Seventy years ago, in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.
With the support of white supremacists and run-of-the-mill racists, many school districts, especially in the South, but also in the North, continued to maintain segregated school systems for decades to come, and some still do.
In northern cities like New York City, Boston and Chicago, among many others, redlining and other forms of segregated housing helped contribute to de facto segregation in public schools.
Despite New York City making segregation in public accommodations illegal in 1920, schools remained unequal with predominately Black and Latino schools suffering from inferior facilities and overcrowding to such an extent that some schools offered only four hours of instruction each day.
On February 3, 1964 the New York City School Boycott, also known as Freedom Day, took place, organized in part by the Citywide Committee for Integrated Schools, which included numerous civil rights organizations.
The Boycott has been called the largest civil rights protest in American history. Nearly a half million students and teachers walked-out and held rallies against unconstitutional segregation in the City’s deplorably segregated, underfunded and crowded schools.
There were no immediate results of the Boycott, and a second protest held a year later was suppressed by administrators, politicians, white neighborhood organizations (organized under the name Parents and Taxpayers) and the media, resulting in low turnout.
Five months later Democrats led the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but it included a loophole allowing the continuation of school segregation in the largest northern cities including New York City, Boston, Chicago and Detroit.
As a result of the new legislation, five states in the South voted Republican in the election of 1964. Over the next 25 years the region would become a Republican stronghold.
New York City continues to have one of the most segregated school systems in the United States.
Illustrations, from above: Students prepare signs for the 1964 New York City School Boycott; and a flier announcing the protest.
John: The article referenced in last paragraph is from June, 2018. The NYCity Mayor now has full control of the schools. Bloomberg got it when Rudy couldn’t. The appointed 5-Boro Board of Education is no more. Likewise, the Board of Examiners, consisting of experienced, senior colleagues who vetted and tested applicants for the teaching license, is also history. NYCity had a parallel qualification for teacher-hires. A State Certificate was NOT sufficient. A real deficit in the mix was lack of parental/guardian input. Election of local boards, governing grades K-8, never brought out more than 5% of eligible voters at May voting. All parents/.guardians, even non-citizens, were allowed to vote. When I started my career in 1968, I recall the stikes and demos over the same control/integration issues. As an ArmyBrat who moved a lot, I only attended grade 5 in NYCity … but taught for 28 years there. Now, NYCity pays me to stay home.