Rioghan Kirchner Civil Rights in Brooklyn Collection

CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) was a national civil rights organization founded in Chicago in 1942. The Brooklyn chapter was founded in 1960 by Dr. Robert Palmer, Marjorie Leeds, and a group of other local community activists specifically to address living conditions in the predominantly Black neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant: poor quality housing, inadequate garbage collection, inferior schools, and high unemployment. From 1960-1964, members of Brooklyn CORE led local demonstrations to desegregate housing, integrate public schools, create jobs, and improve sanitation services in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The organization was one of the most dynamic civil rights groups in New York City at the time.

FOCUS (Freedom Organizations Coordinated for Unity in Shorefront) was another Brooklyn group that made significant contributions to the civil rights movement. Working out of the Sheepshead Bay-Shorefront area, the group was instrumental in suspending the licenses of several real estate brokers who discriminated in selling and renting houses and apartments. They also took direct action against violators of public accommodations such as the American Legion and Cabana Clubs. Their Operation Open City was active in obtaining housing for minority families who had been discriminated against.

Black News was a semi-monthly newsletter produced in Bedford-Stuyvesant from 1969 to 1984. The photocopied publication was created and distributed entirely by volunteers. According to its first issue, it was "a community publication" and "it was formed in order to encourage a new awareness and involvement among our people." With articles on police brutality, racist government policies, corrupt politicians, health and medicine, and the "P.O.W. Forum"—a series on Black people in prisons—as well as poetry and artwork, Black News worked to fulfill its mission to "agitate, educate, [and] organize."

Rioghan Kirchner was born in Liverpool, England. After immigrating to Canada, she met and married an American man, Paul Kirchner, and the two of them moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1955. Her first job in the United States was as a clerk at the Kings Bay branch of Brooklyn Public Library. Soon after earning a degree from Brooklyn College, she started working in the Domestic Violence Unit of South Brooklyn Legal Services, where she worked for many years. When she retired in 1987, she was working as a legislative assistant to the City Council.

Inspired by the Southern Freedom Riders, she joined the Brooklyn chapter of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) in 1961, and soon took on an active role in the organization. Kirchner worked as a "tester," masquerading as a potential renter to landlords suspected of housing discrimination in order to identify those who denied rental opportunities based on race. She went on to become Housing Chairman and then Vice-Chairman of Brooklyn CORE. Later, she helped start FOCUS (Freedom Organization Coordinated Unity in Shorefront) and organized their campaign against real estate brokers engaged in discriminatory housing practices.

Kirchner passed away in 2013.