to Parkway Village.
“There are few clearer intentions for putting this principle into practice than the development of Parkway Village when the UN first decided to locate permanently in New York in December 1946.”
Confronting segregation in New York
Immediately after World War II, New York City faced a severe housing crisis, which was exacerbated by the return of 900,000 American military personnel from abroad.
“New York seemed to be 150,000 to 250,000 apartment units short of the housing needs at the time, and yet there were thousands of diplomats preparing to make their home in New York City,” said New York historian Chris McNickle. UN News.
However, what would pose an even greater challenge would be the United Nations requirement that the host city provide accommodation to staff without discrimination. Many neighborhoods in New York, such as the famous Stuy-Town or Fresh Meadows in Manhattan, practiced racial segregation.
The organization knew it would need a place to house its incredibly diverse staff, especially at a time when “it was very difficult, sometimes impossible, for black people to get an apartment,” McNickle said.
Parkway Village, which was then just a piece of land nestled in a quiet corner of the borough of Queens, was the solution proposed by the United Nations and the city of New York.
A historic map shows Parkway Village, the UN’s racially integrated housing development.
The United Nations Village
Built from the ground up in 1947 on 34 acres of undeveloped land, Parkway consisted of 687 apartments sparsely located in small clusters along the property, with views in all directions.
Described by current resident Judith Guttman as the “country in the city,” the Village fostered a “community” atmosphere for its residents. With buildings covering only 15 per cent of the space and the UN school and daycare on site until the early 1980s, Ms Guttman said it “was so community-oriented and had such a culturally open atmosphere, that for many years no fences were built between the houses… it was the perfect place to raise children.”
‘Environment of cooperation and understanding’
Beyond the family atmosphere, the development also provided a haven for civil rights activists, Nobel laureates, and UN staff from countless countries who would not normally have been able to live together given the racial laws in place at the time.
One UN staff member who benefited from the village’s integration was Ralph Bunche, the first black person to win the Nobel Peace Prize following his mediation efforts on behalf of the UN in the late 1940s in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Overcoming discrimination
While Parkway Village remains a historic symbol of the UN’s drive to promote racial equality, Dr Ashwini KP, the UN’s independent human rights expert on contemporary forms of racism, said progress has been made.
“Over the past 80 years, the world has moved from openly codified racism to a global consensus that racial discrimination is unacceptable,” he said.
However, on the eve of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, celebrated annually on March 21, he added “Racism continues to manifest itself in different ways” and “shaping access to education, health care, economic opportunity, and political power.”
“Ending racial discrimination requires sustained political will, measurable accountability, and a commitment to equality that is lived and not simply declared,” he said. “Confronting it openly is the way to diminish its power and regain our collective humanity.”