1 8 8 1 Tr u e Bl u e p res e n t s
SAVI N G O UR SE N I O RS
About Joy Andrews Joy Andrews is a Chicago native with a wealth of sales experience in real estate and engineering. She has served in roles in sales, marketing and operations. After beginning her sales career with Verizon (formerly GTE), Joy made the move to real estate sales in 2001. She is experienced in general brokerage real estate and is a specialist in new construction and development sales, having served as Neighborhood Sales Manager and Vice President of Sales for developers in Atlanta, where she marketed and managed the sales of a diverse portfolio of products ranging from production to luxury custom home designs. Joy holds a bachelor’s degree in Math from Spelman College and a second degree in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She lives in Dekalb County and enjoys crafting, travel and baking in her free time. Joy was blessed to attend Spelman College and Georgia Institute of Technology on a full scholarship and wholeheartedly believes in giving back to her community. Some of her closest relationships today began at 350 Spelman Lane. Last year, 50 percent of her business was from her Spelman sisters and Morehouse brothers and 97 percent of her business came by referral.
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Photo: gettyimages.com
About the Harlem Renaissance Harlem Renaissance, a blossoming (c. 1918–37) of African American culture, particularly in the creative arts, and the most influential movement in African American literary history. Embracing literary, musical, theatrical, and visual arts, participants sought to reconceptualize “the Negro” apart from the white stereotypes that had influenced Black peoples’ relationship to their heritage and to each other. They also sought to break free of Victorian moral values and bourgeois shame about aspects of their lives that might, as seen by whites, reinforce racist beliefs. Never dominated by a particular school of thought but rather characterized by intense debate, the movement laid the groundwork for all later African American literature and had an enormous impact on subsequent Black literature and consciousness worldwide. While the renaissance was not confined to the Harlem district of New York City, Harlem attracted a remarkable concentration of intellect and talent and served as the symbolic capital of this cultural awakening. Source: www.britannica.com/event/Harlem-Renaissance-American-literature-and-art
About Vertner Woodson Tandy One of the African American students studying within the storied halls of Taylor’s Tuskegee Institute was Kentucky-born Vertner Woodson Tandy, who enrolled there in 1904 to study architecture. The next year, he matriculated to Cornell, where he helped establish the first African-American Greek letter fraternity (Alpha Phi Alpha) before graduating in 1908 and moving to New York City. The first black registered architect in New York state, Taylor soon partnered with George Washington Foster, the first black registered architect in New Jersey, and from their office on Broadway the team went on to establish much of 20th-century Harlem and surrounding areas. Villa Lewaro, a 1916 Federal/Regency Revival manor house in Irvington, NY for hair-care magnet Madame C.J. Walker was a triumph; while the 1925 Neo-Gothic-style Mother AME Zion church is the oldest African American church in New York City, and a city landmark. The Abraham Lincoln Houses urban renewal project in 1945 was one of the largest projects of its kind, a collaboration with Skidmore Owings & Merrill and Edwin Forbes, with a budget of $8.5 million. When Tandy died in 1949, his funeral was held at Harlem’s Saint Philip’s Episcopal Church—a fitting tribute, since he and Foster had designed it in 1910. Portrait of Vertner Woodson Tandy, courtesy of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library. Source: interiordesign.net/designwire/10-pioneering-african-american-architectsand-the-legacy-buildings-they-designed/
About George Washington Foster, Jr. George Washington Foster (1866–1923) was an early African-American architect. He was among the first AfricanAmerican architects licensed by the State of New Jersey in 1908, and later New York (1916). Foster partnered with Vertner Woodson Tandy (1885–1949), the first African-American architect licensed by the State of New York, in the firm of Tandy and Foster, which was active from 1908 to 1914. It was around 1908 that Foster met Tandy, New York’s first registered Black architect. According to several accounts, they met at a Masonic Lodge and thus began their friendship and fruitful collaboration, though Tandy is often the most prominently recognized of the two. Born December 1866 in Newark, New Jersey, Foster is said to have attended Cooper Union and worked in the office of Henry Hardenbergh from 1888 to 1889, who designed the New York City landmarks Dakota Apartment Building, Plaza Hotel, and the first Waldorf-Astoria, on the present site of the Empire State Building. During his time with Hardenbergh, he would have worked on the Waldorf Hotel. He may also have worked on the Flatiron Building, designed by the Chicago-based firm of D. H. Burnham. Mother AME Zion Church in Harlem is representative of Foster’s enormous gifts. But like Tandy, there is so much more to Foster’s life and legacy than one remarkable edifice, nothing more illustrious than being New Jersey’s first licensed Black architect and one of the first in the nation.
Source: amsterdamnews.com/news/2020/12/10/blackarchitectural-forerunner-george-washington-f/
Sugar Hill
"...the summit of New York's African -American culture." The highland area of west Harlem developed later and more gradually than the low-lying valley of Harlem because of limited transportation connections to the rest of the city. In the nineteenth century, the area was a popular destination for excursions out of town, especially for bicyclists, drivers of trotting horses, and patrons of Manhattan Field and the adjacent Polo Grounds (which opened in the late 1880s). When residential construction reached the area during Harlem's real estate boom, the ridge of the heights (later known as Coogan's Bluff) overlooking the Harlem River as a particularly appealing location for stylish apartment buildings which initially attracted upper-middle class tenants of German, Jewish, and Irish background. Sometimes identified as part of Washington heights, the neighbourhood extending from Edgecombe Avenue to Amsterdam Avenue, and from 145th Street to 155th Street, came to be known as "Sugar Hill" when affluent African-Americans began moving there in the late 1920s. By 1930, the population of this entire area south of 155th Street was over fifty percent black, with certain areas having a population that was between seventy-five and eighty-five percent black. Beginning in the late 1920s, Harlem's elite migrated to the "class houses" of Sugar Hill, notably Nos. 409 and 555 Edgecombe Avenue. In 1946, Ebony magazine gave one account of the derivation of the name "Sugar Hill," explaining that "some 'shanty' Irish looked across 130th Street to the brick-topped ledge where wealthy, 'lace curtain' Irish lived years ago, [and] dubbed it Sugar Hill. Years later Negroes nudged the title 20 blocks uptown, where Negroes with 'sugar' settled." The appellation came to represent all that was "sweet and expensive," signifying that one had arrived, economically and socially, at the summit of New York's African-American culture. The summit was geographic as cultural; people on the "Hill" looked down upon the "valley" of central Harlem where the poorer residents of Harlem lived, many in overcrowded tenements and cramped, converted rowhouses. While the valley was truly the heart of Harlem, Sugar Hill was celebrated for its exclusivity and status. The Hill attracted those with talent, money, education, and social prominence. The Ebony article characterized Sugar Hill society and the residents of 409 and 555 with the observation that "Harlem's most talked-about men and women in law, sports, civil liberties, music, medicine, painting, business, and literature live on Sugar Hill." Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. presented a portrait of the Hill's residential grandeur in 1935: On Sugar Hill…Harlem's would-be 'sassiety' goes to town. 'Midst panelled walls, parquet floors, electric refrigeration, colored tile baths, luxurious lobbies, elevators and doormen resplendent in uniforms, they cavort and disport themselves in what is called the best ofay manner." Source: www.nyc-architecture.com/HAR/HAR-History.htm
Black Astor Row One of the most enchanting streets in Harlem is a row of 28 houses on the south side of West 130th Street between Lenox and Fifth Avenues known as Astor Row. Let’s take a stroll back in time. In 1920, The New York Times ran a story about Harlem’s Astor Row, warning of “radical changes” ahead for the once-exclusively white enclave. During this period, Astor Row became a magnet for African-Americans migrating to Harlem. The 28 three-story houses along West 130th Street are distinguished by their covered wooden porches, which can be interpreted as an iconic architectural feature of Black gathering spaces. The neighborhood has gone through a plethora of changes, including the Harlem Renaissance with the Harlem Renaissance Ballroom and other Clubs just blocks away. The famous Collyer Brothers brownstone was located just two-blocks away, until their death in the 1940s.The block’s eventual decay was a result of the overcrowding and poverty wrought by the Depression and disinvestment. Although the homes were designated as city landmarks in 1981, by 1990, most of the porches were gone or in serious disrepair. Roberta Washington — one of the few Black woman architects based in Harlem — was the architect behind the iconic porches’ restoration in the 1990s. In 1992 Ella Fitzgerald performed at Radio City Music hall to help raise money for this restoration, and by the end of the 1990’s, the restoration project was complete.Their revival attests to the resilience of Harlem’s Black community. Astor Row, once again a “Front-Porch Block,” is sought after by a new demographic of Harlem residents. Today there are plaques as reminders at these historic sites, as the neighborhood enjoys a Harlem Restaurant Row inching up Lenox Avenue, the National Jazz Museum just around the corner, along with the popular Lenox Coffee Shop, and Revolution Books. Summer is the best time for a stroll down the block, with the front gardens in full bloom. Some of them thick with perennials, while others grow vegetables. The porches are complete with comfortable summer chairs. On the opposite side of the street, rows of brownstones. In 2018, New York City Landmark Preservation Commission designated the neighborhood just west of Lenox, from West 130-132nd Street between Lenox Avenue and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, a Historic District. Source: gothamtogo.com/a-summertime-visit-to-harlems-historic-astor-row/
"...the front-porch-block of Harlem."
"...home to Harlem's Royalty."
Striver's Row Dreamed up by developer David King during the turn of the century, the lavish “King Model Houses,” as they were originally called, were intended for upper-middle class whites (think of the Darling family in Disney’s Lady and the Tramp); in the years prior to their construction (the first stone of the townhouses was laid in 1891), New York’s white elite had been steadily moving upward when searching for places to live. By the 1920s and 30s, the first residents on Strivers’ Row included such Harlem royalty as Vertner Tandy, the first commissioned African American architect in the state of New York, heavyweight contender Harry Wills, a.k.a. “Black Panther,” (who never got to fight for the title due to racism in the boxing industry), preacher/congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (for whom the street is named), renowned activist and surgeon Dr. Louis T. Wright, comedian Lincoln Perry (who was famous for his controversial character, Stepin Fetchit), and actor/singer Luther Robinson, a.k.a. Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. In addition, Strivers’ Row played host to plenty of black musicians, including musician W.C. Handy, widely recognized as “the father of the blues,” jazz pianist and orchestra leader Fletcher Henderson, jazz pianist and composer Eubie Blake, and many others. The housing complex also appears in several songs, like Earl Hines’ “Topsy Turvy” (shown above) and Cab Calloway’s “The Ghost of Smokey Joe.” By the 1940s, the houses had started to decay, and many were converted into Single Room Occupancies (SROs), several losing the original decorative details because of renovations. Luckily, the exteriors of these houses are considered historical landmarks, so the integrity of the original facades remains undamaged, but to this day, people are still allowed to renovate inside, much to the dismay of many Harlem residents today. Other Harlem history enthusiasts, like antiques collector Danny DeKind, buy the townhouses themselves and work to preserve their original state. In a 1994 interview with The New York Times, DeKind explained that his motivation for restoring his Strivers’ Row townhouse came from a community resident named Jean-Claude Baker, who adopted the illustrious Josephine Baker‘s last name after working with her for most of his life. “Those homes are more than just wood,” Baker said, of the townhouses on Strivers’ Row. “There is a story of people fighting to keep their history.” To this day, you can purchase a house on Strivers’ Row, complete with private parking and Harlem historical value. According to most current listings, Strivers’ Row is “the West Village of Harlem,” and the going price per townhouse seems to hover around $500,000 to $700,000, but good luck finding an opening on the market. Still, it is fun to stroll past these elegant townhouses on a sunny day; just be sure to download some old jazz music and maybe wear that old vintage dress you found down in some East Village thrift shop. Source: untappedcities.com/2012/12/20/history-of-streets-strivers-row/
Photo: Spelman College Archives
About 1881 True Blue True Blue 1881 was established out of the desire for two Spelman alumnae to help students attending college in the Atlanta University Center. They both had initiatives near and dear to them and in 2019, decided to join forces and expand their philanthropic efforts. True Blue 1881 is committed to continuing to provide assistance and resources to the students of the Atlanta University Center and beyond. It is our desire to create a world where students are free of food, shelter and economic insecurities. True Blue 1881 currently serves students from Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Morehouse School of Medicine, Morris Brown College, and Spelman College and aims to expand their assistance to HBCU students everywhere. True Blue 1881 was created by Atlanta University Center Alumnae who currently provide assistance to HBCU students in need. True Blue 1881 continues to grow and we are excited about what the future holds.
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We believe all students can embrace who they are, can define their future, and can change the world.
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Tiombé Nucklos O'Rourke founder & ceo Born Tiombé Nigina Nucklos, it has always been her desire to effect positive change while remaining behind the scenes. Tiombé is a proud graduate of Spelman College, Class of 1999. She inherited her giving and generous spirit from her father, who taught her to give without expectation of anything in return. According to her Italian mom, “Do good and forget about it! Do bad and think about it!” Tiombé lives by these simple principles.
Our Board of Directors Joy Smith coo & treasurer Operating Officer of True Blue 1881, LLC, she ensures True Blue 1881's vision is executed with laser precision, social responsibility, and purpose-led fun. She earned a Master of Science in Data Analytics from Southern New Hampshire University and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Spelman College.
Our Board of Directors Kanika Sloan Williams, Esq. chief operations officer
Kanika Sloan Williams, Spelman College Class of 1997, is a twenty-year attorney with a practice that spans litigation, commercial transactions, Intellectual and Privacy Law. Currently, she serves as the Senior Privacy Counsel and Executive Director for NCR. As a member of the New York State and Georgia State Bars, she has worked for Fortune 500 companies such as McKesson, The Home Depot, SunTrust Bank, Citibank and JP Morgan Chase as well as various law firms in New York and Georgia. She is an active member of the National Association of Spelman College Atlanta Chapter and on the Diversity Council of her law school alma mater Tulane Law. She volunteers with the Georgia Innocence Project, the Pajama Program, the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys, and Spelman Moms. Her motto is “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better – it’s not.” – The Lorax.
Kimberly Bryant, MBA corporate secretary & PMO Kimberly Bryant, Spelman College Class of 1996, is a dynamic and tactical Enterprise Portfolio & Program Management leader with over 20 years of experience in multi-million-dollar Governance and oversight. Kimberly completed her Executive MBA at Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University and earned her undergraduate degree, a Bachelor of Arts in English at Spelman College. Community service is extremely important to Kimberly including facilitating mentoring circles, serving as a member of AT&T’s Diversity & Inclusion Council, Culture council and serving as a board member with United Way Atlanta - Cole Women United for the last 5 years.
Juanita Ramos chief communications officer Juanita Ramos has a tenured career as an HR Practitioner that spans a decade. Juanita focuses on training and development, employee relations and compliance. Juanita attended Spelman College and has also received two MS degrees from Northeastern University in HR Management and Corporate Communication. In addition, Juanita is also a Lifestyle Editor for Upscale Magazine, where she focuses on family, relationships and all things HBCU. She is an avid writer, bringing attention to social issues and inspiring people to engage in discourse about the world around them. She supports Survivors Rock, an organization that aims to uplift women who have endured domestic violence abuse.
Kenya Thacker Pierre, Esq. chief legal counsel Kenya Thacker Pierre is a cum laude graduate in Chemistry/ Pre-Med of Spelman College and a Law Review graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Law. Kenya first started her law career as a chemical patent attorney with the Procter & Gamble Company in Cincinnati, Ohio and then with Coca-Cola in Atlanta, Georgia. She currently serves as the deputy general counsel for Strava. It is a perfect opportunity that blends her legal and AllAmerican athletic background. Kenya has three daughters who keep the family busy with volleyball tournaments. In her “spare time,” she is a certified 200 RYT yoga instructor who enjoys leading others in their journey to well-being and a life member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She has served on several charitable and non-profit boards, including the Warrick Dunn Charities, Inc. and True Blue 1881, Inc. Her legal acumen and strategic vision serve a vital part of our mission.
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