Winifred Armstrong
Armstrong’s advocacy for tenants’ rights with the Park West Village Tenants’ Association has stretched over three decades, including a stint as editor and president of the PWVTA. In 1978, a PWVTA action established the Warranty of Habitability principle in New York law. Other actions contributed to legislative and policy shifts helping thousands of Park West Village residents. She most recently took a lead in organizing the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group which holds regular programs and established a Neighborhood History Collection at the NY Public Library’s Bloomingdale Branch. Armstrong believes we are “the inheritors, interpreters, and creators of our history.”
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Interview
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Winifred Armstrong has left her mark at international, state and local levels for over seven decades. A scholar/activist of Africa—especially in the colonial and immediate post-colonial periods—Armstrong has interacted with indigenous Africans, British and U.S. civil servants and leaders of both Western and African governments in enterprises designed to promote Africa’s independence, growth and prosperity. She worked for Senator John F. Kennedy and the Foreign Relations Committee on African issues and on the creation of the Peace Corps. Her work on economic and environmental issues related to sustainability and development has ranged far and wide. She played innovative roles in many forums, including Technoserve, Interracial Council for Business Opportunity, Korean Citizens Coalition for Economic Justice, International Society of Ecological Economics and the Environmental Science Committee of the New York Academy of Sciences.