Mr. Isidore worked on the public service media campaign for the New York Urban Coalition with a team that included Marvin Lefkowitz and Robert Elgort.
The group, a nonpartisan one, was mounting a campaign on behalf of Black people in low-income communities and other minority groups in an era when conservative candidates were rallying a “silent majority” of white voters fed up with the sudden pace of civil rights and liberal excesses. The coalition wanted to “send them a message” — the “them” and the “message” being vague enough to appeal to a broad spectrum of the electorate.
“Give a Damn” was the Isidore team’s provocative challenge in 1968, urging corporate and labor leaders to get involved with generating jobs and with providing other support that the government could not or would not.
As part of the campaign, 16 public school first graders were asked on camera what they wanted to be when they grew up. More than two decades later, Mr. Isidore’s other son, Adam, a filmmaker, interviewed the same 16 again for a documentary titled “Give a Damn Again” (1995). Only a few of them had realized the goals they had set for themselves. But many had succeeded at something, because they had been helped by somebody — a mother, a teacher — who, as the film made clear, had given a damn.
By 1995, however, the New York Urban Coalition had shuttered, and Mr. Lindsay lamented how little else had changed. Black people still lagged behind in jobs and income, had disproportionately high infant mortality rates and lived in substandard housing.
“The same problems exist today,” he told Adam Isidore, “because the white community doesn’t give a damn.”
Anthony Francis Isidore, the son of Italian immigrants, was born on June 13, 1933, in Richmond, N.Y., and grew up in nearby East Rochester. His father, Violante Isidore (born Isidoro Violante), built railroad cars and died when Tony was 9. His mother, Agnes (Agata) Taverrite, worked in a defense plant during World War II and later opened a dress shop and sold real estate.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nytimes.com
