Statement by Martin H. Gerry, Director, Office for Civil Rights, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, excerpts
Date: Jan 18, 1977
Caption: A federal official reported on discrimination in the NYC school system, including by race, language, sex, and disability.
In 1977, the New York City Board of Education was the focus of the “largest civil rights investigation of a public educational institution ever undertaken.” The Office of Civil Rights in the federal Department of Health, Education, and Welfare studied the New York schools and found that the school system had “violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin; Title IX of the Education Act of 1972, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex; and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits discrimination against physically or mentally handicapped individuals.”
They found “many areas of segregation” in the system. There was a clear pattern: schools serving white students, called “non-minority students” in their report, had more material resources (like textbooks), more human resources (like guidance counselors and experienced, better-paid teachers), and safer and healthier school buildings than did schools with Black and Puerto Rican students.
Many practices in the New York City schools further discriminated against Black and Puerto Rican students. The school system gave more Black and Latinx students disability labels. Schools suspended Black and Latinx students more frequently, and gave them longer suspensions. Vague charges like “insubordination” could be used in racist ways against Black and Latinx students, especially with a teaching force that was majority-white.1 Graphs and charts in the report supported these points with statistical evidence.
Additionally, handicapped students faced architectural barriers in school buildings that violated their rights to access an education.
Once this report reached the Board of Education, New York City had sixty days to develop a plan to respond and address these areas of discrimination. Some changes took place, in how teachers were assigned to schools and how schools grouped students. Unfortunately, many elements of the “segregated and unequal” patterns that the report identified continue today.2
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On the racial composition of the teaching force, see Christina Collins, Ethnically Qualified: Race, Merit, and the Selection of Urban Teachers, 1910-1980 (New York: Teachers College Press, 2011). ↩︎
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Cheri Fancsali, “Special Education in New York City: Understanding the Landscape,” The Research Alliance for New York City Schools at NYU Steinhardt, 2019, https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/2021-03/Special_Education_in_New_York_City_final.pdf; John Cuscera with Gary Orfield, “New York State’s Extreme School Segregation: Inequality, Inaction, and a Damaged Future” (Los Angeles: UCLA Center for Civil Rights/Proyecto Derechos Civiles, 2014), https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/integration-and-diversity/ny-norflet-report-placeholder/Kucsera-New-York-Extreme-Segregation-2014.pdf. ↩︎
Categories: national, special education, K-12 organizing
Tags: government reports, racist segregation, policing and the criminal legal system, disability labels, curriculum, student achievement, teacher quality, social and economic class, school facilities
This item is part of "Behavior and Control: Disability and Incarceration" in "Seeking Equity for Disabled Students"
Item Details
Date: Jan 18, 1977
Creator: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Civil Rights
Copyright: Government document.
How to cite: “Statement by Martin H. Gerry, Director, Office for Civil Rights, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, excerpts,” US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Civil Rights, in New York City Civil Rights History Project, Accessed: [Month Day, Year], https://nyccivilrightshistory.org/gallery/hew-report.
Questions to Consider
- Based on this report, how did NYC schools become segregated? What were the impacts of this segregation?
- This report was written in 1977. What similarities do you see between then and now? What differences? How does it feel, as a current student today, to notice these differences and similarities?
- Imagine that you were in charge of the NYC school system in 1977. You received this letter, and had to make a plan to address these problems within 60 days. What would you propose to do? Who do you think would support you? Who might oppose you?
- What other kinds of inequality do you see illustrated in this report?
References
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