'Reflections' on '67 tour of Bed-Stuy
BY JOYCE SHELBY DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, March 4th 2008, 4:00 AM
DeCrescenzo for News

It's been more than 40 years since New York Sens. Jacob Javits and Robert Kennedy toured the streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant to see what they could do to help a struggling, economically depressed community.

But it seems like only yesterday, thanks to a new exhibit at the Brooklyn Historical Society.
The walls of an exhibit hall are filled with photos of a youthful, smiling RFK. In one photo of Javits, he and a small boy with a huge afro are strolling along a tree-lined street.
The tour led to the establishment in 1967 of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corp., the nation's first community development corporation.
Through photos - wall-sized and small - text and snippets from recorded interviews, "Reflections on Community Development: Stories from Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corp.," recounts the founding and the early days of the organization.
"This is fantastic, just fantastic," Elsie Richardson, 86, said as she toured the exhibit during an opening reception last week.
A member of the Central Brooklyn Coordinating Council in the 1960s, Richardson was among the activists who envisioned and pushed for what became the Restoration Corp.
She is seen in several of the exhibit's photographs and her voice can be heard in an audio segment introducing Kennedy during the famous neighborhood tour.
"I'm not sure this story would be the same story without Elsie," said Deborah Schwartz, president of the historical society.
And, during the opening reception, Prof. Ron Shiffman of Pratt Institute said he wanted to set the record straight: "Kennedy came [to Bedford-Stuyvesant] and he listened, but Restoration was born in the community," said Shiffman, who worked with the council as it planned the corporation.
In connection with the exhibit, so far the society has collected 27 oral histories. Among those interviewed: Richardson and Shiffman; Franklin Thomas, the first president of Restoration, who went on to head the Ford Foundation; Wendell Rice, who set up the Restoration program to weatherize homes; and Ralph Carter, an actor on the television sitcom "Good Times." He attended plays at Restoration's Billie Holiday Theater and performed there.
Using headphones, visitors to the exhibit can hear segments from the interviews.
"We wanted to be sure we got a good mix of people," said Kate Fermoile, a society vice president, "and we're still doing interviews."
jshelby@nydailynews.com