School Boycott!
The Citywide Committee for Integrated Schools included several New York City civil rights organizations.
photography, imagery, and visual representation
Why the School Boycott?
The flier designed by two Queens civil rights organizing groups - the Congress of Racial Equality and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People - calls for a boycott to protest segregation in New York City’s public schools.
Life Magazine Cover
The 1963 March for Jobs and Freedom was an amazing organizing success.
White Queens Mothers Protest Desegregation
Five years after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, the New York City Board of Education announced a plan to desegregate a few schools in Brooklyn and Queens.
Mae Mallory and her daughter Patricia
During the “Harlem Nine”’s struggle to integrate schools in New York City, multiple newspapers, including The New York Times and Amsterdam News, published photographs of Mae Mallory with her daughter Patricia.
Camp Jened - Real Camping for the Handicapped, cover
Camp Jened was located in the northern Catskills, on over 250 acres (which is about ⅓ the size of Central Park, or as big as 250 football fields) with 22 buildings near the town of Hunter, New York.
NAACP Youth Council News Bulletin, excerpts
The document above comes from a publication printed by the NAACP’s New York City Youth Council called The Challenge.
Club Borinquen
Italian immigrant Leonard Covello was the principal of East Harlem’s Benjamin Franklin High School, an all-boys school.
Children Participating in a Public Campaign
In the 1930s and 1940s, Benjamin Franklin High School was a dynamic place.
The Role of the School in a Housing Program for the Community
Benjamin Franklin High School students came together in clubs that celebrated their cultural identities, like Club Borinquen and clubs focused on Italian American culture.
Two Public School Teachers
In March 1925, The Survey Graphic published a special issue.
The Brownies’ Book, April 1920, letters from readers
The Brownies’ Book included different kinds of writing, visual art, and photography by adults.
The Brownies’ Book, February 1920, cover
The NAACP and W.E.B. Du Bois created The Brownies’ Book to speak directly to Black children about the world and their lives.
The Brownies’ Book, January 1920, excerpts
Here are a few pages from the first issue of the magazine.
William Maxwell
Who should have made decisions about what happened to the hundreds of thousands of children in New York City’s schools?
New York City’s Schools and What They Cost
At the beginning of the 20th century, New York City required more and more students to attend school and prohibited them from working.
Public School 47
New York City’s Public School 47 opened in 1908.
The High Tide of Immigration
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.
A Day’s Work in a New York Public School, excerpt
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.
Elizabeth Farrell and Ungraded Classes
Special education classes for children with intellectual disabilities were pioneered in New York City by a social welfare reformer, Elizabeth Farrell.