 This caused controversy before the start of construction, as black people could not participate in Rochdale Village's construction.The Rochdale Village complex was supposed to be the model for mixed-race housing in the U.S., but then became symbolic of the Civil Rights Movement, which was ongoing during the complex's construction; for instance, twenty-three protesters were detained for disrupting the construction in 1961, including William Booth, the future head of mayor John V. Lindsay's Human Rights Commission.About 10% of the units were given to blacks upon the complex's 1963 completion.