Civil Rights

Firefight: The Battle to Integrate the NYFD

February 28, 2016 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Ginger Adams Otis’ new book Firefight: The Century-Long Battle to Integrate New York’s Bravest (2015 Palgrave MacMillan) offers a fresh look at New York City’s firefighters’ critical Civil Rights history.

Firefight is a narrative from veteran reporter Ginger Adams Otis that delves deep into the struggle of black firefighters to truly integrate the FDNY – the largest fire department in the U.S.

It sheds light on the long, painful effort to achieve the still-elusive post-racial America and shares the untold history of the black men and women who battled to join the Bravest. [Read more…] about Firefight: The Battle to Integrate the NYFD

3 Important NYS Constitutional Conventions

January 25, 2016 by James S. Kaplan 2 Comments

The next referendum to decide whether to hold a New York State Constitutional Convention will be held on November 7, 2017. During the last two referenda in 1997 and 1977 (they are held every 20 years) voters declined to hold such a convention. In fact the last time a convention to revise the New York State Constitution was held was almost 50 years ago in 1967, and despite the hard work of its delegates, voters rejected the revised Constitution in its entirety.

Although amendments to the New York State Constitution occur with some regularity (including several last November), the last time the Constitution was changed through the Convention process was in 1938, almost eighty years ago.

Nevertheless, the history of Constitutional Conventions in New York State is not as bleak as this recent history would suggest. In fact, three New York State Constitutional Conventions — those of 1777, 1821 and 1938 — helped shape the State’s political history. [Read more…] about 3 Important NYS Constitutional Conventions

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and NYC’s Minority Plumbers

December 20, 2015 by Martin Kroll 7 Comments

Shifting alliances can make strange bedfellows and surprising adversaries. The push to integrate the New York City Plumbers Union as the Civil Rights Act was cobbled together 50 years ago shows how our perceptions and expectations can change with time.

Not long before the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, construction began on what is now the Hunt’s Point Food Distribution Center, the largest food distribution complex in the world. Full integration of the union workers at Hunts Point, supported by many, might have derailed or undermined this important legislation. [Read more…] about The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and NYC’s Minority Plumbers

Women’s Equality Day Celebration Planned

August 13, 2015 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Women’s Equality Day is a day that celebrates the 19th amendment to the United States Constitution passed on August 26, 1920, which granted women the right to vote.

In honor of this day, Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, NY will commemorate Eleanor Roosevelt and also consider what the next steps are in the fight for gender equality. [Read more…] about Women’s Equality Day Celebration Planned

New-York Historical Opens Art as Activism Exhibit

July 16, 2015 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Long before digital technology made instant worldwide communication possible, political protests and calls for action reached the public through posters. Posted on walls and bulletin boards, slapped up on store windows and church doors, these works often featured bright colors and modernist art-inspired graphics, and were quickly mass-produced to inform communities, stir up audiences, and call attention to injustice.

This summer, the New-York Historical Society is presenting 72 posters dating from the early 1930s through the 1970s in Art as Activism: Graphic Art from the Merrill C. Berman Collection, on through September 13, 2015. [Read more…] about New-York Historical Opens Art as Activism Exhibit

African-American History: Seeking Fortune In The North

March 12, 2015 by John Conway Leave a Comment

When Harvey Griffin became a member of the Monticello Fire Department in 1875, he was the only African-American living in the village, and one of just a handful in all of Sullivan County.

In 1930, when the population of the county was just over 35,000, and the area stood poised on the brink of its Golden Age, census figures reveal there were 91 African-Americans living here. That’s just over one-quarter of one percent of the population. [Read more…] about African-American History: Seeking Fortune In The North

The Albany African American Home Social Club

February 24, 2015 by David Fiske 5 Comments

In a book titled Aristocrats of Color: The Black Elite, 1880-1902, author Willard B. Gatewood includes a few sentences about Albany, NY’s Home Social Club. According to Gatewood, it “represented the pinnacle of the city’s black social structure.”

Portraying the club as an aristocratic, elitist organization seems unfair, based on my research. Yes, the club’s membership included some black professionals over the years, but among its long-term adherents were waiters, barbers, and railroad porters. [Read more…] about The Albany African American Home Social Club

Martin Luther King In The Catskills, 1968

January 18, 2015 by John Conway 7 Comments

On March 25, 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King delivered the keynote address at the annual Rabbinical Assembly Convention at the renowned Concord Hotel in Kiamesha Lake in the Sullivan County Catskills. Ten days later he was dead.

King had come to the Concord to address the gathering of conservative rabbis to honor his long-time friend, Rabbi Abraham Heschel, who had accompanied King and others in the historic 1961 march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and who was being feted that might by his colleagues as a belated 60th birthday celebration. As he took the podium following his introduction, King was greeted warmly by those in attendance, who sang the civil rights song, “We Shall Overcome” in Hebrew. [Read more…] about Martin Luther King In The Catskills, 1968

Emancipation Watch Night Event in Peterboro

December 18, 2014 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Through the night of December 31, 1862, people of the North and South waited through the night to see if President Abraham Lincoln would issue the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in the states of rebellion.

On Wednesday, December 31, 2014, Retired Navy Commander Owen Corpin, a member of the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum and a descendant of 19th Century freedom seekers who came to Peterboro, will prepare the watch fire and provide the program for the Watch Night commemoration. [Read more…] about Emancipation Watch Night Event in Peterboro

Chaos On An Adirondack Train: The Case Against Pullman Porter Smith

November 10, 2014 by Chris Pullman Leave a Comment

When the night train to Montreal set out from Utica on April 29, 1931, James E. Smith had already been toiling over the needs and wants of his passengers for many hours. At 29 years old, Smith had been a Pullman porter for about three years. He had done a stint in Pennsylvania and now was employed on the New York Central Railroad.

The experience of the Pullman porter was both uncommon yet ordinary. The Pullman Palace Car company hired black men almost exclusively as porters. This practice began under the direction of the founder of the company, George Pullman, after the Civil War. On board a luxurious and comfortable Pullman Car, Pullman porters were expected to be the ideal servants to their well off white passengers. [Read more…] about Chaos On An Adirondack Train: The Case Against Pullman Porter Smith