Yield Not: Hope and Communion in the Bronx’s Toughest Years

Join us for a talk by journalist Eileen Markey.

In the darkest days of the New York City fiscal crisis and its aftermath in the 1970s, as faith in cities faltered, Bronx activists argued for the worth of urban neighborhoods and the value of people living in them. In a time of disinvestment, arson, and abandonment, it was community organizing—often marshaled through Catholic parishes and drawing on religious narratives—that demonstrated an alternate vision for the future of the city: rebuilding neighborhoods that had been written off as beyond redemption.

In this lecture and discussion, Eileen Markey, writer in residence at the Center on Religion and Culture, will draw on research for her forthcoming book about the Bronx people’s movement of the 1970s and 1980s.

About the Speaker
Eileen Markey is an assistant professor of journalism at Lehman College of the City University of New York and a visiting scholar at the Bronx County Historical Society. She has reported on urban policy and social movements for more than two decades.

This event is co-sponsored by the Bronx County Historical Society as part of its annual Spring Lecture Series in Bronx History.