Harlem Street To Bear Name Of Evelyn Thomas, Who 'Saved' Block

HARLEM, NY — A bygone Harlem leader who fought for her neighborhood when it came under threat during the era of "urban renewal" will be honored this week when her longtime block is co-named in her honor.

Evelyn Thomas will be the new namesake of West 132nd Street between Frederick Douglass and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevards — the same block where she lived with her husband, Herbert, for decades.

Thomas, who died in 1999, was born to parents who immigrated from St. Kitts and was raised a block south on 131st Street. She founded the Central Harlem Association of Small Homeowners and Small Businessmen in 1957 and became known as a civic leader, according to a local block association that organized the co-naming.

In 1959, Mayor Robert Wagner appointed Thomas to the Committee on Harlem Affairs, a group tasked with studying racial tensions in the neighborhood after a "near riot" broke out outside the NYPD’s 28th Precinct that July.

During that same decade, she fought against "slum clearance" projects that threatened a slew of brownstones on West 131st and 132nd streets, most of which were owned by African American and Caribbean American families, according to the block association.

Thomas later worked as a secretary for Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton in the 1960s and 1970s, and headed a "Spruce Up" program along with her neighbors that succeeded in rehabilitating 83 out of 86 buildings on West 131st and 132nd streets. Thomas died in 1999.

"Evelyn Thomas is an unsung heroine," said Stanley McIntosh, president of the Neighbors United of West 132nd Street Block Association, in a news release.

"She saved an entire city block of brownstones— 131st and 132nd Streets," he added. "Saving the neighborhood is one of the greatest examples of fighting the worst elements of urban renewal."

Saturday's ceremony will be held from 12:30–2 p.m at the southeast corner of 132nd Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard. Guests will include former U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, City Councilmember Bill Perkins, Assemblymember Inez Dickens and former Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields.