Public Employee Press

Battle for civil rights in New York City after WWII

“The History and Legacy of Civil Rights in New York City,” a panel discussion at DC 37 in October, provided a powerful reminder that the civil rights movement didn’t start with the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955-56.

Amalgamated Professional Employees Local 154 sponsored the forum and member Robert Tilley of the Commission on Human Rights moderated.

Northwestern University Professor Martha Biondi noted that while New York City is seen as a bastion of liberalism, in fact segregation was widespread in the 1940s and ‘50s. “Towering figures — Jackie Robinson was just one, religious groups and some unions fought for integration,” she said. Ms. Biondi wrote the recently published book, “To Stand and Fight: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Postwar New York.”

Local 154 member Isaac Parsee spoke about leaving segregated Mississippi as a young man. “I couldn’t wait to get to New York City,” he said. But when he arrived in the North, he learned that residential segregation was the norm.

Professor Ingrid Gould Ellen of New York University pointed out that while residential segregation nationwide has declined since 1970, New York City is now the third most segregated city in the nation. Her work focuses on the important question of why, as other cities make progress, residential segregation is more persistent in New York.

Local 2627 Vice President Gary Goff noted that the civil rights movement is usually mythologized into a “Cliff Notes version of history” that leaves out significant struggles. In the postwar period, activists and organizations challenged discrimination on every front — hiring, housing, schools and unions.
Local 154 President Juan Fernández stressed the connection between the history under discussion and current events.

“It is important to see how much we still have to do today,” he said.

— Jane LaTour