Meet Joseph

Joseph has lived or worked in Harlem for the past 40 years and is uniquely tied to the history of ice cream shops in Harlem as the previous owner of the Ben & Jerry’s on the southeast corner of 125th Street. He was pulled to Harlem by what he describes as “divine orchestration” leading him to a purpose to serve the community, “So it was in 1982 that I finished Harvard Law School and had some options because I had the Ivy League degrees where a Wall Street law firm had given me an offer. But I'm a man of faith, and I believe that God was giving me a special direction for my life. And it was at that point that a scripture I had learned that I was focused on. It's from Luke, chapter twelve, verse 48, ‘To whom much is given, much is required.’ And that meant to me that just as I had been blessed, I needed to put myself in a position to bless others. And so that was the motivation. It was the inner direction to say ‘No’ to Wall street and ‘Yes’ to 125th street. So I moved to Harlem. I'm not from here. I'm actually from Virginia. Hampton, Virginia. I grew up on the campus of Hampton University, where my father worked. And so I moved to Harlem. And it was quite a journey because [the] Harlem of the 1980s [was] a lot different than the Harlem of today, there [has] been quite a bit of change.”

He began his own law practice but was still trying to serve the community so he began a Bible Study in his home that led to doing community outreach. He says, “We started doing some street outreach, founded a non profit called Harlem Ark of Freedom. And it was through that nonprofit work and one of my clients, who's the pastor of a church on 128th Street, that… we decided to open up a homeless program in the basement of her church [during the crack epidemic]. She dedicated the space, and I had the volunteers from my Bible study. And the ministry was Harlem Ark of Freedom… So we called the homeless shelter, Harkhomes. And I believed in holistic housing. Housing not as an end in itself, but as a means to fulfill the whole person and transform their life. So an important part of that was… giving them life skills and understanding that it's not just about three hots and a cot, as we used to say, the food and the shelter, but it's also about, what do you need to do to get your life together? And so we developed a curriculum around that to help them with their life skills. It's called holistic hardware, and it's still going on today, many years later. I don't have a shelter, but I have the curriculum in video form.”

“We would use [the Ben & Jerry’s to] give starting job opportunities to the men of the shelter as scoopers in the shop. So it was quite a process because we had to raise the money and get the location. But right on the corner of Fifth Avenue, 125th street… we opened up the Harlem Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shop.”

It was a men’s shelter and they soon realized that as they were getting sober and gaining more skills to be self-sufficient, they needed work to become independent. He explains, “So I had my own law practice. And I had taken over one business, which was called the Harlem Travel Bureau. It was on 124th street and Fifth Avenue. And so I was running that. And then I was invited to speak up in Vermont.” At this speaking engagement he met someone who worked with Ben & Jerry’s who felt they would be interested in partnering due to shared values in helping the community, “Now, I wasn't even thinking about an ice cream shop… That was, like, the furthest thing from my mind. But on the other hand, I was like, 'Hmm. Could this be a win-win for the company and for the men who I was trying to employ?' And so I began to pray about it and talk to some people, do my research. And so this contact invited me back… I went to the factory that they had up there and actually had a chance to meet Ben and Jerry, and we talked about establishing an ice cream franchise in Harlem... that we would use to give starting job opportunities to the men of the shelter as scoopers in the shop. So it was quite a process because we had to raise the money and get the location. But right on the corner of Fifth Avenue, 125th street, it was a great location. We opened up the Harlem Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shop.” 

Getting investors to buy into having ice cream shop in Harlem was initially difficult but he put together a business plan and got fellow alumni from his undergraduate and masters education at Cornell University and from Harvard Law school to buy the property and invest in the Harlem Ben & Jerry’s, “It was a four story building, and it had retail space. And then it had a restaurant on the second floor called La Famille… Back in the day, people in Harlem, they knew about Sylvia's, of course, which is still around, and La Famille... It had a space, a bar on the first floor, but then the restaurant seating was on the second floor. And… the top two floors were like S.R.O., but the building was in such poor condition that by the time my group came in and took it over, it was vacant up there… So that was also kind of part of the vision to invest in the property and operate it and transform the block. So it did take a while to get the Ben & Jerry's. I had to go up to Vermont and go through training, and then… I was able to convince [one of the men who had come out of the Harkhomes shelter and was doing well] to be manager, and so he went up and did the training with me. And so we opened the shop in July of 1992, and we were able to get Ben and Jerry to come down for the opening, and… get [125th Street] closed… It was like a festival. And Ben and Jerry… were… giving away free ice cream… to the kids and the families.” The Ben & Jerry’s was open from 1992 to 1998. Although it did not last as long as Joseph had hoped, they were able to change lives during that time. Joseph would go on to write a memoir about his first 25 years in Harlem, "From Harlem with Love: An Ivy Leaguer's Inner City Odyssey," in which he would dedicate a chapter to his Ben & Jerry’s experience. 

“When I first came here back in the 1980s, I was like, ‘How am I going to make it?’...But it was over time that I began to understand the community, its history, its culture, the people, and really to love it and to serve it… Wherever I am, I’m feeling at home.”

Being a man of faith is a major part of his journey and desire to engage in this initiative as well as be in service in his church, Bethel Gospel Assembly. He explains, “It's really been about how you can use gifts, talent, and abilities that you've been blessed with to make a difference for others… God allowed me to get the legal training, and then I came here with my practice, and I started in real estate law… that became my ‘expertise.’” He was able to use his knowledge to help Bethel Gospel fund their new sanctuary in their new property by monetizing their air rights and building housing above to have the budget for the church, “So there's a new building at Fifth Avenue… between 119th and 120th street that resulted from that conversation. And there's a 1800 seat, state of the art sanctuary that has been such a blessing for the church. It's one of the tourist destinations because tourists come to Harlem on Sunday and they fill the balcony there. And because it's state of the art lights and sound, Bethel is able to get additional revenue from renting it out for concerts and special programs.” Joseph is grateful he has been able to contribute to this community and looks forward to continued development in Harlem, “I've really learned to love Harlem. I mean, it is my home. I can consider myself a Harlemite now. But it did take a while, because when I first came here back in the 1980s, I was like, 'How am I going to make it?'...But it was over time that I began to understand the community, its history, its culture, the people, and really to love it and to serve it… Wherever I am, I'm feeling at home.”