HONORING LESLIE LEWIS

CONGRESSMAN EDOLPHUS TOWNS, BP MARKOWITZ TO HONOR LESLIE LEWIS, LONGTIME COMMUNITY ACTIVIST AND NYPD LIAISON

NOON

TUESDAY, MAY 22

BROOKLYN BOROUGH HALL

209 JORALEMON STREET

BETWEEN COURT AND ADAMS STREETS

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN

On Tuesday, May 22, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz will join Congressman Edolphus "Ed" Towns to present proclamations to Boerum Hill resident Leslie Lewis, the longtime criminal justice liaison at Borough Hall and council president of the 84th Precinct.

In 1969, the Nixon administration expressed its appreciation to Lewis for pitching the concept of "Job Power" to match up employers with underemployed urban minorities, a proposal which eventually evolved into the modern day job fair. In the 1950s and 1960s, during his tenure in the exhibition business, Lewis was involved with the 1964 New York World's Fair and Expo 67 in Montreal, and was responsible for the American exhibits of the U.S.-Soviet Union cultural exchange exhibitions with the U.S. Information Agency that led to the famous "kitchen debate" between Richard Nixon and Nikita Krushchev.

Shortly after moving to Brooklyn in 1982, Lewis joined the 84th Precinct Community Council and, twenty years later, became a liaison at Borough Hall, where he continues to represent the borough president on criminal justice issues and work with the NYPD and community organizations throughout Brooklyn.