Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings: The Congress of Racial Equality in Brooklyn

8. "A Gun at the Heart of the City": The World’s Fair Stall-in and the Decline of Brooklyn CORE

8 “a gun at the heart oF the City” The World’s Fair Stall-in and the Decline of Brooklyn CORE I am ashamed of my fellow Negroes who have threatened to sabotage the opening of the Fair and suggest that . . . no Negroes be admitted on the opening day despite the fact that some may be planning to attend with no bad intent. —Mary Caraballo to Robert Moses, April 14, 1964 After the Downstate campaign, the Young Turks waited for an opportune moment to launch their first full-scale attack against racial discrimination . The upcoming 1964–65 World’s Fair, which would take place in New York City, seemed like the ideal event. Nearly all the construction companies building the pavilions for the World’s Fair hired only white workers from racially exclusive unions. Brooklyn CORE’s new leadership saw this as an opportunity to continue the movement they had started during the Downstate campaign. But the Young Turks also had other plans for the World’s Fair, which would focus the attention of the entire nation on New York City. With the right type of action, they could raise the awareness of the entire country about the practices of racial discrimination that ruined the quality of life for African Americans and Puerto Ricans living in New York City. Brooklyn CORE would turn this celebration of the future and of American progress, hosted by America’s great “melting pot,” into one of the country’s largest demonstrations against urban forms of racial discrimination.1 For the civil rights movement in New York City, 1964 was a period of transition. More people participated in protest campaigns, and a 250 • Fighting JiM Crow in the County oF Kings vocal opposition movement emerged. Probably the most significant action in the city and arguably one of the largest civil rights demonstrations in the nation’s history occurred in February when the Reverend Milton Galamison and a citywide consortium of parents, teachers, and activists called the Parents’ Workshop staged a one-day boycott of the New York City public school system. The boycott occurred roughly one year after Brooklyn CORE and the Bibuld family concluded their protest against racial inequality in the city’s public school system. Rather than merely attacking inferior resources and academic work in predominantly black and Puerto Rican schools, as the Bibulds and Brooklyn CORE had, Galamison and the Parents’ Workshop based the 1964 boycott on specific demands for racial integration. Racially balanced public schools, Galamison argued, would bring about an equitable redistribution of resources such as books, teachers, and classroom space. The city’s black and Puerto Rican children would not have an inferior education , the boycott organizers reasoned, if they sat next to white children in public schools: white parents, and the system, simply would not allow white children’s education to suffer and, by extension, black and Puerto Rican children’s educational opportunities would improve. Nearly half a million students skipped school on the day of the boycott; thousands attended the Parents’ Workshop’s “freedom schools,” which Galamison and his allies organized throughout the city. The boycott movement was an impressive demonstration of solidarity among black, Puerto Rican, and white New Yorkers, but it failed to persuade the Wagner administration to initiate immediate action. As he had in past demonstrations against racial segregation in the city’s public schools, the mayor promised to investigate the issue. Opponents of racial integration were also busy organizing during this period. After Galamison’s boycott, the mostly white Parents and Tax Payers (PAT) emerged as a political force. PAT members opposed “forced integration ” programs, and they did not want the city to preempt their ability to send their children to neighborhood schools, which were almost completely racially homogeneous. Galamison attempted to organize a second boycott in March, but very few people participated. After that disappointing demonstration, and the city’s continued failures to deal directly with school segregation, even Brooklyn’s radical reverend, who had spent a decade advocating, petitioning, organizing, and demonstrating for racial integration of New York City’s public schools, believed that the moment for racial integration of public schools had indeed passed.2 Perhaps inspired by the success of the February boycott, some in “A Gun at the Heart of the City” • 251 Brooklyn CORE wanted to use the World’s Fair, and all the national attention and press it would receive, to protest dramatically all...