Bertram L. Baker
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Bertram Llewellyn Baker (January 10, 1898 – March 8, 1985) was an American politician who was a member of the
New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Ass ...
from 1948 to 1970, representing central
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
,
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
. He was the first Black person elected to any office by voters in Brooklyn.


Early life

Baker was born on the island of
Nevis Nevis ( ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea that forms part of the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain of the West Indies. Nevis and the neighbouring island of Saint Kitts constitute the Saint Kitts and Nevis, Federation of Saint Kitts ...
in the
British West Indies The British West Indies (BWI) were the territories in the West Indies under British Empire, British rule, including Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Antigua and Barb ...
and immigrated to the United States via
Ellis Island Ellis Island is an island in New York Harbor, within the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York (state), New York. Owned by the U.S. government, Ellis Island was once the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United State ...
in 1915, when he was 17 years old. He settled in Brooklyn, N.Y., obtained a degree in accounting from
La Salle Extension University La Salle Extension University (LSEU),De Sola, Ralph (1981). ''Abbreviations dictionary.'' Elsevier, also styled as LaSalle Extension University,The university styled its name as both "La Salle" and "LaSalle" in print mediahttp://aycu21.websho ...
correspondence school in Chicago, and became a U.S. citizen in 1924. Baker became a bookkeeper at Cox & Nostrand, a lighting manufacturer in Brooklyn, where he worked his way up to head of the bookkeeping and then the accounting departments. After being denied a promotion that he said was because of his race, he went into private practice as an accountant.


Political career

In the early decades of the 20th century, Blacks were largely aligned with the Republican Party, the party of Abraham Lincoln. Baker saw that Democrats were growing in numbers and power in Brooklyn, and he joined the local Democratic club, located on Gates Avenue in what is now Bedford-Stuyvesant. The club was controlled by the Irish, but Baker realized that they were the people with whom he — and other Blacks — should align. He recruited other Blacks to the Democratic Party, and after observing white political clubs, formed his own organization, the United Action Democratic Association. His volunteers in Bedford-Stuyvesant delivered votes on Election Days, and Baker gained political influence. In 1939, Baker was appointed to a patronage job as United States Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue in the income tax division in Brooklyn. Through the 1940s, he served as a "confidential inspector" for
John Cashmore John Cashmore (June 7, 1895 – May 7, 1961) was an American politician from New York City who served as Borough President of Brooklyn from 1940 until his death in 1961. Early life Cashmore was born in Brooklyn, New York on June 7, 1895. Car ...
, the Brooklyn borough president, an Irish-American, and was a liaison between Cashmore and the growing Black community in central Brooklyn. In 1945, Baker ran for a seat on the New York City Council, but finished in 14th place among candidates from Brooklyn, not high enough to win a seat. When the state Democratic Party bosses realized that their election slates could no longer remain all white, they made a deal to get Baker elected to office. They promised the local incumbent assemblyman, John J. Walsh, another Irish-American, that if he ran for the party's re-nomination in the primary but then withdrew, they would nominate him for a judgeship instead. With the proper timing, under New York State Law and party rules, the party bosses had the right to appoint a replacement nominee to run for the assembly, and that was Baker. By that time, his area of Brooklyn was reliably Democratic, and in November 1948, Baker became the first Black person elected to any political office by voters in Brooklyn. (As the result of his election, Baker also became the second person to serve in the New York State Assembly who was born in Nevis, after
Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795 dur ...
– something that he was fond of telling.) Baker was a member of the
New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Ass ...
from 1948 to 1970, sitting in the 167th, 168th, 169th, 170th, 171st, 172nd, 173rd, 174th, 175th, 176th, 177th, 178th, and
179th New York State Legislature The 179th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 6, 1971, to May 12, 1972, during the thirteenth and fourteenth years of Nelson Rockefeller's governorship, in Alba ...
s. During his tenure in the assembly, Baker sponsored bills prohibiting various types of discrimination, most notably New York's fair housing law. The Metcalf-Baker Act, which was sponsored in the State Senate by George R. Metcalf, an upstate Republican, was one of the first laws anywhere that outlawed discrimination in housing. The first version was signed into law by Governor
Averell Harriman William Averell Harriman (November 15, 1891July 26, 1986) was an American politician, businessman, and diplomat. He was a founder of Harriman & Co. which merged with the older Brown Brothers to form the Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. investment ...
in 1955 and covered only housing with mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration. A revised version was signed by Governor
Nelson Rockefeller Nelson Aldrich "Rocky" Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979) was the 41st vice president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford. He was also the 49th governor of New York, serving from 1959 to 197 ...
in 1963 to include all housing except owner-occupied one and two-family dwellings. The federal
Fair Housing Act The Civil Rights Act of 1968 () is a Lists of landmark court decisions, landmark law in the United States signed into law by President of the United States, United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during the King assassination riots. Titles ...
, with even broader reach, was not passed until 1968. Baker eventually rose to become the assembly's majority whip in 1966, and remained in the assembly until his retirement from politics at the end of 1970.


Personal life

Baker married Irene Baker on December 10, 1919. She was born in Brooklyn in 1901. Her parents had immigrated from Nevis four years earlier; Bertram and Irene Baker were also first cousins. Baker was an avid tennis player, and was the executive secretary of the
American Tennis Association The American Tennis Association (ATA) is based in Largo, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C., and is the oldest African-American sports organization in the United States. The core of the ATA's modern mission continues to be promoting tennis as a ...
from 1936 to 1966, which promoted tennis to Black communities and campaigned for the sport's integration. In that capacity, he championed tennis to many who otherwise could not have played, and helped to successfully negotiate with white tennis administrators to accept
Althea Gibson Althea Neale Gibson (August 25, 1927September 28, 2003) was an American tennis player and professional golfer, and one of the first Black athletes to cross the color line of international tennis. In 1956, she became the first African America ...
into their competitions. Baker also served as president of the New York State Tennis Association.


Death

Baker died on March 8, 1985, in Brooklyn. He was survived by his wife Irene, his two daughters Marian Baker-Howell of Brooklyn and Lillian Bemus of Queens, four grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.


Legacy

Baker lived at 399 Jefferson Avenue in Brooklyn for many years. His block, Jefferson Avenue between Tompkins and Throop Avenues, was co-named Bertram L. Baker Way by the New York City Council in 2011. Baker's granddaughter is Diane Bemus Patrick, an attorney and first lady of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015.


Further reading

*Howell, Ron ''Boss of Black Brooklyn: The Life and Times of Bertram L. Baker'' Fordham University Press Bronx, New York 2018 * Paterson, David “'' Black, Blind, & In Charge: A Story of Visionary Leadership and Overcoming Adversity''.” New York, New York, 2020 *Walker, John C.''The Harlem Fox: J. Raymond Jones at Tammany 1920:1970'', New York: State University New York Press, 1989.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Bertram L. 1898 births 1985 deaths American people of Saint Kitts and Nevis descent People from Nevis Saint Kitts and Nevis emigrants to the United States Politicians from Brooklyn Democratic Party members of the New York State Assembly Political history of New York City 20th-century members of the New York State Legislature