Adelman, Bob

Founded in Chicago in 1942, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) was centered on the principles of interracial, nonviolent direct action. Local chapters that affiliated with national CORE had a great deal of autonomy of action. Within this structure, Brooklyn CORE emerged in the early 1960s as one of the most radical CORE chapters, focusing on the living conditions of poor African-Americans in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn and employing increasingly aggressive confrontational tactics.

Oliver H. Leeds (d. 1989) served for a time as chairman of the Brooklyn chapter of CORE, where he worked to fight against discriminatory hiring practices in the work place in New York City, helped organize "Operation Clean Sweep" which focused on addressing discriminatory sanitation policies in Bedford-Stuyvesant, and organized a student boycott of New York City public schools, among other activities. Oliver and his wife Marjorie, who was also a member of Brooklyn CORE, had two daughters, Maxine and Beverly.

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