Jesse Gray
Encyclopedia
Jesse Gray was a leader of rent strike
s in Harlem
in the 1960s and served as a New York State Assembly
man from 1972 to 1974.
. He came to New York and worked as a tailor before he began organizing tenants to protest conditions in slum areas in Harlem in the 1950s. He gained wide attention in November 1963 when he led a rent strike in a 15-block section in the center of Harlem. Scores of tenants took rats, alive and dead, to a hearing in Civil Court to dramatize the infestation of rodents in their apartment buildings.
The 1963 strike ended in a standoff. Rioting in 1964 furthered his position. From his base as head of the Community Council for Housing, Mr. Gray went on to form a broader group, the National Tenants Organization, and in 1969 he ran unsuccessfully for City Council. After failing to unseat Adam Clayton Powell Jr. as United States Representative in 1970, Mr. Gray was elected to the State Assembly as a Democrat in 1972. He was defeated in the 1974 Democratic primary.
Rent strike
A rent strike is a method of protest commonly employed against large landlords. In a rent strike, a group of tenants come together and agree to refuse to pay their rent en masse until a specific list of demands is met by the landlord...
s in Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
in the 1960s and served as a New York State Assembly
New York State Assembly
The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature. The Assembly is composed of 150 members representing an equal number of districts, with each district having an average population of 128,652...
man from 1972 to 1974.
Biography
Jesse Gray was born near Baton Rouge, LouisianaBaton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...
. He came to New York and worked as a tailor before he began organizing tenants to protest conditions in slum areas in Harlem in the 1950s. He gained wide attention in November 1963 when he led a rent strike in a 15-block section in the center of Harlem. Scores of tenants took rats, alive and dead, to a hearing in Civil Court to dramatize the infestation of rodents in their apartment buildings.
The 1963 strike ended in a standoff. Rioting in 1964 furthered his position. From his base as head of the Community Council for Housing, Mr. Gray went on to form a broader group, the National Tenants Organization, and in 1969 he ran unsuccessfully for City Council. After failing to unseat Adam Clayton Powell Jr. as United States Representative in 1970, Mr. Gray was elected to the State Assembly as a Democrat in 1972. He was defeated in the 1974 Democratic primary.