Immigrants helped New York City grow and prosper in the late 1800s and early 1900s, yet they faced many anti-immigrant attitudes in their new home city. Negative attitudes towards immigrants increased as more people from southern and eastern European countries (like Italy and Russia), rather than from Northern and Western countries (like Ireland and Germany), began to arrive. Many New Yorkers perceived these new immigrants to be very culturally, religiously, and at times racially different than themselves. Notice the choices that cartoonist Louis Dalrymple made in this cartoon. What people or groups does he include, and how does he show them visually? What text does he include, and what message does this send? What does the caption say?
Many photos of New York City schools in the early 20th century show so many students that it is hard to see them as individual people. Photographer Florence Maynard spent several days inside public schools in the city, and her photos gave a closer view than most. Here, we see a group of students who seem to be of a range of ages. Most have light skin, and one is darker-skinned. They appear to be happy or excited — perhaps because, as Maynard noted in her caption, they were “well-doers on the way to receive the principal’s commendation,” or award.
Mrs. Elizabeth Cisco worked for more than five years, with her husband and on her own, to fight for educational equality and desegregation. She pushed schools in the town of Jamaica, and then the board of education in Queens, and then the New York State Legislature, to end school segregation and provide equal opportunity for her children.1 A few days after the New York State Legislature passed a bill ending legal segregation in schools, Mrs. Cisco attended a gathering at a local Black church in the state capital of Albany. The newspaper captured the scene with the small description you see above.
Édouard Séguin learned how to teach children with intellectual disabilities when he lived in France. Later, Séguin moved to the US and helped found schools around the country.
