New Haven Oral History Project: Curlena McDonald

Summary Description

Curlena McDonald moved into the Dwight Street neighborhood from Newhallville in the late 1980s, just as drugs were beginning to become a large problem in the New Haven African-American community. McDonald speaks about the disappointment within the black community at that time, regarding the lack of substantive change in the years following the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. In the early 1990s, McDonald recalls, black residents of the Dwight area found themselves stuck between an influx of drug dealers and a New Haven police force that many deemed untrustworthy and dangerous. As a result, community members formed the Management Team in an attempt to arrest the spread of drugs and crime. Among other things, the Management Team provided small grants for area youths to undertake projects to clean up and beautify their neighborhoods. When the Management Team found partners in Yale and St. Rafael's Hospital, the organization morphed into the Greater Dwight Development Corporation. Among other ventures, McDonald reports, the Corporation was able to bring a Shaw's Supermarket to the Dwight area, to encourage home ownership, and to open a Montessori school and a business school. McDonald discusses the relative advantages and disadvantages of the movement from a grassroots organization to a better funded, more centralized structure. She surveys what the community activists of the Management Team have been able to accomplish, and what's left to achieve. Interviewer: Chilukuri, Usha

Category Tags

Harm Reduction and Substance Use; Activism and Advocacy; Public Safety and Crime; Law, Policy, and Decision-Making; City Planning, Development, and Gentrification

New Haven Neighborhood

Dwight

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