Writer and New York native Michael Fletcher wrote a powerful story about the state of Black homeownership in the St. Albans neighborhood of Queens that is featured in the October issue of National Geographic.
Fletcher shared more details about the wealth of Black families in St. Albans and how they’ve managed to maintain their net worth.
How did this story come to you?
This particular piece came to me from the editors at National Geographic. They asked me to write about this neighborhood in Queens and it’s actually close to where I grew up. I grew up in Southeast Queens, near Springfield gardens. They wanted me to write about two things: the success that this community offers and has had through the years of Black homeownership and also the struggles that community and wider communities have had. Right away, I was like, wow, yeah, this is something I can do, because it’s something I’ve observed. First, growing up, which I didn’t quite understand what I was looking at when I was growing up, but in my professional life, as a journalist, it’s something I’ve been I’ve been interested in.
What was the inspiration for the story?
I’m tipping my cap to Elias Williams, the photographer, because the story literally started with his photos. He’s been documenting life at St. Albans, Queens, for roughly a decade. He grew up there and he moved out to the Bronx and other parts of the city, but he always kept a foot in St. Albans. He’s been shooting these pictures of Black Americana. You see some of those pictures, like the dinner table, families together, and people in a bouncy house in the front yard at a party. It’s a different image than that of what people probably have of New York City. It certainly exists there. Southeast Queens is one of the biggest, most vibrant Black communities in the country. So, Elias was kind of a starting point and National Geographic is a photo-driven book.
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