New York school boycott (1964) — Bunk History

Protestors standing on a bridge, holding signs.

Why 45% of NYC Public School Students Stayed Home in Protest

Historians say that a major milestone in the history of school integration is often left out of the civil rights story.

by Olivia B. Waxman, Arpita Aneja via TIME on September 22, 2020

The New York Times and the Movement for Integrated Education in New York City

When covering the struggle against school segregation in its own backyard, the paper of record came up short.

by Ethan Scott Barnett via The Metropole on November 29, 2017

Protestors walking with pro-integration posters

"Jim Crow Must Go"

Thousands of New York City students staged a one-day boycott to protest segregation – and it barely made the history books.

by Matt Delmont via Salon on February 3, 2016

Two young women holding up protest signs.

Demand for School Integration Leads to Massive 1964 Boycott — In New York City

The largest civil rights demonstration in U.S. history was not in Little Rock. Or Selma. Or Montgomery. It happened in New York City.

by Yasmeen Khan via WNYC on February 3, 2016

Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.

“A More Beautiful and Terrible History” Corrects the Fables Told of the Civil Rights Movement

A new book bursts the bubble on what we’ve learned about the Civil Rights era to show a larger movement with layers.

by Jeanne Theoharis, Jeneé Darden via Los Angeles Review of Books on September 16, 2018

How New York Became the Capital of the Jim Crow North

Racial injustice is not a regional sickness. It's a national cancer.

by Jeanne Theoharis, Brian Purnell via Made By History on August 23, 2017

A few people sitting down and reading the bible.

Public Schools, Religion, and Race

It was no coincidence that public school secularization and desegregation were happening, and failing, simultaneously.

by Leslie Beth Ribovich via The Revealer on September 5, 2024

Black students from West Charlotte High School leave the school bus

How White Americans’ Refusal to Accept Busing Has Kept Schools Segregated

The Supreme Court has refused to force White Americans to confront history.

by Matthew D. Lassiter via Made By History on April 20, 2021

A car window with a sign in it that reads "let freedom ring" with an illustration of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s Challenge to Liberal Allies — and Why It Resonates Today

King understood the perils of submerged racism.

by Jeanne Theoharis via Made By History on February 8, 2021

How School Desegregation Became the Third Rail of Democratic Politics

White liberals opposed segregation in the South, but fought tooth-and-nail to keep it in the North.

by Matt Delmont, Jeanne Theoharis via Made By History on July 8, 2019

Reagan signing the bill establishing Martin Luther King Day.

The Sanitizing of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks

On the uses and abuses of civil rights heroes.

by Jeanne Theoharis, Jeremy Scahill via The Intercept on October 8, 2017

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