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Boycotting New York’s Segregated Schools

Boycotting New York’s Segregated Schools

In 1964, New York’s schools were highly segregated and unequal. It was ten years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision that declared school segregation to be unconstitutional. But despite a decade of protests, rallies, and meetings, little had changed in New York City classrooms. Segregation in housing and employment contributed to school segregation. Yet many decisions made by the Board of Education helped segregate New York City’s schools as well: which students were zoned or assigned to which schools, where schools were built or not built, which teachers worked at which schools, and how students were grouped or divided within classrooms and schools. If anything, schools had grown more segregated and unequal.

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Segregation came with and worsened educational inequality. New York schools with more Black and Latinx students were more likely to be overcrowded, to have less-qualified teachers, to have poor facilities, and to see fewer students graduate, for example.1

New Yorkers seeking educational justice used school boycotts as a way to protest segregation and the inequality that came with it. During boycotts, students chose not to attend school, or parents kept their children home. Some activists organized alternative “freedom schools” for children. Mae Mallory and the “Harlem Nine” had used this tactic in 1958, to protest segregation in Harlem schools. But on February 3, 1964, a massive boycott reached across the city. An estimated 464,000 young people - roughly half of New York City’s public school students, including many Black, Latinx, and white students - boycotted school in protest of segregation and inequality. At that time, it was the largest mass protest ever conducted in the United States.2 The boycotts continued, on a smaller scale, in March 1964 and January 1965, and they prompted major counter-protests as well.

Given how many students from across New York City participated in the February 3, 1964 “Freedom Day” boycott, it is likely that students with disabilities were part of the protest. It may also be the case that some who wanted to participate did not have access. The existing documentation of that boycott makes it hard to be sure.

Despite the massive scale of the February 1964 boycott, and the repeated use of this kind of protest in schools in New York City and around the country, the New York City school boycotts often get left out of histories of the US civil rights movement.The history of the boycotts teaches us how Black and Latinx young people and adults, and white people in solidarity with them, struggled for educational justice in the North. And it shows us how white opposition to desegregation worked in New York City, both among “conservative” white parents and those who thought of themselves as “liberal.”3 Racism and segregation were national, not only Southern, problems. See Key Concept #10

Historians like Jeanne Theoharis and Matt Delmont, and teachers like Adam Sanchez, have helped bring more attention to the largest 1964 New York City boycott.4 Yet in their work, there is little discussion of another boycott - the 1965 boycott, which focused in part on how disabled youth, or youth that the school system labeled as disabled, experienced racist and ableist segregation. Historian Francine Almash is working to correct that silence. She studies the 1965 boycott, and notices how the white press, Black community members and organizers, and white educators responded when disability was part of fighting segregation. Why did so many resist including disability and students labeled as disabled in their desegregation advocacy? And she asks why earlier histories of the boycotts have left out this important part of the story.5

After the boycotts of 1964 and 1965, students, parents, and activists continued to use boycotts as one tool to protest educational injustice in New York City. The patterns of racist and ableist inequality that sparked the boycotts continue in many forms today.


  1. Christopher Bonastia, The Battle Nearer to Home: The Persistence of School Segregation in New York City (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2022). ↩︎

  2. It remained the largest mass demonstration until it was exceeded by the Women’s March on January 21, 2017. Matthew Delmont, Why Busing Failed: Race, Media, and the National Resistance to School Desegregation (Oakland: University of California Press, 2016); Jeanne Theoharis, A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History (Boston: Beacon Press, 2018). ↩︎

  3. Theoharis, A More Beautiful and Terrible History; Delmont, Why Busing Failed; Adam Sanchez, “The Largest Civil Rights Protest You’ve Never Heard Of: Teaching the 1964 New York City Boycott,” Rethinking Schools 32, no. 4: n.p., https://rethinkingschools.org/articles/the-largest-civil-rights-protest-you-ve-never-heard-of ↩︎

  4. Francine Almash, “Out of the Shadows: Recovering the History of the New York City ‘600’ Schools” (Ph.D. diss., CUNY Graduate Center, in progress). ↩︎

  5. 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;Cheri Fancsali, “Special Education in New York City: Understanding the Landscape” (New York: Research Alliance for NYC Schools at NYU Steinhardt, 2019), https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/research-alliance/research/publications/special-education-new-york-city ↩︎

Notice to porters and maids about organizing labor rallies

The 1964 Boycotts

A decade after Brown vs. Board of Education, 500,000 New York City students boycotted schools in one of the largest mass demonstrations in U.S. History.

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Before the Boycotts: Organizing and Direct Action

The networks, strategies, and knowledge that earlier organizers cultivated helped make the New York City school boycotts possible.

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Before the Boycotts: Youth Organizing in New York City

To understand how a school boycott happened, it is necessary to recognize the longer history of student activism.

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Before the Boycotts: White Resistance to Desegregation

White New Yorkers were relentless in opposing desegregation. Even very small-scale attempts by the Board of Education to desegregate schools prompted protests and backlash.

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Responding to the 1964 Boycotts

After the boycotts, many observers commented on whether the boycotts had been successful or a good idea.

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The Less-Known 1965 School Boycott

“Operation Shutdown” began on January 19, 1965 and took aim at the “600” schools, which were segregated schools for students labeled “socially maladjusted” and/or “emotionally disturbed.”

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NY State ends legal school segregation

1900

New York State makes it illegal for its school districts to divide Black and white students into separate schools.

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Rally Posters

1926 & 1937

The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters organize labor rallies.

NAACP Forms Youth Councils

1935

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) forms a youth council at various local branches, including New York City.

Planned March on Washington

1941

A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin organize a March on Washington to protest discrimination in defense industries during World War II. Randolph and Rustin called off the march after President Roosevelt signed an executive order barring discrimination in defense industries

NAACP Youth Council News Bulletin

December 1947

NAACP Youth Council’s publication, The Challenge, describes activism against segregation.

Brown v. Board of Education

May 17, 1954

Supreme Court rules segregated schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education.

Check Your School!

c. 1956

NAACP distributes questionnaire to Black and Puerto Rican families about school segregation.

Commission on Integration, Subcommittee on Zoning Draft Report

Mar 2, 1956

The New York City Board of Education appoints a group to study racial segregation and make recommendations for integration.

Harlem Nine Boycott

1958

Harlem Nine, nine mothers of children in schools in Harlem, boycott their children’s schools because they are segregated and unequal. The city attempts to incarcerate the Harlem Nine for their activism.

Parents’ Workshop for Equality

1959

Parents’ Workshop for Equality is founded by Reverend Milton Galamison

White Queens Mothers Protest Desegregation

Jun 25, 1959

When a plan to bus Black and Puerto Rican students to schools in the Glendale-Ridgewood area of Queens with all-white schools was announced, white mothers organized a protest.

A. Philip Randolph Letter to President John F. Kennedy

1963

Philip Randolph writes to President Kennedy about the upcoming March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

Aug 28, 1963

More than 200,000 people congregated in Washington D.C. in support of civil rights and full employment.

Life Magazine Cover

1963

Life magazine features A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin.

Claim Teachers Used Pupils As Shoe Shine Boys: DA Calls Charges “Serious”

Dec 7, 1963

“600” School Investigated over claim teachers used pupils as shoe shine boys

Why the School Boycott?

1964

Call for a boycott of New York City’s public schools to desegregate.

School Boycott!

1964

Call for a boycott of New York City’s public schools to desegregate.

“A Boycott Solves Nothing”

1964

An op-ed in the New York Times captures an example of white, liberal New Yorkers’ resistance to desegregation.

“Freedom Day” School Boycott

Feb 3, 1964

An estimated 464,000 young people - roughly half of New York City’s public school students - boycott their school in protest of segregation and inequality

Freedom Day March on Film

Feb 3, 1964

A silent film recorded by the New York Police Department showing protesters at Board of Education headquarters and marching during the February 3, 1964 boycott.

“What a ‘Fizzle’!”

Feb 8, 1964

New York City schools head James Donovan called the boycott “a fizzle.”

The Will and the Way of the Boycotters

Feb 8, 1964

Reporter Gertrude Wilson wrote about how women and young people worked to make the February 3 boycott happen.

Change the Status Crow

1964

Organizer Milton Galamison and other desegregation advocates called for a second boycott, to take place on March 16, 1964.

Puerto Rican Civil Rights March

Mar 1, 1964

Puerto Rican community organizations are joined by others who are in solidarity with them marching at City Hall.

“Parents and Taxpayers” March to City Hall

Mar 12, 1964

A group of white parents calling themselves “Parents and Taxpayers” led a march from the Board of Education building in Brooklyn to City Hall in Manhattan.

Malcolm X Comments on the Boycotts

1964

Malcolm X answers questions about the boycott in this interview video.

Second School Boycott

Mar 16, 1964

A second boycott draws fewer participants than the “Freedom Day” boycott.

Freedom School Lesson Plan

c. 1964

Ella Baker and others encouraged the establishment of Freedom Schools in the North.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “The School Boycott Concept”

Apr 11, 1964

Dr. King writes about the “school boycott concept” and it’s application across the country.

“Harlem Six” arrested

Apr 17, 1964

“Harlem Six” teens arrested and accused of participating in a “Fruit Riot” and, later, in a murder.

Milton Galamison Oral History

Jun 17, 1964

Galamison describes the push for educational justice.

1964 Civil Rights Act

Jul 2, 1964

President Lyndon Johnson signs into law the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The landmark legislation prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. However, northern legislators in Congress ensured that the legislation would not upend segregation in the North.

Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Jul 2, 1964

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law, which included a “watered down” section on school desegregation.

“Parents and Taxpayers” Protest and Counter-Protest

Sep 24, 1964

White parents organized and protested in favor of segregation.

“Operation Shutdown” organizing begins

November 1964

“Operation Shutdown” organizing begins, led by Reverend Milton Galamison.

90% Boycott Hits Problem School

Jan 20, 1965

Galamison takes the boycott to the “600” schools

The 1965 Boycott

1965

“Operation Shutdown” boycott begins, including three junior high schools and one “600” school for children labeled as “socially maladjusted” or “emotionally disturbed” The boycott continues for seven weeks.

“Operation Shutdown” ends

March 1965

Reverend Milton Galamison ends “Operation Shutdown.

“600” Schools, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

September 1966

Report published on “600” Schools for NYC DOE

Bayard Rustin Oral History Interview

1969

Bayard Rustin talks about work with Phillip Randolph in 1941 and 1963.

“The Man Who Could Fly: the Bob Beamon Story”

1999

Bob Beamon describes his experience in a “600” school