Parkway Village

Parkway Village is a garden apartment complex with 675 residential units, located on in the Briarwood section of Queens in New York City. It was completed in 1947 to house United Nations employees and delegates, many of whom had faced racial discrimination when they sought housing in other areas.HistoryWhen the United Nations began operations in and around New York City in 1946, people from all over the world came to the area to work for the fledgling international organization, including many persons of color. Almost all real estate in the area was racially segregated, and this along with a national housing shortage made housing options for non-white people particularly limited. In fact, in an attempt to surmount this shortage, the UN had contracted for housing in Fresh Meadows and Peter Cooper Village, both new apartment complexes owned by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, but these contracts still allowed the company to deny housing to prospective residents on the basis of race. Although it had not articulated a discriminatory policy, in fact both complexes' residents were exclusively white at the time (and for decades thereafter). Many UN employees protested this situation, and the UN backed out of its contracts with the complexes. Still needing housing for its employees, the organization then signed a lease with Parkway Village, which was under construction at the time.