New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson is asking supporters to join his “Share the News” team in an effort to promote news items from his web site in order to address what the Mayor claims is "misinformation" and "falsehoods" on "various websites", by which he means this site, Talk of the Sound.

The Mayor is concerned that "anger" has taken center stage in discussions about local issues even though he acknowledges that "sometimes anger is justified". Bramson says his goal is to "elevate the conversation" by which he means public discourse at City Council Meetings. For Bramson, anger is justified when he is angry at others but not justified when people are angry at him, as was the case when Bramson became enraged during a City Council Meeting in February.

Last night the Board of Education discussed a modified version of a proposed resolution prepared by the New York State School Board Association which serves to express opposition to Governor Andrew Cuomo's proposed 2% tax cap. Basically, the Board of Education is taking the position that a tax cap absent a deal to reform the cost drivers at the local level -- unfunded mandates, pension contributions and collective bargaining -- will wreak havoc on the school district. Board of Education President Sara Richmond states that the SBA resolution was modified to address some local concerns without explaining what she meant. She is certainly write that a tax cap alone would destroy the local school district and the local government.

NRBoE-11-257TaxCapProposal.pdf

As predicted more than a year by Talk of the Sound, New Rochelle has no events planned to mark January 24, 2011, the 50th Anniversary of the U.S. Court's landmark decision in Taylor v. New Rochelle Board of Education in which Judge Irving Kaufman found that the New Rochelle Board of Education has engaged in "de facto" racial segregation and ordered the desegregation of the Lincoln Elementary School in New Rochelle, NY.

Why are we not surprised?

On Monday, September 27th the school district of New Rochelle hosted "Reflections of Change: a 50-Year Retrospective of the Lincoln School Decision" in city hall. The event started at 6:00pm in the rotunda for an opening reception where over 100 people enjoyed refreshments. Lincoln Avenue community members mingled with school district employees, Board of Education members and elected officials. The gathering had the pleasant feel of a school reunion.

At 7:00 the group was directed to the large meeting room on the 2nd floor. Superintendent Organisciak welcomed everyone and introduced himself and Linda Tarrant-Reid, his co-project manager. He introduced people in the audience from the era, elected officials, members of the committee, and Lincoln School graduates. They next showed the CBS Special report from the early 70s called "After 10 Years, The Courts and the Schools". The black and white footage of New Rochelle landmarks and citizens, narrated by Mike Wallace, set the historic tone of the anniversary of the court decision.

Superintendent Organisciak and Linda Tarrant-Reid, project co-chairs
Photo credit: Bob Cox

The City School District of New Rochelle is now following the recommendations made by Talk of the Sound last winter to create a year-long celebration to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Lincoln School Desegregation Case. Whatever else you read of this article please skip to the very bottom and note the brilliantly written 8-Part Series on the Lincoln Case by Karen Hessel.

The Invitation from the Lincoln 50th Committee - City Hall Monday 9/27 6:00 PM

As Schools Superintendent Richard Organisciak recently "neglected" to mention my role in initiating this event and no one on the Board of Education is likely to want to admit it publicly it falls to me to tell readers of my role in bring this effort forward.

Did you attend Lincoln School or have relatives or friends who did? Do you know people involved in the landmark Taylor Case? Did you or someone you know live in New Rochelle around the 1960s?

We invite you to join with the City School District of New Rochelle, as a community partner, to commemorate the historic 1961 Taylor v. Board of Education of New Rochelle Case. Plans for commemorative events will be announced at this meeting, with an opportunity for community engagement.

If you are interested in sharing recollections, memorabilia, photos, and articles related to Lincoln School, please contact us. We will work with you to scan or photograph your items for a proposed exhibit.

Please share this invitation with other interested individuals.

For further information call Camille Edwards-Thomas at (914) 576-4233 or email her at: cedwardsthomas@nred.org.

Monday, September 27, 2010
6 pm – 7 pm Reception, City Hall Rotunda
7 pm – 8:30 pm Presentation, City Hall Chambers

“A milestone on the search for unity in the midst of our diversity”

Please Post

Tonight at the New Rochelle Public Library one of the Little Rock Nine spoke in the Ossie Davis auditorium. Carlotta Walls Lanier, the youngest of the group, read three passages from her book and answered questions from the audience. The book is A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School and has a forward by President Bill Clinton. It took her 30 years to really speak about her experiences and almost 50 years to start to write the book.

She ironically recalls that as a young black child growing up in the south, she couldn't go to the white public library. She had to use a Quonset hut with the lesser collection of books. She said she appreciates the venue of the library to speak and is pleased that her book has been purchased by 800 libraries and has only been released at the end of August 2009.

Professor Paul Murray, a sociology professor at Siena College, is working on a biography of Paul Zuber, the lead attorney for the Lincoln families in the New Rochelle case. Murray is looking to interview current and former New Rochelle residents who were involved with or impacted by the case.

Murray, a noted civil rights scholar, is a contributor to The African American National Biography, edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (Oxford University Press, 2008). He wrote a brief biography of Zuber published (with permission) below:

Zuber, Paul Burgess (20 December 1926 - 6 March 1987), lawyer and professor, was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. His parents were Paul A. Zuber, a postal worker, and Jennie Baer Zuber. He attended school in Williamsport through third grade. In 1934 his family moved to Harlem and he was enrolled in the all-black P.S. 157.

Editor's Note: This is Part VIII, the last in an Eight-Part series on school desegregation in New Rochelle presented in anticipation of the upcoming 50th Anniversary of the U.S. Court's Landmark Decision in Taylor v. New Rochelle Board of Education one year from now.

Previously: In Part I, New Rochelle gerrymanders the Lincoln school district starting in the 1930s to create a "Negro elementary school". In Part II, the Board of Education's hire consultants who recommend desegregation. In Part III, as white voters approve a plane to build a new Lincoln School, black parents mobilize with the help of civil rights attorney Paul Zuber. In Part IV, parents engage in civil disobedience at New Rochelle Schools, Zuber files Taylor v. New Rochelle Board of Education. In Part V, Zuber presented his case to Judge Irving R. Kaufman. In Part VI, Judge Kaufman made his ruling. In Part VII, the District responds to the Ruling.

Lincoln School Desegregation Today: Part I - Early Gerrymandering
Lincoln School Desegregation Today: Part II - The Dodson Report

While researching for this project, I read that the school board connected with the New Rochelle church leaders to promote understanding and kindness as the Lincoln children started in their new schools.

In a report by John Kaplan called "Civil Rights USA - Public Schools Cities in the North and West 1962, New Rochelle" he writes "The superintendent of schools also wrote the head of each relighous organization in New Rochelle asking that cooperation with the school board be urged to provide for the proper acceptance and adjustment of the transferrring pupils; he also held meeting with each of the elementary school principals and with the custodial staffs to assure a smooth reception to the transferees."

As I drove up and down the streets in or adjacent to the Lincoln school district I noticed so many churches. Some were handsome and large, others small and intimate, tucked among houses. I tried to photograph as many as I could. If I missed your church, please post a photo of it in a comment.

Shiloh Baptist Church, Lincoln Avenue

Gospel Tabernacle Church on Lincoln Avenue

St. Catherine African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church on Lincoln Avenue