York. A look at the Civil Rights Movement in new york. Greetings. With the book of Historical Society as of today the brooklyn Historical Society is the new center for brooklyn history i am marsha eli i wanted to welcome you all and say that those of you that have enjoyed the Public Program at this one. We will keep presenting about the issues of our times. In the history that needs to be told more freely. Visit our programs page at the center for brooklyn history website. It is such a pleasure to be partnering with the brooklyn book festival on this. A long history of yankee racism. I have unfortunate news that one of our speakers have a sudden family emergency this morning. He will not be with us today. It is my pleasure to introduce to scholars who have done an enormous amount of work to correct a misguided narrative about racism in the north i urge you to buy their book by clicking on the buy bulk button and the books well also continue to be for sale on the festival website afterwards. It is my pleasure to tell you about this afternoons speakers. An author of multiple books including africanamericans and the long history of Police Brutality in new york city. The distinguished professor of Political Science at brooklyn college. And the coauthor of nine books on the civil rights and black power movement. In social welfare and post september 11 welfare. And a more beautiful and terrible history the uses and miss uses of civil rights. With that i will disappear and say welcome clarence and jean, thank you. It is wonderful to be here and i think we all begin with the idea that history helps us see the prese differently. We cannot see clearly wheree are in the city and the terms of growing conversation about Law Enforcement without looking at the pas i wanted us to start off with e story in and again, just like marsha just sdf you have not read clearances book fight the power in new york city i think we are going to be today to understand where we are in this country and the growing movement around criminal justice in policing i think we have to know the history. Started off with some story about the struggle in new york city in Police Violence that helps us see where we are today in the city. Very happy to be here with you. Was civil rights in new york. The story of police totality they are clearly by the 1930s and 40s. They will deal with the Police Violence that is in state violence. African americans wer targeted right from the beginningf policing. It is an important part of that story. How they organize to confront Police Brutality. 1930s and 40s. And so on. One of the stories that comes to my mind it is is the one in 1964 where you have the rebellion. After a 15yearold james howell a Junior High School student was shot and killed by an offduty Police Officer the Police Officer of course says that the young man have a weapon it was much heavier to confront this child. People began to organize the killing. And eventually there was conversation with the police a few days after the killing which did not take place in harlem. They begino organize and they have the upper right. They were frustrated with t way that they were treating him. It was a vicus event on part of the police. With the overwhelming force. And one day they ran out of bullets. There was a vicious day of trying to stop people from rebelling against police. The civil rights gropes and activists when the civilian complaints, having the rights having civilians on the board, not Police Officers like thene in existence from 1953 on, which is three deputy commission, no civilians, and i guess Complaint Review board because they gave the opportunity to come and complain to them. But obviously the violence continued and people werent going for this. So you have this tremendous battle where more and more even elect it oicial eeighted officials and cityouncils said maybe we should really take this seriously and create a civilian Complaint Review board. Maybe the result of course was a republican mayor, who was a liberal, promising to create as many Complaint Review board. I understand the mayor before him, mayor robert wagner, known for his liberalism, refused to have any discussion on this, and it was a nonstarter. But so it took aepublican libel mayor to come in and say ill give you a moderate civilian complaint revie board, and his proposal was three Police Officers, fr civilians. They can do investigate, they can make rommendations but in the end clearly the Police Department, the commissioner, was going to make the final decision. One more time, its how my Police Officers and how many civilians . Is this not an allcivilian ccrb. Right . Thats right. Four civilians, three Police Officers, but still the final decision, if they find the officers guilty, that would be left to the police commissioner, the Police Department would make the final depression. Right. Then what happens . That was too much for the poce. And the what this then called the principalman benevolent social, they call the police benevole association, says were notoing to give up our power, and they launched one of the most racist, vicious campaigns in modern new york city history, and in order to destroy what the cald the lindy commission. And they used the courts,hey used advertisements, and of course they used t protests. They were o in at the seets protesting. And he thad of the pba, said well spend, i we have to, Million Dollars in order to stop this. And that was their complete funding in 1966. And they took out ads and one was so racist that lean the liberals in new york city it was over the top and that was showing a young white woman coming out over a subway station late at night, and clearly implying if we keep this civilian Complaint Review board in existence we will not bible to protect not be able to protecon protect her and because they used their numbers to get a referendumn the ballot of liney created the civilian Complaint Reviewoard, and nework is overwhelmingly 1966, on racial lines, voted against the civilian Complaint Review board. So they shot it down. And when you look at the results, overwhelmingl whites voted against the civilian Complaint Review board and black and brown people voted in favor of iul this is anmportant moment in civil new york civil rights ohio when it comes to the police because the police not only held on to their police power but they gained an enormous amount of political power, and they did that by pushing the sort of false narrative that if they attempt those folks attempt to take away our power, what youre doing is youll allow them to talk to whiteew yorkers and allow them to do it with your youre goingo turn over the city to criminals, and criminals meaning black and tino folks. And that narrative was an important one because they have been using that one everince. So even today, we hear this nonsense every time you challengeolice power. And they usually win. If you look at the current mayor whoame in as a police reformer, right . He was going to take all these actions, until the pba turned on him and we saw this after the two Police Officers were shot and killed by a deranged person and he went to their funeral and they booed hmm. The head of the pba says the mayor has blood on his hands, and de blasio did an aboutface. So, every time you see this guy he is defending the police instead of taking strong action to curb their power. So, yes, that is the story that i wound up doing the research jumped up at me and i said, wow. So we see the results today. Right. And just to sort of make sure people understand how ft it was, lindsey is elected when . Of 65 he is elected. Right, doesnt last even a year. How fast it was, and i think similarly the point about de blasio. In both moments we see organized police union sending a message there wil about no change, any change will be quickly and swiftly organized against; and very decisive message. The key is race. Absolutely. Right. So, by situating scare can people, letting pushing their message, in 65 and 66. He came out and said that this lindsey is going to bowing to the whims of blacks and puerto ricans. Blunt about what was going on, and while careful not to use that language today, it is inferred, right . When you talk aut criminals and so forth. The lies they tell, potentially reform bail, leading to cris in the city and so forth, which they have no evidence for. Right. So, the panel today is called jim crow new york, which is the some people might find threatened by and i think what this history you tell us i think takes news a very different direction from the way that new york tends to portray and if it racial politics, liberalism, multiculturalism, its openness and this idea of a jim crow new york is very different from that. And maybe you could key that a little bit, what it why are we calling this jim crow new york and how tolls thatt history you just told us about attempts to kind of reform the police and the backlash, the racial backlash, the white racial backlash, reshape our notion of the city and its liberalism. Yeah. Youre right. This is the imagehat new york has portrayed. Many people who are outside of th city always want to come in and they make i the wonderful cultural melting pot, and i mean there are aspects of it, sure. If you have money, its fine. But what is missing is the massive inequality, andsually thats on racial lines in the city. The mistreatment, is a noted. The brow at that time that continues with policing, the educion, the segregaon of Public Schools and new york city and the lack of funding t those schools thatre preminantly black and latino, and this has long histo. People fall on the ground and bedstuy and harlem and brownsville knew this all along until this image is being presented of new yk, folks challenging the reality. So, yeah, your work, my work, brians work, ands, are now sort of trying to open this up because when you talk but civil rights until we the major narrative is focusing on the southern spark of the Civil Rights Movement. S watching john lewis, good trouble,onderful documentary, wonderfulerson, but thes a big are story to tell to educate folks on what has taken place. The School System is something you and i have written on, and it is just absolutely amazing fight, struggle, that takes place, to break dn segregation and the larger School System the largest School System in the country, and a lot of folks are surprised to find out the largest civil rights demonstration took place in new york city. Didnt take place in alabama or selma, alabama. Didnt take place in georgia. The place here in new york city took place here in new york cit when i say that people are astound by that really. Tell us about that. Tell us but the boycott and what leads to it and what it means w dont know it. I if you ask people about the large e civil rights the march washington, dc. The protest in new york city was twice the size. That story begins in the 1930 asks and 1940s. When parents and other activists organizing to take on the racism of o the new york city board of education, which segregated black students. The schools were the worst facilities. The oldest stool buildings in the School Building in the city, he least experienced teacherses. Teachers teaching out of license, he point goes back to 1930s, 1940s, 1950s. And they harshly punish black and latino students, more so than white students. That is something that needs to be discovered to be talked about. How black and brown students were treated by teacher and administrators. And so pple organized to stop this racial assault, and they did this many ways like forming school councils, working with the progressive new york city Teachers Union, not the union that exists today, but the original union. Mid193s, it is taken over by members of the American Communist Party and they lay out an agenda. Get rid o the racist textbooks and buy textbooks that are dehumanizinglack andrown children. Hire more black teachers. Teach black history before we g black history this one thing peopleont know which is i think sometimes we have this sense of what segregated schools looked like before brown, and i think we have this very southern view, black teachers teachg black students and thats not what is happening here, and i think just thats right. Thats right. Because they were practically no black teachers in new york city School System. No latino teachers. Thats right. They were number were minimum school. Minimum skull, and when they pushed the board of education to come out and tell us who is working, the professional staff, let hire more black and bro teachers, the boardsesponse was, hey, we only hire by merit, we dont keep those others. Not important. So they took the Teachers Union to cop duct conduct surveys in the schools and find out how many black and brown teachers in he system and they found houston was absolutely disgraceful. By 1950, you had 4 , 41 2 of teachers who wer black and brown teachers, and half of those were teaching on temporary licenses. The regular licenses were 2 and a half percent . And so this became a major issue for people in black communities and course teach are union. Teachers union now, segregation of course was also a major problem. Black and brown children were segregated in schools and this was done deliberately. Something that was not by accident. The superintendent, they called the head of the board of occasion, not the chancellor but superintendent. The superintendent would say, well, thats becau neighborhoods, we have neighborhoods, the schools in their neighborhoods the neighborhood were segregated so the schooled will be segregated. But activists found even when children live near each oth, they were zoned to different schools sort deliberate policy on the part of the new york city board of education. So, people began to organize, in particular around this person named [inaudible] who was the pastor of the largest black Presbyterian Church in the nation in bedford stuyvesant, and he back the became the loader of the mom about he had to rely on activists on the ground to help, people in the pareteacher association and they created the parents work schupp for equality in new york ty schools, and its this group that launches boycotts, and when the other civil rights organizations, more mainstream civil rights organizations, said we petitioner jump on the ba better jump on the band wagon, and they worked formed umbrella organizations, committee on integrated schools and then they planned a citywide boycott of the new york city Public Schools in order to force the board of education toome up with a plan and a timetable to integrate new York City Schools. And so 1964 en february 3, 1964 when ty launched this oneday boycott. And they checked close to a hal million children kt close to a half million children out of schools and forced the board to couple if with a timetable and plan to integrate schools. This is theargest civil rights demonstration, by far, in the nation. So, theres a lot of things i want to talk about in terms of that. I think the first thing would be lets go back a few years. Right . Lets go back to what new yor cis response to brown is, which is, yay, its a great decision, but we really dont know how to apply it. And then you have people that by the way, also issued a statement of the brown decision saying that we support it. We do support it. Just dont think it has to do with us and you have two people more familiar with in terms of the southern struggle and in terms of brown, been clarence clk and ella bakeraying, no, no, no, it does apply t you. You see mounting criticism, and the board makes its o in a typical northern way they say we dont know we are going to form a committee. Well have a commission, form a commission and study, see what has to do with us, if its anythinge have done that needs to chang right . So they form this commission on integration and they put baker and clark on it, right, tragedily hoping to quiet them down, and then so tell us about the commission, what happened and then what the board does in response. Sure. There were many self subcommissions subcommittees, and the most i guess elosive one was dealing with the professional staff. And this subcommittee recommended, because it found that many of the schools in harlem, bedstuy, brownsville, had the least experienced teachers in the schools. Not only that, students were being denied a full day of instruction in those communities. Why . Because they had teacher shortages, overcrowding, didnt have enough space. So the kids instead of this six hours or and 20 minutes that all other kids were receiving, these kids were getting sometimes less than four hours a day. And they had teachers who were out of license so you have music teachers teaching math. And so this is goingo add up to a disaster. So in 1956, when the subcommittee made the recommendation that we transfer and have an involuntary transfer plan to take the experienced teachers which have been in the system for years and reassign them to schools in harlem and bedstuy a so on to solve this problem of the least experienced teacher are and the teacher shortage. The teach teachers filled form in 1955 in opposition to progressive Teachers Union, stood up and said, absolutely not. We are going to oppose this. The head of the tchers guild was a map named Charles Coogan who wrote an article says integration y, forced transfers no. And he went on with the long explanation that the problem isnt segregation, the problem is kids who are unruly and some of them bordering on criminality. And this is what we have to address. Because he put they put pressure on the new york studyboard of oindicate and the board of ookayed rejected the recommendation of it own subcommittee and came up with a voluntary transfer proposal, and then paying teachers an extra couple hundred dollar as year if they volunteer. Practically no one took the board up on that offer. And so it just continued. Right. Similarly with the subcommsion on zoner, we had baker o that and theyre coming back and saying you are responsible in the way to change and make new York City Schools more equitable is by rezoning and similarly like with the teacher placement, so the boards own commission comes back sayingey, there are things you need to do, theres problem, and then the board rejects it own commission proposal. Thats right. And the one the professional staff, what is important is the guilds position on, quote, behavior problems, and so when we talk about disciplining students, this becomes a union issue. And so they push the board to, quote, protect teachers, take greater steps to make surely we have deal with unruly kids. Dovetailed with structural inequality. Let not talk but the racism in the system, but this is the way we sort of do it. Right. Think this is where when we using this frame of a jim crow new york, partly what were saying is there are policies, there are practices, that the state is employing, defending, intaining, that does not mean that the discourses that are covering those up that are justifying tse are exactly the same also the jim crow south and one thing youre pointing to is one of the ways that these practices get defended in new york city is by what i would callulture of poverty used, the idea the kid are the problem, theyre criminal, theyre on if theyre not criminal, there culturally deprived and what has to hpen is the kids have to be improved, not the structure of sooling and thats one over the ways you see new yorkers defending a segregated system but in a way theres still saying were not racist, like you said, with the guild precedent, integration yes, forced transfers, no. This constant like were not racist but wear not going to do anything. Right, they tempt to redefine what is going on here, and let not talk about race. You are correct, this is talking about the culture of poverty, a phrase used in the 1960s. 19 others and so forth. And what you have is a really development of resentment and anger month blackarents. Its clear that these folks dont want to educate our children. And so when rajonson in 1960s and talk about the struggles of the communities parents say enough of attempting to get the new york city board of education and other powerful organizations like United Federation of teachers, to jump onboard and do the right thing, they said, youll know what . We have to make sure that we save the lives of our children. Right. I think if we look at the aftermath of the school boycott, i want to talk but few things. The first is what is the New York Times response to at the february 1964 school boycott . This is a personal favorite of mine. And, i want you to talk about it. But clearly New York Times says its absolutely wrong a exclusion not the right thing to do wrong solution, not the right thing to do, and theyre doing something that is criminal, right . Essential he keeping kids out of school. So he wrote about this. I read it. I think in part one thing we imagine in part because by 1964 youreoing to see places like the New York Times taking a much more kind of critical position on southern several rights. Southern civil right and the segregation in birmingham and alabama is different how theyre covering school deseegation movements at home. And how they, for instance, describe glamorson and get increase lig agitated, the New York Times, about glamorson and how unasonable he is, how reckless he is, how they will call, for instance, they publish an editorial a couple days before the kick cot, call it violent. So you see this language that it is a violent thing to do. Very kind of up in arms about it. And which is a very different kind of tone than theyre taking by of 6263,4, how theyre covering the southern struggles. Th is a movement in the south, people who are fighting valiant live in the south and grammarson is not of that ilk of the other people in new york. Essentially a criminal. Breaking the law. Right. He is breaking the law. He doesnt care about kids. Putting their kids education at risk. Right. Then a month later, right, as we know, white parents start to get nervous and maybehe board of education is taking their seriously and floated a very modest in the language of the times school pairings, pair hools maybe have some kid god to different schools, very modest couple of dozen schools theyre floating, and white parents are very nervous. And they march over the brooklyn bridge. What kind of coverage do they get . What i read it was pretty positive. It was a straight reporting without theort of editorial that they did when they talk but the movement to integra new york city schoo system. And were talk us about tens of thousands of parents, white parents, who are involved in this, a in addition to this, they are forming in brooklyn, and in queens, private schools, private academies. So, this is mass resistance. Call themselves the group is call just to make sure people got the name of the group. Parents and taxpayers. Parents and taxpayers. Its to make sure were hearing what were hearing. Parents and taxpars. The ones parents. Parents and we are paying the xes. The other people that are parent are not fit parents. These are not fit parents north, real taxpayers, were the ones we are paying for the education of our children, right . So, their reaction and i queens and brooklyn where they have the largest numbers ofembers of the organization, they start forming academies. Now, this is in the early 60s, we see this taking place. And the press doesnt label this the way they label it in the south. Right. This is not segregationist. Right. Thats right. And the south this is mass resistance. Which is taking place. Because theyre defying essentially brown involvement board of education. Theyre not brown v. Word of education. And so what a parents come out and start organizing they just report on, this what is taking ace here, without the editorializing. But resistance like it was in the south. Absolutely. And then obviously this is something ive written about. Then we see that spring what is happeng in d. C. , theyre debati and this is the spring of the debates around the Civil Rights Act, and one of the things the Civil Rights Act would do is tie federal funding for schools to school desegregation, and whatou see is the kind of northern sponsors, like brooklyn congressman immanue selr, get nervous, this could mean its ing to come home to new york. And so they put a loophole into the Civil Rights Act, in terms of how they define what desegregation is and what it is not, and so in the put into the Civil Rights Act that passe desegregation shall not mean reassigning students and then they used the word that northerners prefer to talk about their schoo, theyve say cially imbalanced schools, that you have to reassign students who are going to racially imbaland schools. So effectively they put a loophole in that will protect new york, chicago, boston, and it does. Chicago parents try to sue the next year and they lose. Because this loophole basically allows the chicago board of ed, similar to how it wil wit boston, to wiggle out of the stctures this Civil Rights Act is putting in terms of you have to desegregate to get federal dollars and this is proactive not the way we think but heros who bring us the Civil Rights Act is that at the same time its obvious at the time,outherners are very angry at the double standard of this; that eastman is saying new yorkers are pretty in segrationists but not the way you think about the Civil Rights Act. Right. So, i guess we have time for one more question, and thiss something when i asked my students and im sure when you ask your students, did they learn anything but the history of new york Civil Rights Movement, and both clarence and i taught teach in new yk city, right . They wld say, no. What do you think are the costs that and what would change if we reckoned with not just the history n the southern Civil Rights Movement occupies aig place in the american imagination and also in elementary to high school curriculum. What it would mean to put new york citys history alongside that. It would change the narrative, thats for sure. The dominant narrative. The Civil Rights Movement i a movement of triumph, a movement that eradicated jim crow, passed the most progressive legislaon of that period, and 1964 Civil Rights Act of 1965, Voting Rights act, and thats true. And so people walk away feeling good about themselves and feel fog about american history. Without looking at the entire story, when you add new york and boston and chicago into the story, its not a story of triumph. Its we see this massive resistce, much more eective, i should say, than the south, and the folks who are fighting more integration, they lose the battle. R the most part. And we the loss of this battle tells us, first of all, racism is alive and wel throughout the united states, not just in the south, but also in the northern urban centers. The most onesing portrayed as these paragone of integration and Cultural Diversity and s on. So, yeah, its really changes and makes people think about the struggle foracial equality that we have to sort of continue today. It at any time end with the passage of the 64 Civil Rights Act or the passage of the Voting Rights act with many neoconserves and others say thats when it really mrs. Really accomplished something. The civil rightsovement accomplished its goal, they argue. And instead they also argue what is taking place now is Something Different from civil rights pause this is where sort of postcivil rights era, and the problem is culture. Not structural inequality, not cism, and i think if we include that to the story well come up with a sort of different picture of what is really going on. We continue to go on. But the civil rights struggle didnt hasnt ends. Its still clear to us today. To aot of us. Right. And i think people try to draw these like really problematic distinction between the good civil rightsovement of the 1960s and this black lives matter when theyre innovate using the right tactics and just be like Martin Luther king jr. And youre like, when people first started sayin that i was like, wait, be careful what you wish forks and also it erases im gotten interested in king is talk about the problem rthern liberalism and Police Brutality in new york, he comes in of 64 and tries to say to warn, wagoner invites king to he city and when win says you need a ccrb, wagner evidence basically end of conversation. Exactly. And i think what youre saying about glamorson, too when we look at th ways that northern activists are treated in the 60s when theyre raising the questions than the ways that people today are often portrayed, youre being unreasonable, youre the problem. Youre the criminal, like when you were describing glamorson, felt so residence intent of the way that residence intent of the resonant of the way acvists are described today. I go bac to the pba narrative. That is one that is s glaring so obvious, that anytime you want to challenge power you have to portrayhe other side as dangerous, out of control, and clearly the pple who are out of control are these racial arsonists. So, policing, the whole struggle ofntegrate schools and housi and so on. They tell at the story and resonates with a lot of people. I said to someone about the upcoming election, and my ways this is gog to be a test for white americans. Obviously they get out of the white house is a white supremacy, he has made that clear on several occasio. So, how are you going to vote . Well, stand up for equality and what is taking Racial Injustice or do you side with this guy . And that i think is going to be a test. I think were out of time. Well have to conclude our conversation. Thank you so much, clarenc thank you to the brooklyn book festival, i to the brooklyn historicalociety now called the center for the study of brooklyn, history of brooklyn, thank you for having us. Were sorry that brian could not beith us but please also buy brians book,ighting jim crow in the time of king. Let in the distress againuying clarences bong, fight the power, the lon htory of police brutali in new york city. Thank you. Thank you. Its wonderful. Next from the recent virtual brooklyn book festival in new york a discuss with authors and historians on writing lesser known
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