The intersection of the South Bronx’s East 165th Street and Rogers Place has been renamed “Cornell ‘Black Benjie’ Benjamin Way” to honor the 25-year-old former vice president of the Ghetto Brothers, an activist street gang.
“Black Benjie” and the Ghetto Brothers had been working on coordinating a gang truce when the gang member-turned-peace activist was beaten to death in December 1971.
The petition to have the street where he was murdered named in honor of Black Benjie was initiated on Change.org in 2018. The text for the “Cornell ‘Black Benjie’ Benjamin Street Co-Naming Petition” urges: “Cornell ‘Black Benjie’ Benjamin deserves to have this street named for him because he dedicated his life to making change in the Bronx. His life and death are highly important to the history of the Bronx and he should be recognized for his efforts. …
“Cornell ‘Black Benjie’ Benjamin was the peacemaker for the Ghetto Brothers gang in the early 1970s. The Ghetto Brothers and ‘Black Benjie’ specifically were trying to create peace among the other gangs in the Bronx. His death directly led to the ‘Hoe Avenue Peace Treaty’ which shifted the trajectory of gang violence in the Bronx. Co-naming this street for ‘Black Benjie’ allows the Bronx to celebrate this hero in order to keep the lessons of his death and the legacy of his peacemaking current in the lives of our young people.”