Carleton Manor Resident LaWanda Johnson-Gainey on Six Decades of Activism
For some, activism is a necessity; for others, it’s a choice. For LaWanda Johnson-Gainey, who has been advocating for herself and her community for close to six decades, it’s both.
Even from a young age, Mrs. Gainey seemed marked for activism. Though too young to remember, her involvement in it began at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C, in August 1963.
Mrs. Gainey’s mother and her friends had taken a young Mrs. Gainey on a bus cross-country from Mississippi to join the 250,000 others who had gathered to listen to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak.
A few years later, at the height of the civil rights movement, Mrs. Gainey’s family decided to leave behind the racial tensions of the South and move to New York City, where they began making a new life for themselves in Queens.
Soon after, Mrs. Gainey said, her first conscious act of solidarity would take place on an unlit street in St. Albans, Queens.
Locals had repurposed a monument – a large rock – and repainted it in the Pan-African colors of red, black, and green. The Liberty Rock, as it became known, was a meeting spot in the neighborhood, and the site of a sit-in protest for locals to voice their dissatisfaction with the lack of street lighting.
Mrs. Gainey, who was 8 years old at the time, joined older cousins involved in the advocacy, which eventually drew the attention of local officials. “There’s a streetlight there today,” she proudly noted.
A self-described Queens girl, it wasn’t until many years later, when a fire in her apartment left Mrs. Gainey and her family temporarily unhoused and living in a hotel in Brooklyn, that Mrs. Gainey realized the potential and power of activism.
After being relocated to the Brooklyn Arms, a temporary housing hotel in Fort Greene, Mrs. Gainey met Ruth Young and Jean Chappell, two single, working mothers who had become involved with the activist group Parents On The Move. The group’s members were made up of, and advocated on behalf of, people experiencing homelessness.
The Brooklyn Arms became a kind of headquarters for Parents On The Move, and during that period Mrs. Gainey became a notable figure within the community, participating in sit-ins and advocating for permanent and safe housing for its residents.
The movement quickly drew national attention. The press flocked to interview the women and a book was even written about them. Rosa Parks, Betty Shabazz (Malcolm X’s wife), and Al Sharpton all showed up at the Brooklyn Arms to demonstrate support.
Soon after, Mrs. Gainey moved back to Queens, to NYCHA’s Carleton Manor in Rockaway, where she has lived for 33 years. Although she was reluctant at first to become involved in the resident association, she was eventually convinced by her children’s babysitter. After a brief stint as vice president, she has now been president for 18 years.
“I just wanted to see a change,” Mrs. Gainey noted, explaining why she became involved at her development. “When I moved here, it was like a culture shock to me. I didn’t see anything going on for the kids. When I became president, we did more. We took the kids on trips. We did a lot of things.”
She has worked hard to become a prominent presence within the community. While the resident association hosts movie nights for kids in their backyard (and will soon do one for adults), Mrs. Gainey also does story time and facepainting in parks around Rockaway.
In October, along with some residents and local kids, she participated in Earth Day, planting trees and tulips in the yard: “It was so much fun.”
She encourages everyone in her development to get involved and share ideas for activities, or for causes to celebrate: “If somebody has an idea, then we do it.”
“Juneteenth has only been a federal holiday for, what, like two years?” Mrs. Gainey pointed out. “Well, this June at Carleton Manor, we’re celebrating our 12th year of Juneteenth.”
While not an official member, she volunteers at the local Neighborhood Advisory Board, where she and others work with local community centers to ensure they have all the resources they need to help local communities.
She also volunteers with Women of NYCHA and Beyond, which hosts workshops on domestic violence and other issues in the basement of the local church. Mrs. Gainey does a lot of the cooking for the events, as well as baking cupcakes and pies.
A two-time graduate of the Citizens’ Police Academy, Mrs. Gainey is now completing the Peoples’ Police Academy, an emergency preparedness course accredited via Medgar Evers College.
In fulfillment of the course, Mrs. Gainey and fellow Rockaway classmates established Intergenerational Community Uplift in Rockaway to raise awareness about flooding and emergency preparedness.
“We decided to do what matters most to us here in Rockaway,” Mrs. Gainey explained. “Teaching people what do to, how to make a go bag, and what the best way is to get out of here in case of flooding.”
Her project is being conducted with the help of Regional Ready Rockaway, for which she is an ambassador. The organization, which was founded by the recently deceased Dr. Edward Williams (known locally as Dr. Ed), was set up to raise awareness about disaster preparedness and emergency management related to coastal flooding.
When Hurricane Sandy struck New York City in 2012, The Rockaways were devastated. Thousands of homes were destroyed, and many more suffered damage. Mrs. Gainey was actively involved in relief efforts, liaising with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Governor’s Office efforts to get clothes, blankets, and food to residents who had been displaced or whose homes had been destroyed by the storm.
“From 8 o’clock in the morning until 7 o’clock in the evening, I worked.”
Mrs. Gainey pointed out that it isn’t just superstorms they have to contend with on Rockaway. Two years ago, three days of rain caused severe flooding, so she is eager to continue to make residents understand the dangers and be prepared.
The local NYPD precinct is involved with Mrs. Gainey’s project, and she is working on getting the local FDNY station involved, too.
When the pandemic began in 2020, Mrs. Gainey was also deeply involved in leading efforts to tackle food insecurity.
“When the pandemic happened, it was hard for people in Rockaway to get fresh fruits and vegetables. A lot of people lost their jobs, so they would come to the [local food] pantry in order to feed their families.”
Now, at 64, Mrs. Gainey still strives to embody the kind of spirit of participation she wants to see in her community. Even though she left the South as a child and New York is without a doubt home, her Southern roots still show.
“Down South,” she said, “my grandmother would make ice cream and we’d set up old clothes to help people who needed food or clothes. I was raised to be kind to people and to do things in the community.”
While she may have learned it in the South, she’s perfecting it here, in New York City, in her development in Rockaway: “I love Rockaway because we’re like a little, quiet town. We’re family oriented. I find people that are like-minded like me, whether they were raised in the South or not. I befriend them and this is what we do.”