A Place Where the Dream Lives

Elias Williams

Starting in the 1940s, St. Albans became one of the few places in New York City where Black people could pursue the American dream of homeownership and business ownership. The predominantly African American and Caribbean American working-and middle-class neighborhood in southeast Queens is known by locals for its pride, strength, and unity. Through the years, Black luminaries, including singer Lena Horne, baseball icon Jackie Robinson, civil rights activist W.E.B. DuBois, heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis, and soul music superstar James Brown, have lived here.

The housing crisis struck heavily in St. Albans and transformed the community into an epicenter of mortgage fraud. In 2007, Black communities throughout New York City were targeted by banks with predatory loans nearly seven times as high as loans in affected white communities. While the effects of the housing crisis still linger, the soul of this community persists.

Photographer Elias Williams spent the first 15 years of his life in and around St. Albans, the Queens enclave that would become the primary subject of his long-term project celebrating the nuances of Black homeownership in the midst of economic hardship and preserving the identity of one of New York City’s historically Black communities.

Artist Bios

Elias Williams

Elias Williams is a New York City-based photographer whose work honors under-represented people in the United States. Through portraiture and long-form essays, he studies the cultural and historical significance of everyday people within these communities.

His photographs have been showcased at the International Photo Festival Leiden, the Morris Museum, and The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Elias is also a contributing photographer to AARP, Bloomberg Markets, NPR, National Geographic, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal among others.

Williams is also a 2017 Magnum Foundation Photography and Social Justice Fellow, and 2017 recipient of the Bronx Council on the Arts’s Bronx Recognizes Its Own (BRIO) award, and he is currently participating in the 2020 World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass.

Organizations

National Geographic

Established in 1888, National Geographic is a trusted print and digital publication offering stories that illuminate, inspire, and reveal. Our mission is to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of cultures, the sciences, and the natural world. We advance that mission by creating visually stunning, richly reported photojournalism and distinguished, impartial coverage of the globe’s most pressing issues. National Geographic, the most popular brand on Instagram, has more than 215 million followers.
NYC Parks

NYC Parks is the steward of more than 30,000 acres of land — 14 percent of New York City — including more than 5,000 individual properties ranging from Coney Island Beach and Central Park to community gardens and Greenstreets. We operate more than 800 athletic fields and nearly 1,000 playgrounds, 1,800 basketball courts, 550 tennis courts, 65 public pools, 51 recreational facilities, 15 nature centers, 14 golf courses, and 14 miles of beaches. We care for 1,200 monuments and 23 historic house museums. We look after 600,000 street trees, and two million more in parks. We are New York City’s principal providers of recreational and athletic facilities and programs. We are home to free concerts, world-class sports events, and cultural festivals.