LeRoy Myers (1919-2004) was a founding member and the first president of the Copasetics, the famed fraternity of black entertainers. A Harlem resident since the late 1930s, LeRoy Myers’s contribution to the community, individually as well as through the Copasetics, was immeasurable. A bill designating the northeast corner of 122nd Street and Manhattan Avenue as “LeRoy Myers Corner” was signed into a New York City law in December of 2005. Myers had lived in the building adjacent to the corner since the 1950s.

The initiative was chiefly campaigned by the staff of Showmans, a jazz club and an unofficial meeting place of the Copasetics, members of the Copasetics Connection, a group of tap dancers inspired by the original Copasetics, and the former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton who acted as the honorary chairperson of the campaign committee. In a support letter addressed to the local community board, Mr. Sutton wrote, “Indeed, LeRoy Myers, on the totality of his conduct conveyed the impression that he was the Prince of Harlem Culture, who epitomized the Harlem Culture and its creativity, elegance, style and class. LeRoy Myers was one of the truly great Harlemites of his time, in my memory.”

On Saturday, March 11, 2006, the newly installed street sign was unveiled. Those in attendance included Harold “Stumpy” Cromer, Mable Lee, Norma Miller, Fritz Johnson of the Copasetics, and others. Under a clear blue sky, a group of African drummers, Batuba Collective led by a niece of LeRoy Myers, Cordelia Myers, started off the ceremony. Councilwoman Inez Dickens, the former Councilman Bill Perkins, and Mr. Sutton respectively made a tribute to the late LeRoy Myers, a community hero. Adding liveliness to the event, David Gilmore, Michela Marino Lerman, and Jun Maruta, familiar faces from the tap jam at Showmans for which LeRoy Myers acted as a producer, danced to the drumming of Batuba Collective. The legendary trumpeter Joe Wilder spoke of the seventy-year friendship with LeRoy Myers, which was followed by Yvette Glover singing “What a Wonderful World” accompanied by Joe Wilder on trumpet and Max Schweiger on saxophone. LeRoy Myers’s only surviving brother Walter spoke on behalf of the family members, some twenty of whom traveled all the way from Philadelphia to attend the ceremony. Max Schweiger and Joe Wilder playing “On the Sunny Side of the Street” led up to Walter Myers unveiling the “LeRoy Myers Corner” sign. To borrow Mr. Perkins’s words, that people gathered on the street corner on this day to honor LeRoy Myers symbolized the meaning of “good.” The ceremony was concluded by the drumming of Batuba Collective.

An after-party was held at Showmans located just a few blocks away. Music was provided by Radam Schwartz and Akiko Tsuruga on organ, and Daisuke Kurata and David Gilmore on drums. Dancers including David Gilmore, Michela Marino Lerman, Hank Smith, Joseph Wiggan, Jumaane Taylor and others jammed with the musicians and with each other. This was how the crowd of friends and families of LeRoy Myers spent the rest of the afternoon.