_______ Malverne/West HeMpstead ______
HERALD lovebirds renew vows for V-Day
Garbage truck sells for $14,000
Flower shop gets a new owner
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Vol. 31 No. 10
FEBRUARY 29 - MARCH 6, 2024
$1.00
The first Black students in Malverne ents’ vitriol. Brewington was even elected class president from eighth grade through Frederick Brewington still senior year of high school. remembers that first day of “Malverne turned into a school when he arrived at Lind- great, wonderful learning expener Place Elementary School as rience,” Brewington said, “For a 9-year-old. He was instantly so many people who may not met with a swarm of reporters. have had the opportunity — or They stuck a microphone in his may not have taken the oppormouth. ‘What did tunity — to learn your mother tell about the things you?’ they asked that make us simihim. lar as opposed to “Walk straight the things that can to school, and don’t separate us.” step on anyone’s Among the biglawn,” Brewington, gest problems in 67, remembered the district, said saying, “Because Robin Delany, 71, they don’t want you said was the lack of over there anyway.” representation. The It was February all-white board FREDERICk 23, 1966, more than strongly resisted BREwINGtoN a decade after the integration, and Supreme Court filed a lawsuit ruled against segagainst the execuregation in schools — but Maltive order to desegregate. There verne, Lynbrook and Lakeview were only one, maybe two, seemingly didn’t get the memo. Black teachers in Malverne The children of Malverne and High School. There were zero Lynbrook, who were predomiBlack administrators. nantly white, went to Davison “The guidance was terrible Avenue and Lindner Place; the when it came to Black kids,” children of Lakeview, who were Delany said. “Their expectapredominantly Black, went to tions were so low. Woodfield Road Elementary “I remember being in the School. guidance office and watching a When the district received a fellow student being told by one court order to desegregate, the of the guidance counselors that community erupted. Protests he should go into the military, against integration were vehebecause he couldn’t do anyment, Brewington said — white thing else.” parents shouting ‘we don’t Delany was among the group want you here’ and ‘go home.’ of students who presented the But kids in the classroom, he Board of Education with a list said, did not share their parContinued on page 10
By NIColE FoRMISANo
nformisano@liherald.com
P
Courtesy Rob Hallam
every year, Rob Hallam’s home is filled from floor to ceiling with food donations for the people’s Food drive.
Annual ‘People’s Food Drive’ is off to slow start By NIColE FoRMISANo nformisano@liherald.com
For the 13th year in a row, Rob Hallam is stacking his living room with boxes of food for his annual People’s Food Drive. “It’s gotten so big,” Hallam, of Lynbrook, said. “I get checks from out of state. So any person involved with this in any way, it’s their food drive. That’s why I started calling it the People’s Food Drive.” The food drive’s origins lie with the Community Presbyterian Church of Malverne, where Hallam and his wife, Mary, are members. The church is a long-standing contributor of the Long Island Council of Churches
food pantry — but the Hallams wanted to do more. “If you believe in callings, I had a calling,” Hallam said. “I felt that God was telling me, ‘your church has done a great job collecting food here, but you’ve got to make this thing bigger. You’ve got to take it out of the church doors.’” To collect food items and money donations, Hallam and his church have teamed up with local businesses — like his workplace, Nassau Door and Window, which started putting out collection boxes, and Cross Island Fruits, which provides strawberry boxes to store the donations. CountContinued on page 8
eople died so that we might be able to advocate and make the change.