Village Independent Democrats Archive 1954-1969 Digitized and Released
VID donated its treasure trove of memorabilia to Village Preservation. We are forever grateful for the painstaking work they did to preserve VID's rich, political history. We're so proud and thrilled that they have shared the first installment of VID's online digital archives with the community.
You can access the online archive HERE.
This collection includes much of the VID's archives from our first two decades, 1955 to 1969. The collection chronicles the VID's founding out of the Adlai Stevenson Presidential campaign, our successful efforts to remove the grip of the Tammany Hall Tawana Club from control of local democratic politics, our involvement in the civil rights and other social justice movements, and our support for efforts to preserve the neighborhood, especially from Robert Moses’ urban renewal and highway construction plans. Significant figures whose activities and correspondences are chronicled here include Eleanor Roosevelt, Ed Koch, Jane Jacobs, Robert Wagner, and Carol Greitzer.
VID is a groundbreaking political club that changed the course of local and New York City history and politics. And continues to do so!
Thank you, Village Preservation!
- Explore the entire collection of Village Preservation archives HERE.
- "One of NYC’s most storied political clubs invests in its future by preserving its past: The Village Independent Democrats finds new home for its seventy-year old records trove in the Village Preservation Society’s Archives". City & State article, August, 2024 by VID member and journalist, Kelly Grace Price.
- Bonus: NY1 Celebrates Black History Month
The Village Independent Democrats, the Democratic Party Reform Movement, and the Demise of Tammany Hall, 1956 – 1965.
March, 2025
Historian, teacher and author Stephen Petrus led a fascinating presentation to a riveted audience on Tuesday, April 15, at Jefferson Market Library, about the early days of Village Independent Democrats, starting with VID’s origins in December 1956, entitled The Village Independent Democrats, the Democratic Party Reform Movement, and the Demise of Tammany Hall, 1956 – 1965. The event featured slides from the VID digital archive collection recently donated to Village Preservation.
The heart of Stephen Petrus’s talk was VID’s insurgent reform push against the remaining Democratic Tammany machine and its local Democratic Party district leader, Carmine DeSapio, the onetime kingpin of Village politics. VID’s heroes included Carole Greitzer, James Lonigan, Ed Gold, and future City Councilman and Mayor Ed Koch. It is a tale that remains gripping: how the election battle for a fairly low level political post, Democratic district leader, attracted such top level political attention, all the way to the governor, and brought in persons of stature and celebrity including former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. VID’s first policy goals included improving schools and education, countering police corruption, and – yes – providing affordable housing, and an invigorated party guided by policy, not patronage. After several failed efforts, VID toppled Tammany and DeSapio. All these years later, VID is still guided by its reform principles.
The Q&A featured questions and anecdotes from former VID presidents Rick Braun, Tony Hoffmann and Jonathan Geballe. The sponsor was Village Preservation, which has masterfully catalogued and digitized VID’s boxes of letters, posters, campaign records, newspapers clipping, photos and voter tabulations and counts. Key organizers, in conjunction with Village Preservation, were Ed Yutkowitz and Jonathan Geballe.
For a recent blog post about the fascinating history about how VID fought NYU click HERE.
For a recent blog post about Eleanor Roosevelt and how she was a figure of world-renown, but was deeply involved in local affairs in her hometown of GreenwichVillage, click HERE. This article shows her deep connection to the Village in a very personal light.
