Leah Cooper testifies for Edith Mott Young Way

Good morning, Chair Hankerson and distinguished members of the Committee on Parks and Recreation.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.

My name is Leah Cooper and I serve as the Heritage and Archives Chair for Brooklyn Alumni's Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated.

I respectfully ask for your favorable vote to co-name Union Street between Albany and Kingston in Brooklyn as Edith Mott Youngway.

Street namings are among the most meaningful ways New York City preserves its history.

They remind us that the people who shared our neighborhoods deserve to be remembered where they lived, served, and inspired others.

Edith Mott Young was one of the 22 founders of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated, but today we are not asking you to honor her because she helped found a historic organization.

We are asking you to honor her because she made Brooklyn her home, devoted her life to education and public service, and in 1949, she helped establish what became the Brooklyn Alumni Chapter.

From that beginning grew more than 75 years of scholarships, mentoring, youth development, health initiatives, civic engagement, and

and community service that continue to benefit Brooklyn today.

This proposal is supported by a broad coalition of residents, elected officials, community organizations, clergy, businesses, and neighborhood partners because Edith Mott Young,

Young's legacy belongs not only to Delta Sigma Theta, but to

Brooklyn itself.

Recognizing her does not rewrite history, it completes it.

It ensures that a woman whose contributions have shaped this, our borough, for generations is finally recognized in this public landscape where her legacy began.

By voting yes today, you will preserve Brooklyn's history, honoring a lifetime of service, and inspire future generations to ask, who was Edith Mott Young?

Every time the question is asked, another chapter of our city's history will be told.

On behalf of the Brooklyn Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated, Edith Mott Young's family,

and the many lives her legacy continues to touch, I respectfully ask for your favorable vote to establish Edith Mott Young Way.

Thank you for your time, your consideration, and your service to the people of New York City.

Thank you.

At this time, we are going to call the...

Thank you.

Hello.