Now showing
Reading, Writing and Race (1964-09-06)
About this film
Through the use of documentary film footage, interviews with members of the opposing factions and narration, this episode looks at the highly inflammatory school desegregation issue in New York City. When New York's schools opened in 1964, civil rights groups and the Parents and Taxpayers - a predominantly white parent group - were in disagreement over the city Board of Education's use of the controversial "Princeton Plan" to achieve racial balance in the schools. The plan called for transporting white students into schools in other parts of the city where the enrollments are predominantly Negro, and, at the same time, transporting Negro children into neighborhood schools where white pupils are in the majority. The conflict obscured the Board's plan for a revolutionary reorganization of the school system that eventually could integrate all schools in the city. A major part of this plan is the emphasis placed on quality education in ghetto schools - raising theme to a level where integration will come much easier for their graduates - coupled with the establishment of middle schools that were intended draw pupils from territories large enough to influence integration of Negro and wh…
Directors & creators
WNDT (Television station : Newark, N.J.)
Subjects
New York City school desegregation, Princeton Plan, busing, Parents and Taxpayers, white backlash, school integration, New York Board of Education, ghetto schools, middle schools, Rosemary Gunning, WNDT, 1964 civil rights, Northern school segregation, racial balance
More from this pool