Glascoe, Benjamin, 2007 August 31, inclusive

In this interview, Benjamin A. Glascoe remembers the racially integrated Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn of his youth; and details his education. Glascoe provides his impressions of Bedford-Stuyvesant in the 1960s. He recalls his different roles at Restoration. As the director of community programs, Glascoe revamped a problematic public sanitation program, installed youth programming, and created a successful jobs training program called the Home Improvement Program. Glascoe recounts an era of financial difficulty for Restoration, when the organization was penalized and significantly de-funded by the federal government because they had invested federal monies with the plan to use the proceeds as their operating budget. At one moment, Glascoe becomes emotional when remembering his son, the firefighter Keith Glascoe, who perished in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center. Finally, Glascoe shares his optimism for Restoration's future. Interview conducted by Brian Purnell.