The Ghetto Brothers: Who killed Black Benjy? (Part One)
In the early 1970s, Cornell ‘Black Benjy’ Benjamin was murdered in the streets of the Bronx. Alive, Benjamin had been an addict, before going clean and becoming a drug counselor. Shortly before his death, he had become the official peace envoy of the Ghetto Brothers, a Bronx gang which had been sponsored by the administration of New York Mayor John Lindsay after they publicly renounced violence. As a result, the group was profiled by sympathetic media, including public TV station WNET. Along with Cornell Benjamin, the gang was represented by Benjamin ‘Yellow Benjy’ Melendez and ‘Karate’ Charlie Suarez, who were interviewed by WNET again during a peace meeting called in response to the death of their fellow Ghetto Brother.
Afterwards, it would be claimed that the gang summit helped to ease tensions in a city which had become infamous for crime. In reality, the Bronx, along with the rest of New York, would see a continued rise in violence, which took place amidst a wider reshaping of the city’s power structures. For decades, political machines such as Manhattan’s Tammany Hall had been a powerful force, largely resisting efforts at reformist figures such as Mayor Lindsay. By the 1960s however, these machines had been severely weakened, in part through reformists sponsoring new political organisations, such as the Ghetto Brothers. Although the alliance would ultimate gain the upper hand in the 1970s, the change did not come without a period of intense turmoil, which played out most dramatically in the streets.
Part One: 1965–1971
Having taken office in 1965, Mayor Lindsay quickly clashed with the existing systems of power in New York City, including public sector unions. On his first day, the Transport Workers Union declared a strike that lasted twelve days, shutting down the city’s subways and buses. Along with the TWU, the Lindsay administration would also grapple with a mass teacher’s strike in 1968, which stemmed from his controversial programme to decentralise the city’s schools. Although described by the United Federation of Teachers as an attempt to break collective bargaining, the policy was strongly backed by powerful forces in the reformist cause, most notably the Ford Foundation.
A supporter of various different causes, including non-profit broadcasters such as WNET, the Ford Foundation had moved into urban affairs around the start of the 1960s. Controversially, they backed the Black Power movement, with Lindsay’s decentralisation plan based on a report by foundation President McGeorge Bundy. A former intelligence officer, Bundy had previously served as National Security Advisor to President Lyndon B. Johnson, whose ‘War on Poverty’ was modelled on earlier Ford programmes. In directing millions of dollars into America’s inner-cities, Johnson’s administration had added federal might to the ongoing conflict, culminating in a conservative backlash and the election of Republican Richard Nixon.
Despite the support from Ford in his battles with the UFT, Lindsay eventually backed down, and the decentralisation programme was scuppered. At some point following the failed experiment, his administration appears to have begun sponsoring the Ghetto Brothers, with the city financing their clubhouse on the Bronx’s 163rd Street. Through the Youth Services Agency, established by Lindsay as part of a wider reform of city social services, the gang was managed by the Mayor’s Crisis Task Force, which was also embarking on a similar relationship with a Nation of Islam splinter group known as the Five Percenters.
For more: What relationship did the Five Percenters have with New York Mayor John Lindsay?
Among the workers attached to the task force was Eduardo ‘Spanish Eddie’ Vincente, who is described as a former member of the local gang scene in the 1950s. Also involved was a local teacher, Manuel Dominguez, who is credited as being an important link between the Ghetto Brothers and the Lindsay administration.
As part of their activist turn, the Ghetto Brothers would work closely with the United Bronx Parents, an educational reform group which had been established in 1965 by Evelina Lopez Antonetty. Set up with funding from the Ford Foundation, the UBP campaigned in support of Lindsay’s push to decentralise education in New York. Along with the UBP, Antonetty’s sister, Lillian López, ran the South Bronx Project, sponsored by the New York Public Library system, along with the federal government. As with the United Bronx Parents, the Ghetto Brothers would support López and the South Bronx Project, reportedly bringing along other gangs such as the Savage Skulls and the Turbans.
Through their entrance into activist circles, the Ghetto Brothers came into contact with Bill Leicht, an instructor of psychiatry at the nearby Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who had become an organiser for the United Bronx Parents. Interestingly enough, his university’s Department of Substance Abuse has maintained a drug rehab centre for decades on East 161st Street, close to the Ghetto Brothers’ clubhouse up on 163rd. Known as the Melrose Clinic, the centre appears to have been the employer of Cornell Benjamin at the time he joined the Ghetto Brothers.
In some accounts, the gang truce declared by Benjamin and the Ghetto Brothers was initiated by Joseph Mpa, a local activist who later worked for the UBP in a senior role. However, other sources point to Eduardo Vincente and the YSA, which was looking to hire gang leaders as social workers. Whatever the actual genesis of the truce, it would pick up some pace, bringing in other gangs such as the Roman Kings.
Outside of the Bronx, the Ghetto Brothers would be profiled in local media, such as an episode of WNET’s ‘Free Time’ in November 1971. According to subsequent reporting, Cornell Benjamin was poised to take up an official position with the YSA, likely expanding the Ghetto Brother’s role in the Lindsay administration. Then, in late 1971, he was killed in a homicide which remains officially unsolved.
Part Two coming soon, for more about the role of organised crime in American politics:
The Muslim Mob: Building the Nation of Islam
Ranger Nation: Jeff Fort, Richard Daley and the War on Poverty in Chicago
Vice Lords Inc: Bobby Gore, David Dawley and The Woodlawn Organization