Civil Rights Newsletter

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The Topic

Civil Rights refers to the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled, and to the laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, creed, gender, age, sexual orientation, and many other criteria.

The Context

New York is the most diverse city on the planet, home to people of every race, nationality, language group, religion, sex, and sexual orientation, and to some of the world's premiere human rights groups. There have been intense intergroup conflicts throughout the city's history, from the Draft Riots of 1863 to the Crown Heights riots of 1991. But more amazing is how well such varied peoples have gotten along for hundreds of years. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia created a Committee on Unity after some race riots in 1943, in order "to make New York City a place where people of all races and religions may work and live side by side in harmony and have mutual respect for each other, and where democracy is a living reality." Eventually, the city and state governments passed laws against discrimination and established agencies to enforce them.

Reports

Students Left Behind
Disabled students are largely excluded from the Bloomberg’s administration’s reforms of high school education, according to a report by Parents for Inclusive Education, an advocacy group. The administration has focused on creating new small high schools and letting students choose what high school to attend, But during their first two years of existence, the small schools can exclude special ed students, and many schools do not allow these students even after that. Further, special education students have little – if any – choice about what high school to attend. The report recommends that special education students be included in the choice process and that from their first day of existence small schools be able to serve students with a variety of needs. (October 20, 2006)

Housing Discrimination In Brooklyn
This report by the National Fair Housing Alliance charges that real estate agents of the Corcoran Group “steered homebuyers by race and denied basic services to African Americans.” Such activity, the report argues, helps explain why New York City, “for all its diversity…remains among the most segregated areas in the United States.” It recommends that the federal government set up a testing program to “provide systematic assessments of real estate agents and companies and take appropriate policy and enforcement actions to counteract discriminatory behavior.” (October 17, 2006)

Mayor's Management Report
The Mayor's Management Report, released online, provides performance highlights and statistics for more than 40 agencies, as well as data on inquiries received by the 311 Citizen Service Center. (September 15, 2006)

Subways And The Disabled
Only 53 of the city’s 468 subway stations are fully accessible to the disabled (22 of them in Manhattan), and even in those stations that are accessible, the escalators and elevators are broken far too frequently – and inspected far too infrequently. This is the conclusion of “The State Of Repairs: An Examination of Elevator And Escalator Repairs In New York City’s Subway System,” a report by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. Manhattan’s worst elevator was in West Fourth Street, out of service in 2005 for 134 days. The worst escalator was in the 181st Street station, out of service in 2005 for 149 days. Among the recommendations – more inspections, a hotline for the disabled, a transit authority advisory council specifically representing people with disabilities. (August 29, 2006)

Gender Inequality In High School Sports
New York City public high school girls have fewer opportunities to play sports than boys, says this report from the Office of Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum. Though slightly more than half of the students enrolled at 185 high schools were girls, girls teams accounted for only 44 percent of all Public School Athletic League sports. The report points out that girls fencing, soccer, golf, and swimming were scheduled in the “off-season,” when fewer college recruiters are evaluating talent, while boys teams competing in the same sports played during the regular season. (August 18, 2006)

Sites for Beginners

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Recommended Sites

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Books

Attack Queers: Liberal Society and the Gay Right
by Richard Goldstein

Courting Disaster: The Supreme Court and the Unmaking of American Law
by Martin Garbus

Police Brutality: An Anthology
by Jill Nelson

Radical Walking Tours of New York City
by Bruce Kayton and Pete Seeger

Why They Couldn't Wait: A Critique of the Black-Jewish Conflict Over Community Control in Ocean Hill-Brownsville (1967-71)
by Jane Anna Gordon