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.