On March 3, 1966, the Riverside Democrats issued a press release outlining their “Blocks for Freedom” campaign, which was scheduled to run for six weeks between March 3 and April 14. A newsletter to “friends” was mailed concurrently with the announcement. There was an urgency to the letter, rooted in the threat of violence that could cripple the co-op at any moment. “A single small fire-bomb hurled at the frail Una ‘factory’ would be enough to wipe out in 30 minutes an entire community’s investment of time, work, money—and hope,” the authors emphasized. “WILL YOU HELP?” the press release asked in capital letters printed under an image of the co-op workers in front of their current wooden factory. Each mailer included a small tearaway sheet that donors could return with a check to the “Blocks for Freedom” treasury.
That same morning, the local West Side News and Morningsider ran a feature about the organizing drive. It included a picture of the women in front of their existing wooden factory and provided readers with basic information about the campaign, including instructions for anyone who wanted to donate or volunteer. The news story was backed by a series of flyers posted across Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Organizers also set up tables near the entrances of neighborhood grocery stores and convinced a local bank to allow a display in one of their windows.
The beauty of the “Blocks for Freedom” campaign was in its democratization. Everyone could participate. Rather than seeking a big check from a single wealthy donor, the Riverside Democrats scraped together small donations from many different sources. Early in the campaign, the most effective fundraiser was an eleven-year-old girl named Kim Turgeon, who raised seventy dollars by “ringing her neighbors’ doorbells” in a Manhattan apartment complex. A thirteen-year-old girl named Nancy Stuber convinced a club at her school to sell blocks door to door. The Columbia University branch of the Congress of Racial Equality sold nearly three hundred blocks by calling movement supporters and mailing flyers. Additional blocks were sold to students and faculty at Columbia University and to passersby strolling through Manhattan’s Upper West Side.