A longtime leader in Syracuse’s African American Community has died. Van Robinson, a former president of the Syracuse Common Council, and who revived Syracuse’s NAACP Chapter, is being remembered as a mentor, elder, and fierce advocate for his community.
Robinson’s name will not be forgotten in Syracuse. Common Council named its meeting room for him. The Pan-African Village at the New York State Fair is named after him. And if Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens has anything to do with it, part of the reconstructed Interstate 81 in Syracuse will bear his name.
"I'm declaring right now, Almond Street should not be Almond Street when it's done being redeveloped,” Owens said. “It needs to be Van Robinson Way."
Robinson was one of the first to call for the elevated viaduct, which split the city in half and destroyed a thriving black neighborhood when it was built in the 1950s, to be torn down.
“And he was pooh-poohed and ridiculed and people questioned, you know, what is he talking about?,” Owens said. “But Van said it from the very beginning. ‘Take that thing down, reconnect our community.’ And he stood on that, no matter what people said about him."
New York state is in the midst of a multi-year project to do just that. Syracuse University professor Rick Wright was a friend for decades. He said while the African American community was Robinson's priority, he knew every corner of Syracuse.
"Van was all over the city,” said Wright. “I mean, this is a guy who in every cranny, every particular scenario of Syracuse, you could find Van Robinson. And whenever anytime anything happened, Van would be there."
Among those places were community meetings, like the ones Common Councilor Marty Nave attended on the city’s Northside.
"He had a great personality,” Nave said. “You know, he didn't yell. He got his point across."
Originally from the Bronx, Robinson called Syracuse home for 57 years before dying at the age of 87 last weekend.
"He was just a statesman and a gentleman and just that civic powerhouse for this community,” said Owens. “And he's going to be missed. He's really going to be missed."
