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“A Revolution in Rising Expectations”: School Activism and Interracial Politics on the Lower East Side, 1963–1966

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 December 2016

Barry Goldberg
Barry Goldberg*
Affiliation:
City University of New York
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Journal of Policy History , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , January 2017 , pp. 140 - 176
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Copyright © Donald Critchlow and Cambridge University Press 2017 

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Footnotes

I would like to thank Robert David Johnson, Clarence Taylor, Aldo Lauria-Santiago, and the anonymous reviewers of the Journal of Policy History for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. I also wish to thank Jodi Boyle at SUNY Albany, Troy Johnson at the New York City Board of Elections, and the archivists at the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College for providing helpful research assistance.

References

NOTES

1. Valerie Jorrin to Harry Specht, “Conversations with Mr. Irving Rosenblum—Principal, P.S. 140,” 16 September 1963, Daniel Knapp Papers (hereafter cited as DKP), Box 27, Mobilization for Mothers School Dispute, 9/16/63–2/19/64, John F. Kennedy Library, Boston (hereafter cited as JFKL).

2. “Report on Principals’ Dispute with Mobilization for Youth,” 19 February 1964, Frances Fox Piven Papers (hereafter cited as FFPP), Box 56, Folder 3, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College (Northampton, Mass.) (hereafter cited as SSC).

3. Valerie Jorrin to Harry Specht, “Conversations with Mr. Irving Rosenblum—Principal, P.S. 140,” 16 September 1963, DKP, Box 27, “Mobilization for Mothers School Dispute,” 9/16/63–2/19/64, JFKL; P.S. 140’s student body was roughly 75 percent Puerto Rican; “Part I—Public School Ethnic Composition, Tabular Data,” Annie Stein Papers, Box 26, Folder 2, Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library, New York (hereafter cited as RBML).

4. “Report on Principals’ Dispute with Mobilization for Youth,” 19 February 1964, FFPP, Box 56, Folder 3, SSC.

5. Harry Specht to George Brager, “Mobilization of Mothers,” 22 October 1963, FFPP, Box 55, Folder 9, SSC.

6. Ibid.

7. Sugrue, Thomas, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit (Princeton, 1996), 10.Google Scholar

8. Ibid., 12.

9. Self, Robert O., American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton, 2003), 3Google Scholar.

10. Ibid., 9.

11. Pritchett, Wendell, Brownsville, Brooklyn: Blacks, Jews, and the Changing Face of the Ghetto (Chicago, 2002).Google Scholar

12. Ibid., 3–5, 218–19.

13. See Brager, George and Francis Purcell, eds., Community Action Against Poverty: Readings from the Mobilization Experience (New York, 1967)Google Scholar; Weissman, Harold H., ed., Community Development in the Mobilization for Youth Experience (New York, 1969)Google Scholar; Helfgot, Joseph H., Professional Reforming: Mobilization for Youth and the Failure of Social Science (Lexington, 1981)Google Scholar; Matusow, Allen J., The Unravelling of America: A History of Liberalism in the 1960s (New York, 1984)Google Scholar; Cazanave, Noel, Impossible Democracy: The Unlikely Success of the War on Poverty Community Action Programs (Albany, N.Y., 2007)Google Scholar.

14. See Rieder, Jonathan, Canarsie: The Jews and Italians of Brooklyn Against Liberalism (Cambridge, 1985)Google Scholar; Gregory, Steve, Black Corona: Race and the Politics of Place in an Urban Community (Princeton, 1998)Google Scholar; Wilder, Craig Steven, A Covenant with Color: Race and Social Power in Brooklyn (New York, 2000)Google Scholar; Podair, Jerald, The Strike That Changed New York: Blacks, Whites, and the Ocean Hill–Brownsville Crisis (New Haven, 2002)Google Scholar; Jonnes, Jill, South Bronx Rising: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of an American City, 2nd ed. (New York, 2002)Google Scholar; Pritchett, Brownsville, Brooklyn; Walter Thabit, How East New York Became a Ghetto (New York, 2003). For a more recent study of a Manhattan neighborhood, see Snyder, Robert W., Crossing Broadway: Washington Heights and the Promise of New York City (Ithaca, 2014)Google Scholar. Several recent works examine how American Jews remembered the Lower East Side in the postwar period. See Mele, Christopher, Selling the Lower East Side: Culture, Real Estate, and Resistance in New York City (Minneapolis, 2000)Google Scholar; Diner, Hasia, Lower East Side Memories: A Jewish Place in America (Princeton, 2000)Google Scholar; Diner, Hasia, Shandler, Jeffrey, and Wenger, Beth S., eds., Remembering the Lower East Side: American Jewish Reflections (Bloomington, 2000)Google Scholar.

15. By 1905, two-thirds of Lower East Side Jews had moved to upper Manhattan or Brooklyn. Roughly one decade later, only 23 percent of New York City Jews lived in the neighborhood; Diner, Lower East Side Memories, 49. See also Gurock, Jeffrey, Jews in Gotham: New York Jews in a Changing City, 1920–2010 (New York, 2012), 15Google Scholar. The Queens increase happened in the 1940s and 1950s; Gurock, Jews in Gotham, 103.

16. Podair, The Strike That Changed New York, 209.

17. Ibid., 143–44. Some argue that the children of Jewish immigrants maintained a distinct Jewish identity, as well as ties to Jewish institutions and neighborhoods even as Jews came to be seen increasingly as “white.” See Deborah Dash Moore, At Home in America: Second Generation New York Jews (New York, 1981); Brodkin, Karen, How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says About Race in America (New Brunswick, 1998)Google Scholar.

18. Most scholars examine interracial conflict in postwar New York City from the perspective of social or cultural history. See Rieder, Canarsie; Podair, The Strike That Changed New York; Jennifer Lee, Civility in the City: Blacks, Jews, and Koreans in Urban America (Cambridge, Mass., 2002); Snyder, Crossing Broadway; Zeitz, Joshua, Jews, Catholics, and the Shaping of Postwar Politics (Chapel Hill, 2007)Google Scholar.

19. Scholars typically examine postwar race relations through black-white collaboration and conflict. Recently, however, historians have also begun to interrogate Puerto Rican activism and black–Puerto Rican political ties. See Thomas, Lorrin, Puerto Rican Citizen: History and Political Identity in Twentieth-Century New York City (Chicago, 2010)Google Scholar; Song-Ha Lee, Sonia, Building a Latino Civil Rights Movement: Puerto Ricans, African Americans, and the Pursuit of Racial Justice in New York City (Chapel Hill, 2014)Google Scholar; Opie, Frederick Douglass, Black-Latino Coalitions in New York City from Protest to Public Office (New York, 2015)Google Scholar. For a specific examination of Jewish-Latino relations in Los Angeles, see George Sanchez, “What’s Good for Boyle Heights Is Good for the Jews: Multiracialism on the Eastside during the 1950s,” American Quarterly 56, no. 3 (September 2004): 633–61.

20. Despite Farbstein’s long political career, scholars have yet to cite from his unprocessed, but accessible, archival collection.

21. I am defining the “Lower East Side” as all territory south of East 14th Street and west of the Bowery. As historians note, however, others may define the boundaries differently. See Diner, Lower East Side Memories, 41–42.

22. Sources: Bureau of the Census, Congressional District Atlas (Districts of the 88th Congress): A Statistical Abstract Supplement, “New York,” 327; Bureau of the Census, 1960 Census of Population and Housing, Series PHC (1): Census Tracts, Part I: New York, http://libguides.lib.msu.edu/c.php?g=95512&p=624011; New York City Elections Board, “Maps Showing the Assembly Districts for New York City, 1968,” New York Public Library.

23. Diner, Lower East Side Memories, 49; Mele, Selling the Lower East Side, 86; Gurock also notes that, in spite of restrictive immigration laws, Eastern European immigrants continued to settle on the Lower East Side in the late 1920s; Gurock, Jews in Gotham, 26.

24. These complexes included the Seward Park co-ops and Co-Operative Village, which manages the East River and Hillman houses. Jews comprised an estimated 75 percent of Amalgamated and Hillman inhabitants and a significant portion of Seward Park residents. For these breakdowns and a good overview of these projects, see Mele, Selling the Lower East Side, 81–85, 97–100, 134; Joel Schwartz, The New York Approach: Robert Moses, Urban Liberals, and the Redevelopment of the Inner City (Columbus, 1993), 134–37, 176–77; Freeman, Joshua, Working-Class New York: Life and Labor Since World War II (New York, 2000), 114–15Google Scholar. Some authors also estimate higher percentages. See Joan Alyne Turner, “Building Boundaries: The Politics of Urban Renewal in Manhattan’s Lower East Side” (Ph.D. diss., The City University of New York, 1984), 83–89, 199.

25. Stone, Kurt F., The Jews of Capitol Hill: A Compendium of Jewish Congressional Members (Lanham, Md., 2011), 204Google Scholar; “Leonard Farbstein,” Henry Street Settlement Records (hereafter cited as HSS), Box 98, Folder 9, Social Welfare History Archives (Minneapolis) (hereafter cited as SWHA); “Durable Congressman: Leonard Farbstein,” New York Times, 2 July 1966.

26. Diner, Lower East Side Memories, 7.

27. Other statisticians count an additional 35,000 Puerto Ricans entering the Lower East Side between 1950 and 1970, a 258 percent population increase. Schwartz, Harry, Planning for the Lower East Side (New York, 1973), 13Google Scholar.

28. Mele, Selling the Lower East Side, 126–27; Thomas, Puerto Rican Citizen, 214–15.

29. Less than 10 percent of all Puerto Rican third graders read at grade level in the MFY target area; Carroll, Tamar W., Mobilizing New York: AIDS, Antipoverty, and Feminist Activism (Chapel Hill, 2015), 34Google Scholar; “Report on Principals’ Dispute with Mobilization for Youth,” 19 February 1964, FFPP, Box 56, Folder 3, SSC.

30. Studies showed that nonwhites represented nearly half of all those relocated to public housing as a result of urban renewal by the late 1950s and that Puerto Ricans represented the largest subset of this group; Dagen Bloom, Nicholas, Public Housing That Worked: New York in the Twentieth Century (Philadelphia, 2015), 170, 174Google Scholar.

31. Mele, Selling the Lower East Side, 134; Turner, “Building Boundaries,” 79; Harry Schwartz, Planning for the Lower East Side, 19.

32. Carroll, Mobilizing New York, 28.

33. Ibid., 25–30; Cazenave, Impossible Democracy, 21.

34. Cazenave, Impossible Democracy, 37; Alice O’Connor, Poverty Knowledge: Social Science, Social Policy, and the Poor in Twentieth-Century U.S. History, 127–28.

35. O’Connor, Poverty Knowledge, 98–109; Cazenave, Impossible Democracy, 38.

36. O’Connor, Poverty Knowledge, 127–28; Cazenave, Impossible Democracy, 37–38.

37. Carroll, Mobilizing New York, 31; “The Community Organization Program of Mobilization for Youth,” FFPP, Box 55, Folder 10, SSC; “Meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee to Review the Community Organization Program,” FFPP, Box 56, Folder 5, SSC.

38. Marjorie Hunter, “U.S. and City Open 12.6-Million War on Delinquency,” New York Times, 1 June 1962.

39. “The Community Organization Program of Mobilization for Youth,” FFPP, Box 55, Folder 10, SSC; “Meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee to Review the Community Organization Program,” FFPP, Box 56, Folder 5, SSC.

40. “Meeting Called by the City Administrator, April 17, 1963,” Box 55, Folder 4, SSC.

41. Ibid.

42. Ibid.

43. “Green Hearings,” 29 April 1963, FFPP, Box 55, Folder 4, SSC.

44. Brager, George, Cloward, Richard, and James E. McCarthy to All Staff, undated, Mobilization for Youth Bound Documents, The Crisis: A Documentary Record, Volume V, June 1963–February 1965, Research Center, Columbia University School of Social Work (hereafter cited as CUSSW)Google Scholar.

45. “Ad Hoc Meeting on Problems of Liaisoning Communication with the Board of Education,” 14 June 1963, FFPP, Box 56, Folder 3, SSC; “Report on Principals’ Dispute with Mobilization for Youth,” 19 February 1964, FFPP, Box 56, Folder 3, SSC; George Brager to Florence Becker, 5 July 1963, FFPP, Box 56, Folder 3, SSC; George Brager, “Training Conferences, 1963–64 Series . . . The Case of the Schools,” 9 March 1964, FFPP, Box 56, Folder 3, SSC; “Meeting Called by the City Administrator,” 17 April 1963, FFPP, Box 55, Folder 4, SSC.

46. “Report Prepared by the Principals of Districts 1–4 Presenting the Bases for the Telegram of 27 January 1964 Requesting an Investigation of Mobilization for Youth and the Dismissal of Mr. George A. Brager,” 24 February 1964, Mobilization for Youth Bound Documents, The Crisis: A Documentary Record, Volume V, June 1963–February 1965, CUSSW.

47. Ibid.

48. Minutes of the Ad Hoc Committee Meeting on Community Organization Program, “Parent Education Program,” 3 December 1963, FFPP, Box 56, Folder 5, SSC.

49. “Meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee to Review the Community Organization Program,” 4 March 1964, FFPP, Box 56, Folder 5, SSC.

50. Ad Hoc Committee on Community Organization Program, “Report on Parent Education Program,” 3 December 1963, FFPP, Box 56, Folder 3, SSC.

51. MOM to Florence Becker, 22 January 1964, FFPP, Box 55, Folder 9, SSC.

52. “Report Prepared by the Principals of Districts 1–4 Presenting the Bases for the Telegram of 27 January 1964 Requesting an Investigation of Mobilization for Youth and the Dismissal of Mr. George A. Brager,” 24 February 1964, Mobilization for Youth Bound Documents, The Crisis: A Documentary Record, Volume V, June 1963–February 1965, CUSSW.

53. “Report on Principals’ Dispute with Mobilization for Youth,” 19 February 1964, FFPP, Box 56, Folder 3, SSC.

54. Susan Goodman, “Puerto Ricans Turn Out: Bitterness Revealed over E. Side Schools,” The Village Voice, 20 February 1964, Mobilization for Youth Bound Documents, The Crisis: A Documentary Record, Volume I, August–September 1964, CUSSW.

55. Thomas, Puerto Rican Citizen, 21, 217.

56. Lee, Building a Latino Civil Rights Movement, 12; Thomas, Puerto Rican Citizen, 215–17.

57. Taylor, Clarence, Knocking at Our Own Door: Milton A. Galamison and the Struggle to Integrate New York City Schools (New York, 1997), 121–23Google Scholar; Parents Workshop Newsletter, Annie Stein Papers, Box 20, Folder 6. Workshop, 1961–62, Columbia RBML.

58. Taylor, Knocking at Our Own Door, 116, 128. In 1959 and 1960, the BOE implemented permissive zoning, which allowed black and Puerto Rican elementary and junior high school students in overcrowded schools to transfer to out-of-district white schools not filled to capacity, and Open Enrollment, which permitted high school and junior high school students attending schools with at least an 85 percent black and/or Puerto Rican student population to transfer to underutilized schools with at least a 75 percent white population. In 1963, the BOE also pledged to pair and integrate twenty black and white elementary schools as part of the city’s new “Princeton Plan.” See Taylor, Knocking at Our Own Door, 81, 102–3, and Ravitch, Diane, The Great School Wars: A History of the New York City Public Schools (New York, 1974), 268–70.Google Scholar

59. Taylor, Knocking at Our Own Door, 125, 135–37, 141–42.

60. Lee, Building a Latino Civil Rights Movement, 117, 119–21.

61. Rev. Michael Allen and Rev. Richard Johnson to Winslow Carlton, 7 January 1964, Mobilization for Youth Bound Documents, The Crisis: A Documentary Record, Volume V, June 1963–February 1965, CUSSW; Fred Powledge, “Boycotters Push Grass-Root Drive,” New York Times, 9 February 1964.

62. Brager, George et al. to Board Civil Rights Committee, 15 January 1964, Mobilization for Youth Bound Documents, The Crisis: A Documentary Record, Volume V, June 1963–February 1965, CUSSWGoogle Scholar.

63. “A Draft Policy Statement on School Integration for Mobilization for Youth,” Mobilization for Youth Bound Documents, The Crisis: A Documentary Record, Volume V, June 1963–February 1965, CUSSW.

64. “MFY’s Participation in the Civil Rights Movements,” James McCarthy et al. to All Staff, Mobilization for Youth Bound Documents, The Crisis: A Documentary Record, Volume V, June 1963–February 1965, CUSSW; Lee, Building a Latino Civil Rights Movement, 121.

65. Lee, Building a Latino Civil Rights Movement, 116; Stephen J. Leeds, “Who Was Reached? An Analysis of the Population Served by Mobilization for Youth, 1962–1965,” “Table 3, Program Materials: Ethnicity,” FFPP, Box 57, Folder 1, SSC.

66. Leeds, “Who Was Reached?”

67. Powledge, Fred, “Poll Shows Whites in City Resent Civil Rights Drive,” New York Times, 21 September 1964Google Scholar.

68. Louis Hollander to Leonard Farbstein, 23 September 1948, HSS, Box 98, Folder 9, SWHA; Thomas O’Leary to Leonard Farbstein, 8 October 1948, HSS Records, Box 98, Folder 9, SWHA; Citizens’ Union, “Re-Elect Assemblyman Leonard Farbstein,” HSS Records, Box 98, Folder 9, SWHA; “Independent Citizens Committee Formed to Campaign on Behalf of Rep. Leonard Farbstein,” East Side News, 27 March 1964.

69. “Reelect Assemblyman Leonard Farbstein,” 26 October 1948, HSS, Box 98, Folder 9, SWHA; Leonard Farbstein Legislative Summary, 1947–48, HSS Records, Box 98, Folder 9, SWHA; Citizens’ Union, “Reelect Leonard Farbstein,” HSS Records Box 98, Folder 9, SWHA; “Statement of Honorable Leonard Farbstein to the Committee on Ways and Means Urging Increased Social Security Benefits,” 26 June 1958, HSS Records, Box 98, Leonard Farbstein, Folder 9, SWHA; Farbstein Report on Activities, November 1963, HSS Records, Box 98, Folder 9, SWHA; Helen Hall and Ralph B. Tefferteller to Leonard Farbstein, 6 August 1964, HSS Records, Box 98, Folder 9, SWHA; Leonard Farbstein to Ramish Shah, 23 August 1963, HSS Records, Box 98, Folder 9, SWHA.

70. “Statement of the Honorable Leonard Farbstein Before the Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Integration in Federally-Assisted Education,” 11 April 1962, Leonard Farbstein Papers (hereafter cited as LFP), Box 5 of 12, M. E. Grenader Department of Special Collections and Archives, SUNY Albany (Albany) (hereafter cited as MEG).

71. Leonard Farbstein to R. J. Davall, 25 July 1963, LFP, Box 7 of 12, Part I, Civil Rights Legislation, 88th Cong., MEG.

72. Leonard Farbstein to Larry R. Canton, 10 July 1965, LFP, Box 4 of 11, Legislation, 89th Cong., Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, MEG.

73. JLC to Leonard Farbstein, 5 December 1963; Leonard Farbstein to Adolph Held, 10 December 1963; Telegram to Leonard Farbstein, 2 February 1964; Leonard Farbstein to Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, 4 February 1964; Felix M. Putterman to Leonard Farbstein, 17 February 1964. All in LFP, Box 7 of 12, Part I, Civil Rights Legislation, 88th Cong., MEG.

74. “Draft—re adding word ‘religion’ to public accommodations clause of Civil Rights Bill” and Memo to Rabbi Irwin Blank, Father John Cronin, Dr. Eugene C. Blake in LFP, Box 4 of 12, Part II, MEG.

75. Ethel Lubin to Leonard Farbstein, 20 February 1964, LFP, Box 7 of 12, Part I, Replies to Newsletter, 4 February 1964, MEG.

76. Ibid.

77. Ibid.; Leonard Farbstein to Ethel Lubin, 26 February 1964, LFP, Box 7 of 12, Part I, Replies to Newsletter, 4 February 1964, MEG.

78. Walter Costello to Leonard Farbstein, 29 November 1963, LFP, Box 7 of 12, Part I, Civil Rights Legislation, 88th Cong., MEG; Leonard Farbstein to Walter Costello, 3 December 1963, LFP, Box 7 of 12, Part I, Civil Rights Legislation, 88th Cong., MEG.

79. “Resolution to authorize the Committee on Foreign Affairs to conduct an investigation and study of certain problems arising from population migrations within the United States between the United States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico,” HR 21, 86th Cong., 1st sess., Congressional Record [January 7, 1959], H.Res.21, 86th Cong., 1st sess., 7 January 1959, LFP, Box 5 of 12, Part A, H.Res.21, 86th Cong., 1st sess., MEG.

80. This clause would eventually become part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Leonard Farbstein, Press Release, 1 March 1962, LFP, Box 4 of 12, Part II, MEG; “Statement of Honorable Leonard Farbstein (New York) In Support of H.R. 10516 Before the Committee on the Judiciary,” 13 March 1962, LFP, Box 4 of 12, Part II, H.R. 7146 Folder, MEG.

81. Leonard Farbstein to President John F. Kennedy, 29 March 1962, LFP, Box 5 of 12, Part A, Domestic Peace Corps, MEG; Leonard Farbstein to Sargent Shriver, 15 June 1962, LFP, Box 5 of 12, Part A, Domestic Peace Corps, MEG.

82. Leonard Farbstein Press Release, undated, LFP, Box 5 of 12, Part A, Domestic Peace Corps, MEG.

83. The paper claimed that Haddad possessed “a wealthy father-in-law or rich friends,” a veiled reference to the candidate’s wife, the granddaughter of Franklin Roosevelt; “Questions to a Stranger in Town,” Lower East Side Democrat, May 1964, HSS Records, Box 98, Folder 9, SWHA; Apple, R. W. Jr., “Haddad Gets Aid of Rep. Roosevelt,” New York Times, 13 May 1964Google Scholar; “Questions to a Stranger in Town,” Lower East Side Democrat, May 1964, HSS Records, Box 98, Folder 9, SWHA.

84. According to the New York Times, Jews comprised about 50 percent of all registered voters in the 19th district. Puerto Ricans reportedly comprised about 25 percent of all registered voters in the district. See R.W. Apple, Jr. “Religious Issue Lingers in 19th,” New York Times, 27 May 1964; Raymond Daniel, “Two of Incumbent’s 3 Rivals in 19th Run Quietly,” New York Times, 28 October 1964.

85. Leonard Farbstein Payment Receipt, 3 June 1958, 28 August 1959, and 28 September 1961, HSS Records, Box 98, Folder 9, SWHA; Leonard Farbstein to Helen Hall, 16 November 1938, HSS Records, Box 98, Folder 9, SWHA; Helen Hall to Leonard Farbstein, 22 September 1948, HSS Records, Box 98, Folder 9, SWHA; “To the Voters of the 4th Assembly District on New York’s East Side,” HSS Records, Box 98, Folder 9, SWHA; Leonard Farbstein to Helen Hall, 15 November 1962, HSS Records, Box 98, Folder 9, SWHA.

86. Cazenave, , Impossible Democracy, 22–23Google Scholar.

87. Ibid., 23; O’Connor, , Poverty Knowledge, 128–29Google Scholar.

88. Cazenave, , Impossible Democracy, 24Google Scholar.

89. Ibid., 25.

90. “And a Few More Questions . . . ,” Lower East Side Democrat, May 1964, HSS Records, Box 98, Folder 9, SWHA; Press Release, undated, Leonard Farbstein Papers, Box 5 of 12, Part A, Domestic Peace Corps, MEG; Lee, Building a Latino Civil Rights Movement, 117.

91. Mobilization for Youth, 88th Cong., 2nd sess., 1964, H., HSS Records, Box 98, Folder 9, SWHA; Stephen J. Leeds, “Who Was Reached? An Analysis of the Population Served by Mobilization for Youth, 1962–1965,” “Table 3, Program Materials: Ethnicity,” FFPP, Box 57, Folder 1, SSC.

92. Mobilization for Youth, 88th Cong., 2nd sess., 1964, H., HSS Records, Box 98, Folder 9, SWHA; Goals of the Exploratory Work Course” and “Programs in the World of Work,” A. Harry Passow Collection, Gottesman Libraries Archive (New York); Sanford Kravitz and Leonard F. Stern, “Mobilization for Youth Visit, February 21, 1963,” 3 April 1963, DKPP, Box 27, Mobilization for Youth, New York City, Bulletins, Correspondence, Reports, 12/26/62–11/9/67, and undated, JFKL; Mobilization for Youth, “Program Fact Sheet,” 3 January 1963, MFY Papers, Box 16, Minutes: 3–4 January 1963, Citizens’ Advisory Council, Columbia RBML; Bob Schrank, “Annual Report,” undated, FFPP, Box 56, Folder 9, SSC; Mobilization for Youth, “Program Fact Sheet,” 3 January 1963, MFY Papers, Box 16, Minutes: 3–4 January 1963, Citizens’ Advisory Council, Columbia RBML.

93. “We Want to Know Why,” MFY Papers, Box 16, Minutes: 13 March 1963, Executive Committee, Columbia RBML; Memorandum, George Brager to All Staff, MFY Papers Box 16, Minutes: 13 March 1963, Executive Committee, Columbia RBML.

94. “Statement of the Honorable Leonard Farbstein Before the Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Integration in Federally-Assisted Education, 11 April 1962, LFP, Box 5 of 12, MEG.

95. Meeting of the Local School Board: Hearings of Local Integration Plans,” 8 October 1964, FFPP, Box 56, Folder 3, SSC.

96. Ibid.; “Ethnic Composition of New York City Public Schools,” Annie Stein Papers, Box 26, Folder 2, Columbia RBML.

97. Meeting of the Local School Board: Hearings of Local Integration Plans,” 8 October 1964, FFPP, Box 56, Folder 3, SSC.

98. Ibid.

99. Ibid.; “Ethnic Composition of New York City Public Schools,” Annie Stein Papers, Box 26, Folder 2, Columbia RBML. These arguments were more tempered than those of other white ethnic groups, such as Parents and Taxpayers (PAT), which organized in 1963 to protest student transfers from P.S. 92, a heavily black school in Corona, Queens, to P.S. 149, a middle-class Jewish and Italian school in neighboring Jackson Heights. While PAT argued that busing and pairing initiatives would lower property values and water down academic standards, other parents utilized more racialized language, comparing the initiatives to anti-Jewish quotas and even to Mein Kampf. See Rogers, David, 110 Livingston Street: Politics and Bureaucracy in the New York City Schools (New York, 1968), 76Google Scholar; Gregory, Black Corona, 78; Sugrue, Thomas, Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North (New York, 2008), 466Google Scholar; Podair, The Strike That Changed New York, 27–29; Leonard Buder, “Parents Picket Gracie Mansion,” New York Times, 10 October 1964. For an analysis of how Jewish intellectuals and writers viewed new civil rights initiatives in the 1960s, see Michael Staub, Torn at the Roots: The Crisis of Jewish Liberalism in Postwar America (New York, 2002), 49–50, 63, 68–70, 94–97, 107–9. Meeting of the Local School Board: Hearings of Local Integration Plans,” 8 October 1964, FFPP, Box 56, Folder 3, SSC.

100. Leonard Farbstein to Ethel Lubin, 26 February 1964, LFP, Box 7 of 12, Part 1, Replies to Newsletter, 4 February 1964, MEG.

101. Ibid.

102. Letter to Leonard Farbstein, 24 February 1964, LFP, Box 7 of 12, Part I, Replies to Newsletter, 4 February 1964, MEG.

103. Ellen Winston to Ivan A. Nestigen, 19 February 1964, “Mobilization for Youth,” DKPP, Box 27, Mobilization for Youth Bulletins, Correspondence, Reports, 12/26/62–11/9/67 and undated, JFKL.

104. Lee, Building a Latino Civil Rights Movement, 143–44; Hoffman, Paul, “New Agency to Help Puerto Ricans Opened,” New York Times, 7 June 1966 (my emphasis)Google Scholar.

105. Lee, Building a Latino Civil Rights Movement, 144–45.

106. Ibid., 145.

107. Ibid.

108. “Youth Agency Eyed for Reds,” New York Daily News, 16 August 1964, Mobilization for Youth Bound Documents, The Crisis: A Documentary Record, Volume I, August–September 1964, CUSSW. The scrutiny into the agency allegedly began in August 1963, when an FBI agent claimed to have “received a request” to investigate the agency’s involvement in a Lower East Side protest against discrimination in the construction trades, the upcoming March on Washington, and a local rent strike. By the end of 1963, these secret investigations led to rumors that MFY had employed and worked with Communists; MFY Report entitled “Kirschenbaum,” undated, 6, 10–14, FFPP, Box 55, Folder 9, SSC.

109. “Report Prepared by the Principals of Districts 1–4 Presenting the Bases for the Telegram of January 27, 1964 Requesting an Investigation of Mobilization for Youth and the Dismissal of Mr. George A. Brager,” 24 February 1964, Mobilization for Youth Bound Documents, The Crisis: A Documentary Record, Volume V, June 1963–February 1965, CUSSW.

110. MFY Report entitled “Kirschenbaum,” undated, 20–21, FFPP, Box 55, Folder 9, SSC.

111. “Statement by the Council of Puerto Rican and Hispanic Organizations of the Lower East Side,” 18 August 1964, Mobilization for Youth Bound Documents, The Crisis: A Documentary Record, Volume V, June 1963–February 1965, CUSSW (my emphasis).

112. Goodman, Susan, “Puerto Ricans Turn Out: Bitterness Revealed over E. Side Schools,” The Village Voice, 20 February 1964, Mobilization for Youth Bound Documents, The Crisis: A Documentary Record, Volume I, August–September 1964, CUSSWGoogle Scholar.

113. James Yates to Robert F. Wagner, 19 August 1964, and Clarence Funnye to New York Times, 16 November 1964; Mobilization for Youth Bound Documents, The Crisis: A Documentary Record, Volume V, June 1963–February 1965, CUSSW.

114. For examples of national support, see “Report of the Technical Review Panel,” October 1964, DKP, Box 5, PCJD-OJD Background Materials, Key Internal Developments, 1964, JFKL; Ellen Winston to Ivan A. Nestigen, 19 February 1964, “Mobilization for Youth,” DKP, Box 27, Mobilization for Youth Bulletins, Correspondence, Reports, 12/26/62—11/9/67 and undated, JFKL.

115. Screvane, Paul, “Report on Mobilization for Youth: Recital of Facts, Circumstances and Chronology,” Mobilization for Youth Bound Documents, The Crisis: A Documentary Record, Volume VI, Official Investigations, CUSSWGoogle Scholar.

116. For an analysis of Mayor Wagner’s stance on civil rights and racial issues, see Clarence Taylor, “Conservative and Liberal Opposition to the New York City School-Integration Campaign,” in Civil Rights in New York City from World War II to the Giuliani Era, ed. Clarence Taylor (New York, 2013). Marchi dug up old Socialist Party nominating petitions that contained the names of MFY staff, and claimed that sixteen MFY workers had sent May Day greetings to the Daily Worker in 1947. He also questioned Calvin Hicks, an MFY organizer who, in 1960, organized On Guard for Freedom, a black nationalist committee most known for its anti-imperialism and pan-Africanism and tried to subpoena another aide who had allegedly compared poor Cuban peasants living under Fulgencio Batista to Puerto Ricans living in New York; “Preliminary Data Report of the Senate Committee on Affairs of the City of New York on Mobilization for Youth, Inc.,” 29 December 1964, Mobilization for Youth Bound Documents, The Crisis: A Documentary Record, Volume VI, Official Investigations, CUSSW; Tom Dent, “Umbra Days,” Black American Literature Forum 14, no. 3 (Autumn 1980): 105; Hearing of the Committee on the Affairs of the City of New York on the Senate of New York, 24 November 1964, John Marchi Papers, Box 54, Mobilization for Youth, Committee on the Affairs of the City of New York Hearing, 29 October 1964, 2:25 PM, College of Staten Island Special Collections (Staten Island).

117. “City Administrator’s Meeting, January 15,” FFPP, Box 55, Folder 4, SSC.

118. “August 8th Cohen Meeting,” FFPP, Box 55, Folder 4, SSC; Henry Cohen’s Meeting, 17 April 1963, FFPP, Box 55, Folder 4, SSC.

119. MFY Report entitled “Kirschenbaum,” undated, 17, FFPP, Box 55, Folder 9, SSC.

120. Ibid.

121. “Voter Registration Campaigns,” undated, DKP, Box 30, “Mobilization for Youth, New York City, Working Drafts For Project History,” undated, JFKL.

122. Anti-Poverty Operations Board to Robert F. Wagner, 15 January 1965, Mobilization for Youth Bound Documents, The Crisis: A Documentary Record, Volume VI, Official Investigations, CUSSW.

123. Some argue that MFY programming continued as before and that the agency laid the groundwork for Community Action Programs and the training of social workers to become community activists. See Harold Weissman, interview by Paige Knapp and Daniel Knapp, 4 December 1967, transcript, DKPP, Working Files, Box 51, Interviews, Harold Weissman, 4 December 1967, JFKL; Richard Cloward, interview by Daniel Knapp, 5 December 1967, transcript, DKPP, Working Files, Box 51, Interviews, Richard Cloward, 5 December 1967, JFKL; Sanford Kravitz, interview by Daniel Knapp and Paige Knapp, 11 December 1967, transcript, DKPP, Interviews, Sanford Kravitz, 11 December 1967, JFKL. Others argue that the investigations demoralized the C.O. staff, led the agency to hire staffers and board members with less experience in political activism, and caused the organization to abandon mass protest activities. In addition, Bertram Beck, a member of the PCJD who became MFY’s executive director after the investigations, admitted that the MFY Board sought someone who was “not controversial” and “less interested in ideological causes.” See Helfgot, , Professional Reforming, 101–2Google Scholar, 123–24; Cazenave, Impossible Democracy, 130–31.

124. Mobilization for Youth, 88th Cong., 2nd sess., 1964, H., HSS Records, Box 98, Folder 9, SWHA.

125. Ibid.

126. Ibid.

127. Scholars often cite 1966 as a turning point in New York’s civil rights movement. That year, writers claim, whites became disenchanted with proposals for a new civilian review board and black calls for community control at I.S.201 in Harlem. In turn, white voters began to reject new race-based policies and shift to the right politically. See Cannato, Vincent, The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York (New York, 2001), 159Google Scholar; Lee, Building a Latino Civil Rights Movement, 173–76. Initially, Weiss appeared to have defeated Farbstein by 61 votes. However, an official recount then swung the election to Farbstein by 151 votes. Shortly thereafter, the State Supreme Court agreed with Weiss’s claim that the recount included invalid ballots. For these results and the final tally, see Montgomery, Paul L., “Court Nullifies Farbstein Choice,” New York Times, 30 July 1966Google Scholar; “Farbstein Wins on Vietnam Issue,” The Norwalk Hour, 28 September 1966; “Farbstein Appeals Order for New Vote,” New York Times, 6 August 1966; “Recanvas Raises Margin for Farbstein over Weiss,” New York Times, 1 October 1966. For biographical background on Weiss, see “This is Ted Weiss,” Allard K. Lowenstein Papers (hereafter cited as AKLP), “Campaign Literature: Weiss,” Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (hereafter cited as SHC); Ted Weiss Biographical Pamphlet, AKLP, “Campaign Literature: Weiss,” SHC; “Theodore S. Weiss, a Biographical Sketch,” AKLP, “Campaign Literature: Weiss,” SHC.

128. Ronan, Thomas P., “Reform Democrats Pick Weiss in the 19th,” New York Times, 11 March 1966Google Scholar.

129. For background on the Reform Democrats, see McNickle, Christopher, To Be Mayor of New York: Ethnic Politics in the City (New York, 1993), 89, 114–16Google Scholar, 121, 139–40, 151, 161–62.

130. Ibid., 154–61.

131. “Congressional Races,” New York Times, 24 June 1966; “A Primary Preview: For Silverman, Weiss, Victor, Dubin, Cooper and Bunn,” New York Post, 24 June 1966. The Village Voice backed Weiss more specifically for his position on Vietnam. See “Primary Day, June 28, Weiss, Wilson,” The Village Voice, 23 June 1966.

132. Gross, Kenneth, “Reform Clubs Pick Weiss as Farbstein Foe,” New York World Telegram and Sun, 11 March 1966Google Scholar; Weiss Opens Drive on Rep. Farbstein, New York Times, 12 March 1966.

133. Michaelson, Judy, “Primary in the 19th: Weiss vs. Farbstein,” New York Post, 21 June 1966Google Scholar.

134. Weiss for Congress, “What about these dirty streets?” AKLP, “Campaign Literature: Weiss,” SHC.

135. Michaelson, Judy, “Primary in the 19th: Weiss vs. Farbstein,” New York Post, 21 June 1966Google Scholar; “Councilman Theodore S. Weiss calls for broad use of Federal money to meet the challenges of automation,” AKLP, “Campaign Literature: Weiss,” SHC.

136. “Poverty: Ted Weiss Thinks,” AKLP, “Campaign Literature: Weiss,” SHC; “Can You Find Your Congressman When You’ve Got a Problem?” AKLP, “Campaign Literature: Weiss,” SHC.

137. “Civil Rights: Ted Weiss Thinks,” AKLP, “Campaign Literature: Weiss,” SHC; “This is Ted Weiss,” AKLP, “Campaign Literature: Weiss,” SHC; “V.I.D. Committee for Ted Weiss,” AKLP, “Campaign Literature: Weiss,” SHC; “Urban Decay: Ted Weiss Thinks,” AKLP, “Campaign Literature: Weiss,” SHC; “Ted Weiss Proposes,” AKLP, “Campaign Literature: Weiss,” SHC.

138. “Civil Rights: Ted Weiss Thinks,” “Campaign Literature: Weiss,” SHC.

139. Crowell, Paul, “City Schools Win New Pairing Test,” New York Times, 18 July 1964Google Scholar; “This is Ted Weiss,” AKLP, “Campaign Literature: Weiss,” SHC; Parents at P.S. 199 unsuccessfully challenged the mandate as unconstitutional; “Opponents of School Pairing Win a Show Cause Order,” New York Times, 25 June 1964.

140. Hentoff, Nat, “Whose Due Process?” The Village Voice, 14 May 1964Google Scholar; Bennet, Charles G., “Democrats Back Board on Police,” New York Times, 16 June 1964Google Scholar; Cannato, The Ungovernable City, 156.

141. “Minority Report of a Special Subcommittee to Study the Feasibility of Creating an Independent Civilian Complaint Review Board to Investigate, Hear and Make Recommendations Concerning Allegations of Police Brutality,” 18 May 1965, Papers of the Council of the City of New York, Box 96, Folder 5, Wagner and LaGuardia Archives (Long Island City).

142. Mills, James, “The Detective: A Good Cop Fights for Law, But the Deck Is Stacked Against Him,” Life Magazine, 3 December 1965, 115Google Scholar; Lardner, James and Repetto, Thomas, NYPD: A City and Its Police (New York, 2000), 253Google Scholar.

143. Bigart, Homer, “City Hunts Reds in Youth Project on the East Side,” New York Times, 17 August 1964Google Scholar; Montgomery, Paul L. and Clines, Francis X., “Thousands Riot in Harlem Area,” New York Times, 19 July 1964Google Scholar; Cazenave, Impossible Democracy, 121.

144. “V.I.D. Committee for Ted Weiss,” AKLP, “Campaign Literature: Weiss,” SHC; “This is Ted Weiss,” “Campaign Literature: Weiss,” SHC; V.I.D. Committee for Ted Weiss, “Campaign Literature: Weiss,” SHC.

145. “Bolivar-Douglass Committee for the Election of Ted Weiss,” AKLP, “Campaign Literature: Weiss,” SHC; “27 Names Directors of Youth Project,” New York Times, 17 July 1965; “74 out of these 75 leaders in your nation and community endorse the candidacy of Ted Weiss for Congress,” AKLP, “Campaign Literature: Weiss,” SHC; Lee, Building a Latino Civil Rights Movement, 80, 117, 120–21.

146. “What They Think of Ted Weiss,” AKLP, “Campaign Literature: Weiss,” SHC; “Badillo, Herman” (accessed 12 February 2015), http://history.house.gov/People/Detail/8806; “74 Out of These 75 Leaders in Your Nation and Community Endorse The Candidacy of Ted Weiss for Congress,” AKLP, “Campaign Literature: Weiss,” SHC; “Herman Badillo Endosa Ted Weiss for Congress,” AKLP, “Campaign Literature: Weiss,” SHC; Lee, , Building a Latino Civil Rights Movement, 80, 146Google Scholar.

147. McNickle, , To Be Mayor of New York, 114–15Google Scholar.

148. Wales, Wellington, “Four Reformers in Search of a Nomination,” New York Times, 7 March 1966Google Scholar. Table 2 shows, in addition, that only about 1,500 fewer voters total turned out in the A.D.’s covering the 60th and 61st A.D. than in the western areas.

149. Carroll, Mobilizing New York, 28.

150. Cannato, , The Ungovernable City, 171–72Google Scholar; “1966 Annual Report of the Board of Elections in the City of New York,” 119, New York Board of Elections.

151. “1966 Annual Report of the Board of Elections in the City of New York,” 119, New York Board of Elections.

152. Polls revealed that outer-borough Jews and Catholics comprised most of the 63 percent of all New York voters who backed the referendum, while a majority of black and Puerto Rican voters opposed the referendum and favored a new civilian review board; Cannato, , The Ungovernable City, 183Google Scholar.

153. Historians have recently pushed back against the argument that “law-and-order” represented a veil for white racism. See Cannato, The Ungovernable City; Flamm, Michael, Law and Order: Street Crime, Civil Unrest, and the Crisis of Liberalism in the 1960s (New York, 2005).Google Scholar

154. “1966 Annual Report of the Board of Elections in the City of New York,” 119, New York Board of Elections; Cannato, , The Ungovernable City, 159Google Scholar.

155. Carroll, , Mobilizing New York, 28Google Scholar.

156. This decline represented a substantial portion of the entire Jewish and Italian decline across the entire 19th district. See Tables 1 and 4.