Richie Perez -
Advocate for People of Color

New York City has lost an ally, an advocate, a community leader, and an urban warrior, and we at the Community Service Society have lost a longtime friend and colleague. Richie Perez, activist and leader in the fight for social justice and human rights, lost the biggest struggle of his life, passing away last Saturday at the age of 59 after a long battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife Martha Laureano-Perez, their son, Danny, and his mother Ann Perez.

Shared Connections

Richie Perez brought an unusual mix of integrity, zeal, and unity to racial and ethnic communities in New York City and beyond in his fight against police brutality, and in favor of social justice for Latinos and other minorities, Puerto Rican independence, human rights, and, most recently, felon disenfranchisement. He was one of the few activists who understood the connections and shared experiences of the African American and Latino communities.

Richie was a founding member of the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights. He worked with families of victims of police brutality, including Anthony Baez, Abner Louima, and Amadou Diallo. He was involved in the struggle against racial profiling, and was lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the city's practice of "stop-and-frisk" searches, which targeted racial minorities. "He believed in justice," said his wife. "When he fought for something that was right, he didn't stop."

For over 20 years, Richie worked at the Community Service Society (CSS). He brought to CSS an extraordinary expertise in community organizing and mobilization, program development, and implementation.

Our inspiration
and our conscience

Since 1992, he served as CSS's Director of Political Development. He designed and supervised a voter registration campaign that registered more than 250,000 new voters, assisted local groups in developing issue-based campaigns, and provided training in community organizing strategy and tactics.

How can I separate CSS's work from Richie? He has been our inspiration and our conscience.
Under Richie's leadership, CSS staff organized a comprehensive community initiative in partnership with the tenants and other nonprofit organizations in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. Richie and the Community Development staff empowered the tenants of two run-down building complexes in Brooklyn to stand up against their negligent landlords by forming tenant associations. "Richie provided leadership for saving low-income housing in Bedford Stuyvesant in the same way he provided leadership throughout New York City and in international human rights," said Angela Hope-Weusi, the current Director of the Community Development Department of CSS.

Teacher and Activist

Prior to joining CSS, Richie taught college courses on the Puerto Rican urban experience, the mass media, U.S. social policy, and the history of the labor and civil rights movements at Richmond, Brooklyn, and Hunter Colleges, the College of New Rochelle, Empire State College, and the Center for Legal Education and Urban Policy. He designed the course, "Urban Reality and the Mass Media," for prospective law students at CCNY's Urban Legal Studies Program.

Richie wrote and lectured extensively on topics such as urban problems, the restructuring of the U.S. economy, race relations, media stereotyping, electoral politics, community organizing, campus organizing, youth leadership development, and political empowerment. He often spoke about the marginalization of minorities in American life.

"The loss to the Puerto Rican community, in particular, is incalculable," noted Juan Cartagena, CSS General Counsel. But Richie's influence extended to many people and places. When the City Councilmember Bill Perkins, chairing the Committee on Government Operations, heard of his death, he talked about his passing and had those in the committee room stand for a moment of silence. Richie's life touched so many New Yorkers.

From the New York Amsterdam News
April 1 - 7, 2004