Bronx street renaming honors murdered 1970s gang leader and peacemaker ‘Black Benjie’

Bonnie Massey could have been an OG if she had been born about 20 years earlier.

But the original gangsters who used to run the Bronx back in the day would gladly give her an honorary membership for all she has done to keep their legacy alive.

Massey is the bridge between the past and the present, and the driving force behind a street naming ceremony that is about so much more than what it says on a sign.

If the name Cornell Benjamin doesn’t ring any bells for you, join the club.

But in the world of hip hop and positive community action, there is no name bigger, and Massey is determined to make sure you don’t forget.

Benjamin was a gang leader. Emphasis on leader.

This was in 1971, when every inch of every subway car was covered in graffiti, and elevated trains rumbled across block after block of abandoned buildings.

Gang violence, much like today, was out of control, until Cornell Benjamin— Black Benjie to everyone but his mother — decided to do something about it.

Benjamin, 25, a founder of the Ghetto Brothers, was on his way to negotiate a peace deal between two street gangs in the South Bronx when he was brutally murdered, beaten to death with a pipe.

His death was expected to escalate tensions between warring factions, but instead it led to the historic Hoe Avenue Peace Treaty summit, and an important truce among dozens of gangs that lasted more than a decade until the crack epidemic.

“He was a martyr,” Massey said. “When he was killed, there was going to be war.”

The truce set the stage for the development of hip hop — a creative movement that developed into the worldwide phenomenon that is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

“The narrative that’s always told is the Bronx was burning,” said Massey, 42, a Bronx social worker who learned about Benjamin after watching the 2015 documentary “Rubble Kings,” which follows the events leading up to the Hoe Avenue peace meeting and its aftermath.

“It was young Black and Brown kids that made change and tried to make peace. That’s what made the way for hip hop.

“You can’t tell the story of hip hop without telling the story of Black Benjie and the story of the Hoe Avenue Treaty,” Massey said. “DJ Kool Herc was a pioneer and deserves mad respect. But hip hop didn’t stop with one person. It was a movement.”

Massey teamed with eighth graders from the Bronx Community Charter School to launch a street naming campaign in Benjamin’s honor. The students, along with Massey, community leaders, former gang members and elected officials gathered Friday to raise the new sign at the corner of 165th St. and Rogers Place, where Benjamin was killed.

“It’s bigger than just a street sign and goes beyond just Black Benjie as an individual,” said ex-gang member and community activist Lorine Padilla.

Padilla was known as the first lady of the Savage Skulls, and was married to Felipe “Blackie” Mercado — the gang’s founder and president.

“It feels like we are finally being seen,” she said.

Throughout the 2022-23 school year, a group of middle schoolers from the Black Benjie Legacy Project have been touring New York City schools and youth organizations to teach others about Benjamin, the Hoe Avenue Peace Treaty and their legacy as peacemakers and ambassadors for change.

“I feel like our biggest mission is archiving back our own history that was unknown,” said Alexander Vásquez, one of the 8th grade leaders.

For Massey, Benjamin’s life and the peace treaty that followed his death remain evidence of hope, even in dark, violent times.

“Not all young people in the Bronx are shooting each other,” Massey said. “There are a lot of young people doing amazing things.”