The Mayor’s Man in Harlem
It was also in 1967 that John V. Lindsay term in office saw the eruption of Crown Heights, Brooklyn in racial turmoil between the Black and Jews. In his efforts to influence and settle the situation in Crown Heights, Mayor Lindsay realized that the city administration was not in touch with the true leaders of the people in the communities. This prompted Mayor Lindsay to create a Task Force that could develop ties with the community leaders. High on the Mayor’s list of priorities was Allah. A meeting took place on May 11th between Allah and Barry Gotherer, one of Lindsay’s aides. At this meeting Allah requested the city to provide buses to the Five Percenters for a picnic and a building for a school for him to teach them.
On the last Sunday of May, Barry Gotherer attended the Five Percenters Parliament. He told them that the Mayor was interested in working with them, that the city would provide buses for them to go to the beach in Long Island, and that they had plans to secure a building for them at Seventh and 126th Street. The following Sunday, the Five Percenters filled six buses and went to a Long Island State Park. Allah later told Barry that he wasn’t as much interested in the buses as he was in his word. That on the street was all that mattered. That your word is your bond. Early that summer Allah’s street academy opened at 2122 7th Avenue where it remains to this very day.
One of the Five Percenters named Universal Shaamguadd presented Allah with an emblem that he designed and it was ordained as the Universal Flag of the Five Percenters. The emblem was painted on the window of the street academy and put on pins that they wore on their lapels.