About the project
As educators, scholars, activists, and students, we chose the name “New York City Civil Rights History Project” because we recognize that the civil rights movement in the US is important to teach and learn about. But students often receive a limited, and therefore incorrect, representation of this history. We hope the name of this site is an invitation to think about something familiar in a new way.
A team of scholars, educators, activists, and advocates contributed to this project. Find out how our work started, who has been involved, and how it developed.
This project is housed at the Center on History and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.
The New York City Civil Rights History Project received initial funding from the National Archives’ Public Engagement with Historical Records grant program. Additional funders and partners include:
This project has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this institute do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Democracy demands wisdom.
This project would not be possible without the work of many previous generations who have preserved our historical record. New York’s Black press, and especially the New York Amsterdam News, is a key source.
Historical documents about struggles for educational justice in New York City are preserved in the collections of many archives and libraries, including:
- The Municipal Archives of the City of New York
- The Schomburg Center for the Study of Black Culture of The New York Public Library
- Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University
- El Centro/Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College, City University of New York
Feedback
History is always a work in progress. Interpretations of the past change as we learn more through finding new sources, and from applying new ideas and questions to the sources we have. The New York City Civil Rights Project is a work in progress in this sense and in others. There is so much yet to learn about how students of color and Disabled students experienced education in New York City, and how they and those who loved them fought for justice. And there is much left to learn about how best to teach these histories.Thank you for keeping this in mind as you explore our work. We look forward to your comments, questions, and ideas. Please feel free to contact us at [email protected]
Copyright
The New York City Civil Rights History Project includes reproductions of materials created by other parties. Some of the materials are in the public domain, and others are protected by copyright. Where we use materials that are under copyright, we do so either under the terms of fair use or with the express permission of the copyright holder.
Where we reproduce materials created by other parties, we have made our best effort to secure all necessary rights. If you believe that we have made a mistake, please contact us [email protected] so that we can correct the oversight.
If you would like to reproduce materials created by other parties and included on this website, it is your obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions. You are solely responsible for determining whether the use of any digital object requires the permission of any other person or entity, and you are responsible for paying any associated fees.
All other original content is licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc 4.0 license.
New York City Civil Rights History Project by Teachers College, Columbia University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.Credit
If you reference material from this website, we ask that you credit the NYCCRHP and include a url to the page being referenced and date of access. For primary sources, see the “how to cite” information under the “item details” section for each object. For reference to any other section, please cite as: “Page Title,” in New York City Civil Rights History Project, Accessed [Month Day, Year], URL.
Accessibility
The New York City Civil Rights History Project is committed to ensuring digital accessibility for people with disabilities. We take the following measures to ensure the accessibility of content we create and present on this website:
- Consider accessibility in all design and development decisions.
- Provide accurate text-based alternatives to scanned documents and audiovisual files.
- Create meaningful descriptions for visual content.
- Test our site for usability by seeking feedback from diverse users and through using freely available software like WebAIM and axe DevTools to test for conformance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
Please let us know if you encounter accessibility barriers when trying to use the site or if you have ideas for how to make the content more accessible: [email protected]
Conformance status
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) defines requirements for designers and developers to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. It defines three levels of conformance: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA. The New York City Civil Rights History project website aims to conform with WCAG 2.1 level AA.
Technology compatibility
The visual formatting (HTML and CSS) of the New York City Civil Rights History project website uses Bootstrap 5, which is designed to meet WCAG standards and be robust across multiple devices, operating systems, and browsers. You can read the Bootstrap accessibility statement here: https://getbootstrap.com/docs/5.0/getting-started/accessibility/ Browsers older than 3 major versions or mobile operating systems older than 5 years may not display web content correctly or work with assistive technology.
Additional accessibility considerations
Some videos have sign language interpretation.