Before the 1700s, the area now known as Brownsville was inhabited by the Lenape people, who were first subjected to Dutch colonization and later forcibly displaced by British authorities in the 1800s. In the decades that followed, successive waves of Russian, Italian, and Polish immigrants settled in the neighborhood. By the 1930s, Brownsville had become a center of Jewish working‑class life.

During the Great Migration, African Americans escaping the racial violence and systemic oppression of the Jim Crow South established a significant presence in Brownsville, and the Black population continued to expand through the 1950s. In the late 1960s and 1970s, Puerto Rican and other Caribbean families further diversified the community’s cultural landscape.

For much of its history, Brownsville was excluded from major development initiatives by both corporate interests and government institutions. This pattern began to shift during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The neighborhood gained national and international attention during the 1968 New York City Teachers Strike, following Mayor Lindsay’s decision to grant Brownsville community control of its schools—a policy strongly opposed by the predominantly white teacher’s union.

Parents and dedicated community leaders advocated for equitable and integrated education despite widespread teacher boycotts aimed at removing the newly appointed Black superintendent and principal. These events profoundly shaped local activism and inspired a generation of community organizers. Among them was our founder, Rosetta Gaston, who envisioned BHH as a space where residents could learn across generations and support one another through creative expression.