Milton “Milt” Hinton (1910 - 2000), a long-time resident of Addisleigh Park, was a legendary bass player who played with many of the greats of jazz and pop. He was also a skilled photographer who took nearly 60,000 negatives of performers on the road or in the studio, which have been exhibited around the world.

Milton John Hinton was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and grew up in Chicago. With his mother’s encouragement, he began studying the violin, but pivoted to string bass because opportunities for Black violinists were limited. After working for several years with a jazz band in the Chicago area, Hinton was hired by the Cab Calloway Band in 1936. With the Calloway band, he became one of the first jazz bassists to be featured on records as a soloist. During his 60-year career, Hinton, nicknamed the “The Judge,” performed and recorded with many legendary musicians including Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Erskine Tate, Art Tatum, Jabbo Smith, Eddie South, Zutty Singleton, Cab Calloway, Eubie Blake, John Coltrane, Quincy Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Paul McCartney, Andre Kostelanetz, Guy Lombardo, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Billy Holiday and Barbara Streisand. He was one of the most recorded artists in history, as estimates of the records and albums he recorded range from 600 to well over 1,000. At the height of his popularity, Hinton entertained presidents and dignitaries at the White House; served as chairman of the International Society of Bassists, The National Association of Jazz Educators and the Jazz Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts; and held charter memberships in the Duke Ellington Fellowship at Yale University and the Newport Jazz Festival Hall of Fame.

As a photographer, he published two lavishly illustrated volumes of memoirs ("OverTime: the jazz photographs of Milt Hinton," 1991, and "Bass line: the stories and photographs of Milt Hinton," 1988), and his still photography and home movies were featured prominently in Jean Bach's 1995 jazz documentary, "A Great Day in Harlem." Hinton's approximately 60,000 photographs now comprise the Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection.

Hinton died on December 19, 2000, in Queens, where he had been a pillar of the St. Albans community for many years.

Archie Spigner (1928 - 2020) was a local politician who served for 27 years as a City Councilman for District 27 in southeast Queens, from 1974 to 2001, serving his last 15 years as deputy to the majority leader. He also served as the head of the United Democratic Club of Queens from 1970 until his death in 2020, a role in which he helped shape the borough’s Democratic Party leadership. During his tenure, he advocated for education, infrastructure, and the underserved community.

Archie Hugo Spigner was born on Aug. 27, 1928, in Orangeburg, S.C., his family moved to New York when Archie was 7, and he grew up in Harlem. As a young bus driver engaged in union activism, Mr. Spigner drew the attention of the labor leader A. Philip Randolph, who charged him with forming a Queens branch of Mr. Randolph’s Negro American Labor Council. While looking for a meeting place for his group, Mr. Spigner met Mr. Kenneth N. Browne, who was running for the State Assembly, and who became the borough’s first Black member of the New York State Assembly and its first Black State Supreme Court justice. Mr. Browne took Mr. Spigner to the local Democratic club and introduced him to the district leader Guy R. Brewer, and Spigner’s career in Queens politics began. Mr. Spigner went on to attend college, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in political science from Queens College in 1972.

Spigner went on to become a major power house in an area that reliably voted Democratic, a nod from Mr. Spigner all but assured election. He was known as “The Dean,” and considered “The Godfather of Politics” in southeastern Queens.  As a local-minded city councilman, Mr. Spigner helped shepherd the sale of the oft-criticized Jamaica Water Supply Company, New York City’s last privately owned waterworks, to the city government in 1997, bringing down costs for residents of southeast Queens. To spur local business, he successfully pushed for the construction of a permanent building for York College, part of the City University of New York, in the Jamaica section; a subway extension to downtown Jamaica; and a regional headquarters of the Social Security Administration.

David Franklin Bluford (1932-2020) served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, and earned an honorable discharge. Upon completing his undergraduate studies at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina, he earned a Masters of Arts from CUNY Hunter College, as well as certifications for Advanced Study in Education at Columbia University and St. John’s University. He later served as an Assistant Superintendent and Junior High School Principal in East Harlem’s Community School District 4, and a middle school teacher in Brooklyn’s Community School District 23. His history as an administrator included stints as director of the Upward Bound college preparatory program at CUNY Queens College, and adjunct professor of educational administration at CUNY Brooklyn College and St. John’s University. 

Locally, he served on the Board of Directors of the Queens Urban League, and as Chairman of the Alpha Phi Alpha Senior Center and Community School Board 29 in Southeast Queens. His personal affiliations also include the Jamaica NAACP branch, Freemasons, and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. He received many awards, such as Outstanding Educator, Jamaica Branch of the NAACP, the Jackie Robinson Junior High School Man of the Year Award, The Distinguished Citizens Service Award and the Community Service Award.

Renee Noelyn Bluford (1937-2021) was born in Brooklyn, New York. She graduated from PS167 Elementary School and Erasmus Hall High School iand received a Bachelor of Science Degree from Baruch College (CUNY). Renee worked as an Information Technology Senior Purchasing Manager for New York City under the Koch Administration ane eventually closed out her career as the owner of the first successful Allstate Insurance Agency in Southeast Queens. Her career with Allstate spanned 30 years. and she received the “Concerned Citizen Award” for invigorating economic development in Southeast Queens. 

Renee has been honored as the recipient the “Concerned Citizen Award” for invigorating economic development in Southeast Queens. We was awarded of numerous other awards from Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Jamaica Service Program for Older Adults, Greater Queens Chapter of the Links, NAACP, New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators and many other local, state, and community organizations. Renee’s philosophy was “If I can help somebody my living would not be in vain.” 

Cardinal S. Sandiford (1929-2013) graduated from Iona College with a B.S. Degree in Biology. After Army service, he became active in Local 144 of the S.E.I.U. Hospital Union and became director of its Civil Service Division as well as its Vice President. He also served on Community Board 12. As chair of its Land Use Committee, he worked to preserve the residential quality of South Jamaica, Hollis, Springfield Gardens and St. Albans, all communities threatened with over-development. He represented CB 12 during the difficult process of re-zoning downtown Jamaica and developing the Air Train to J.F.K. Airport. Sandiford was instrumental in the 2011 designation of the Addisleigh Park Historic District, which includes the former homes of numerous prominent African-Americans including Count Basie, Lena Horne, Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Ella Fitzgerald, and “Fats” Waller.

Malik Izaak Taylor (1970-2016), known professionally as Phife Dawg, was an American rapper raised in Saint Albans. Taylor co-founded the rap group A Tribe Called Quest in 1985 with his classmates Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. Their biggest hit came in 1991, with the single “Can I Kick It?” The group went on to release five albums that sold millions of copies. Its album “Midnight Marauders” is often ranked as one of the best hip-hop albums of all time. Taylor also released a solo album in 2000 called “Ventilation: Da LP.” He died of complications from diabetes in 2016.

Queens -- particularly the intersection of Linden Boulevard and 192nd Street -- was a fixture in A Tribe Called Quest’s rhymes, most notably on “Check The Rhime,” “Steve Biko (Stir It Up)” and “1nce Again.”

Roy Wilkins (1901-1981) was a Black American civil-rights leader who served as the executive director (1955–77) of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). 

Mother Maude Ford (1881-1970) was born in Barbados. She was a dedicated member of the Salvation Army, working first in Harlem in the 1920s with young women. After becoming First Chaplain she was called to minister in Jamaica, Queens, where she went door to door, serving the needs of the people. Soon, she established a church that held its first open-air service in July 1925. After a fire and then winds tore down the tents, the church moved to the basement of Ford's home at 157-01 110th Avenue, where she lived with her husband John.

Mother Ford's dynamic ministry welcomed people of all races to her church, which grew quickly, so that by March 1926, her garage was dedicated as the Gospel Truth Tabernacle. In April 1931, the church was incorporated and its name was changed to Christ Pentecostal Temple, Inc. By 1953, she had negotiated the purchase of land and completed the construction and dedication of the current church edifice, located at 109-45 157th Street. Mother Ford was a forceful and beloved presence in the community of Jamaica until her death in 1970.

Halvor A. James (1936-2018) served in the United States Army as a First Lieutenant and later worked 32 years for the City of New York Department of Social Services. He was also very active in the National Association of Social Workers; the Retirees of District 37 AFSCME; served as president of the St. Albans Civic Improvement Association; and was a member of the Friends of St. Albans Library, the United 199th Street Block Association, the Southeast Queens Crime Task Force, Jamaica NAACP, the Douglas/King, Elmer Blackurne and Guy R. Brewer Democratic Clubs, and president of the PTA at P.S. 95 in Queens. He was also first vice chair of the Board of Directors of the Alpha Phi Alpha Senior Citizen Center and an active member of the Hampton Alumni Association.

John Watusi Branch (1943 – 2013) was the co-founder of the Afrikan Poetry Theater in Jamaica, Queens.

Branch, known as “Baba,” meaning “father,” co-founded the Afrikan Poetry Theater Ensemble, the progenitor to the theater, with Yusef Waliyayain in 1976, bringing together poets and musicians performing jazz, funk, and African rhythms. The Afrikan Poetry Theater was incorporated as a nonprofit in 1977 and expanded to offer cultural and educational tours to West Africa and developed a summer youth employment program. He was a well-known figure in the pan-African movement to establish independence for African nations and unify black people across the world. He was a published poet and author of several titles, including “A Story of Kwanza: Black/Afrikan Holy Days” and “Journey to the Motherland.”