Bronx-born-and-bred Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor isn’t the only product of a New York City housing project to move up and excel in her chosen field. She has plenty of company, according to The New York Times. There’s Jay-Z, the rapper turned mogul from the Marcy Projects in Brooklyn, Congressman Gregory Meeks from Harlem, and Ursula Burns from Brooklyn who was just recently named the CEO of Xerox and will become the first Black woman to lead a Fortune 500 company. Unlike the gritty tales project living conjures up for many today, those like NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and award-winning actress Whoopi Goldberg have fond memories of hard-working family values of growing up in public housing in the 1960’s and 1970’s.—BB