On Feb. 3, 1964, named “Freedom Day,” the people spoke up. Bundled up against the 20-degree weather, thousands of students, teachers, and community members took to the streets in Manhattan and Brooklyn to bring attention to the disparities experienced in Black and Brown schools.
For Edward Gordon, today a 78-year-old music educator, the boycott was his first protest.
“It was an air of excitement,” said Gordon, adding that most of their parents didn’t know their kids were skipping class to protest.
Gordon didn't plan on picketing that morning, but when he arrived at school, he and his friends decided to join in the action. “You are told to use your rights as an American and express yourself, and for the first time, you're actually doing something, you're thinking out of the box,” Gordon said.
Although the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, it was not strictly enforced. And educational inequality remained — and still does.
Today, segregation is still rampant in New York City’s school system. An estimated 83% of Black students and 73% of Hispanic/Latino students attend a school that is more than 90% minority students. These rates are significantly higher — over 90% — for Black and Latino students in the charter system. By comparison, Black and Latino residents make up nearly two-thirds of public school students and more than half of the city’s population. According to the Civil Rights Project at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), charter schools are the most “racially isolated” schools in the nation.
Decades ago, activists tried to prevent this
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