Mayor LaGuardia’s Commission on the Harlem Riot, excerpt
On March 19, 1935, rumors spread through Harlem that police had beaten a young man to death after they arrested him for allegedly stealing a knife from a local store.
racist segregation
Wadleigh’s School Zone
School zones establish where students go to school, often on the basis of where they live.
Nationality of Pupils
Who were New York City’s students? This seemingly simple question became the focus of a citywide research project led by the Board of Education.
Chart of Inmates in the State Institutions
State institutions grew throughout New York State after the founding of the New York Asylum in 1851 and into the mid-20th century.
Race Intelligence, excerpt
Scholar W.E.B. DuBois was an editor of The Crisis, a magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (or NAACP).
Army Beta Test and Results
The US Army offered up its recruits as a test population for the new intelligence tests.
The Binet-Simon Scale, excerpt
In 1905, French psychologist and educator Albert Binet created a tool that he hoped would help to identify and understand children who were struggling in school.
Delinquent Girls Tested by the Binet Scale, excerpt
Henry Goddard was a psychologist living and working in New Jersey.
The Feeble Minded in New York, excerpts
A school for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities opened on Randall’s Island in the East River in the 1860s - alongside the city’s almshouse, hospitals, and prisons.
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.
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.
Albany Evening Journal
Mrs. Elizabeth Cisco worked for more than five years, with her husband and on her own, to fight for educational equality and desegregation.
Mrs. Elizabeth Cisco
Photography has an important place in African American history.
The Elsberg Bill Signed
Mrs. Cisco’s activism brought attention to segregated schooling in New York, and the state adopted a new law that ended legal segregation in schools.
People ex rel. Cisco v. School Board of Queens, excerpt
After a few years of pushing for desegregation of the local Jamaica schools, Mrs.
Cisco on Trial in Queens
Samuel B. Cisco, a Black man, lived in Jamaica, in Queens County.
Map of Randall’s, Hart, and Blackwell’s Islands
In the 1830s, the City purchased Randall’s Island to use as a remote burial ground for the poor and as an almshouse.
The Idiot School
Édouard Séguin learned how to teach children with intellectual disabilities when he lived in France.
Survey of Blackwell’s Island
Many blind people lived in dire conditions in the city almshouse for the poor, because they were not able to support themselves and had no other place to go.