https://open.spotify.com/embed-podcast/episode/2BznCWqd25PBwgNiO7NxhN

"Fringe schools" — promoting school desegregation by building schools in "fringe zones" that

• Board of Education archives (wow! open to public!)
• A bunch of passionate white parents wrote letters to have the new school, I.S. 293, be built in a "fringe zone" in 1963 (around ruling of Brown v. Board) —> NONE of them enrolled their kids in 1968 when the school was actually built
• In 1950s, NYC invested in self image
  • 1954, NYC celebrated Brown v Board ruling & called the ruling "a moral affirmation of our principles"
  • NYC even made a film about their multiculturalism
  • NYers love comparing themselves to the "backwards, ignorant & racist South" whilst we were enlightened
• Black & Puerto Rican students were kept in "ghetto schools" just blocks away from white schools
  • 1/2 teachers were certified to teach
  • Builds in disrepair (1000 kids in a hallway, 2 bathrooms for 1600 kids)
  • Decided to send kids to school in shifts (one group from morning-noon, one group from noon-3; some even had 3 shifts) because of overcrowding
    • Literally got half an education and were falling behind
• White schools have experienced teachers/principals + nice facilities
  • Summer schools only in white schools
• Board of Ed did not respect the voices and concerns of Black parents

😢😢😢

• May Mallory went to her child's school to talk to the principal because a kid died at school... after playing in the street & getting hit by a beer truck... because the schoolyard was closed....because steel from the building fell off and into the yard... and the white principal told her "oh, it's okay because Sunshine club gave his mom a gift of canned goods and we know she has so many mouths to feed at home" ????? WHAT

Don't care whether desegregation was codified in Jim Crow or if it was just the "way things were" — if the effects are still the same, who cares???

• De jure versus de facto are BOTH STILL SEGREGATION

May Mallory sued NYC Board of Ed:

• Her children most certainly had the ability to learn, they just needed the opportunity to!!!!
• She won the lawsuit & her kids (+ a few others) were allowed to transfer into a non-segregated school
  • BUT as for the segregation of the entire system, it's the responsibility of the Board of Ed 😕