Picture of Unisphere thanks to mercedesdayanara and New York Pictures
Here's a picture of a biker going past what's called the unisphere.
The unisphere was created for the 1964 World's Fair held in New York City. The staff at Shiloh went to the World's Fair that year. On opening day of the fair, the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) attempted a demonstration to raise awareness about racial issues that were plaguing the country. Shiloh would wrestle with these issues, too. The Church of Christ, Shiloh's sponsoring organization, had an exhibit at the fair in the Protestant Pavillion, even though they were uncomfortable being labeled as Protestant. The fair was managed by Robert Moses, a city planner whose constant revision of New York displaced many inhabitants and put many others in monstrous and drab public housing. It was a time when the city was stirring, the country was stirring, religion was stirring. Shiloh would be one of the local intersections of many big forces.
This month has been full of wonderful research for me. Shiloh's history goes back to 1950. I'm getting a chance to think about things like the World's Fair, the Ocean Hill-Brownsville teachers' strike, Shiloh's leadership changes in the 1970s, and how each of these things might have reverberated in the heart of a kid or a volunteer at camp. Or of a year-round staff member living in a tenement house in East New York. Who were these kids and these staff members, and what did this place Shiloh mean to the people who were there? Was it a Place of Peace, as the meaning of its name suggests? I'll get to meet them and ask them myself. More to come.
Who knew that Robert Moses, planner of the 64 World's Fair that Shiloh staff and kids attended, would later figure in the effort at housing renewal in East Brooklyn through the Nehemiah Houses of East Brooklyn Congreaagtions - designed by I.D Robbins, Moses'competitor (nemesis?). Shiloh participants also figured subtantively in this effort. It keeps on going round!!
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