Thomas M.C. Johnston (#119)

An Inventory of His Personal Papers
1966-1969
In the John F. Kennedy Library
National Archives and Records Administration

Administrative Information
Biographical Note
Collection Overview
List of Series
Description


Administrative Information

Abstract
Papers 1966-1969
Businessman. Executive assistant to Senator Robert F. Kennedy, New York City (1966-1968); Robert F. Kennedy's representative, Bedford-Stuyvesant Corporation. Materials relating to the Bedford-Stuyvesant Corporation and to Robert Kennedy; includes correspondence, memorandums, minutes, legal documents, project proposals, financial and budget statements, reports, and resumes.

Access
Open.

Usage Restrictions
According to the deed of gift signed December 1972, copyright of these materials has been assigned to the United States.  Documents in this collection that were prepared by officials of the United States as part of their official duties are in the public domain. Users of these materials are advised to determine the copyright status of any document from which they wish to publish.

Copyright
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be “used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research.” If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excesses of “fair use,” that user may be liable for copyright infringement. This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law. The copyright law extends its protection to unpublished works from the moment of creation in a tangible form. Direct your questions concerning copyright to the reference staff.

Provenance
Received from Thomas M.C. Johnston of New York, NY, in June 1972 (Acc. 1973-014).

Extent
About 3,000 pages (1 linear feet 4 linear inches; 1.5 cubic feet)

Withdrawn Items
During the ten years following execution of the deed, the materials were open to research only with the written permission of the donor. Thereafter, only those documents the opening of which might constitute an unwarranted invasion of the right to privacy of a living individual are to remain closed. Five documents have been removed from the files until 1998, by request of the donor, and two folders of resumes have also been closed. Selected folders contain withdrawal sheets where documents, in accordance with the donor's deed of gift, were removed from the collection. These include documents which may be used to injure or harass any living person. All withdrawn documents have been placed under seal and upon request the Kennedy Library will review any material which has been closed for a period of not less than 2 years for the purpose of opening items which no longer require restrictions. Researchers should consult the reference staff to obtain the appropriate form(s).

Date Opened
January 1983.

Processed by
Stephen M. Kozol

Encoded by
James M. Roth

Related Collections
Robert F. Kennedy Papers, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library
Burke Marshall Papers, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library

The Personal Papers of Thomas M.C. Johnston (1921-  )

Historical Note
From 1965 until 1968, Thomas M. C. Johnston was executive assistant to Senator Robert F. Kennedy, in charge of his New York City office. He served as Senator Kennedy's representative on a project for the Bedford-Stuyvesant Community in Brooklyn, New York, working specifically on political and organizational coordination among the mayor's office, businesses, foundations, and members of the local community.

In January, 1966, Robert F. Kennedy gave two speeches entitled “Problems of the Urban Negro.” Riots in Bedford-Stuyvesant in 1964, and in the Watts district of Los Angeles, California in 1965, had convinced Kennedy that a new approach was needed to face the economic, physical, and social problems of the urban ghetto. Throughout 1966 Kennedy and his staff worked on a community development program and structure, aimed at all three problem areas but emphasizing jobs, economic development, and community participation. Bedford-Stuyvesant, in population the second largest ghetto in the United States, was chosen for this social experiment.

Concerned that the project be bipartisan, Kennedy sought and received cooperation from New York's Republican Senator Jacob Javits and New York City's Republican Mayor John Lindsay. Together with Javits, Kennedy secured passage of an amendment to the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. The amendment, signed into law in November 1966, established the Special Impact Program, which allowed for federal funding of community development projects in urban poverty areas. The Bedford-Stuyvesant program was announced publicly on December 10, 1966. Following the announcement and a grant from the Ford Foundation, Kennedy and his aides turned to recruiting board members for the two corporations that were to direct and implement development in Bedford-Stuyvesant: the Renewal and Rehabilitation Corporation and the Development and Services Corporation.

The Renewal and Rehabilitation Corporation was formed largely from the membership of the Central Brooklyn Coordinating Council (C.B.C.C.)--an umbrella organization for some one hundred community, religious, and civic groups in Bedford-Stuyvesant. In March 1967, it was reorganized and re-titled the Restoration Corporation when Judge Thomas A. Jones sought to rid it of C.B.C.C. members who were resisting his attempts to stop internal divisiveness and to assert his own leadership. Judge Jones was a civil court judge from Bedford-Stuyvesant who had been appointed by Kennedy as chairman of the board of the Renewal and Rehabilitation Corporation. The new Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation was to initiate planning, to assign priorities to programs, and to be the vehicle for community input.

The function of the Development and Services Corporation was to determine how the programs and projects would be carried out. It was created at the same time the Renewal and Rehabilitation Corporation was established in late 1966. Chaired by C. Douglas Dillon, members of the Development and Services board included Thomas J. Watson Jr., David E. Lilienthal, and other prominent businessmen and lawyers, a number of whom had previous government experience. This entity was intended as a bridge from the local community to business, government, and sources of expertise and finance.

In the winter and early spring of 1967 the Development and Services Corporation began its planning. Executive Director Eli Jacobs developed a proposal that included numerous projects that were undertaken in 1967 and 1968: a project for home improvement, building on the base of broad home-ownership in Bedford-Stuyvesant; the purchase and rehabilitation of the abandoned Sheffield Farms milk-bottling plant, which was located in the geographical heart of the community; development of I.M. Pei's “Superblock” concept; gathering the data for a program of industrial development; and laying the basis for new service programs such as in health and education.

However, other proposals, such as an overall physical redevelopment, (The “Logue Plan”) a sprawling shopping center, and a large community center (COMCEN), were discarded due to lukewarm reception by the Restoration Corporation. Staff members of the Restoration Corporation viewed these plans as being too far ahead of community sentiment, on too grand a scale, or inconsistent with the concept of transferring capital into the community through local job and housing development.

In June, 1967, Executive Director of the Restoration Corporation Franklin Thomas presented a five-point proposal to the Department of Labor. This proposal contained ideas from Eli Jacobs' earlier plans for the Development and Services Corporation although on a smaller scale and shorter term basis. Thomas' plans included the creation of new jobs and businesses within the community, building offices for the corporation, the Community Home Improvement Program, and the Comprehensive Manpower Training Program. From mid-1967 through 1969 the twin corporations worked on implementing this proposal as well as other projects sponsored by the Development and Services Corporation, such as the “Superblock” concept and a “mortgage pool” for increasing home ownership.

Collection Overview
The papers of Thomas M. C. Johnston document the origin and early development of the Bedford-Stuyvesant community development corporations. They particularly reflect the involvement of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and his staff in the initiation of the project. The documents date from January 1966, to October 1969, with the bulk of the documents from 1966 and 1967. They include: minutes of the meetings of the board of directors; correspondence among the board members; correspondence with community members, Senator Kennedy and his staff, foundations, government agencies, consulting firms, and job applicants; memoranda; legal documents establishing the corporate entities; program proposals; financial and budget statements; reports; and resumes. These records originated in the early development stages of the project and document the steps taken from the initial idea to establishing the corporate institutions, staff, and programs to implement the project.

Researchers should complement the information here with the Burke Marshall Bedford-Stuyvesant records for a comprehensive evaluation of the whole community development program through 1968 (see “Evaluations, Volumes I and II”), and the Bedford-Stuyvesant files in the Robert F. Kennedy Senate papers. There are also many Bedford-Stuyvesant references in the Robert F. Kennedy oral history program.

List of Series
Series 1. Bedford-Stuyvesant Community Development Corporations

Collection Description

Series 1. Bedford-Stuyvesant Community Development Corporations, 1966-1969.
About 3,000 pages.
Arrangement: by subject (or whatever).

This series consists of Thomas M. C. Johnston’s papers that document the origin and early development of the Bedford-Stuyvesant community development corporations, including: minutes of the meetings of the board of directors; correspondence among the board members; correspondence with community members, Senator Kennedy and his staff, foundations, government agencies, consulting firms, and job applicants; memoranda; legal documents establishing the corporate entities; program proposals; financial and budget statements; reports; and resumes.