Civil Rights



Explore the Documents

Martin Luther King Jr. Delivers Speech before the New York State Civil War Centennial Commission to commemorate the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, New York City, September 12, 1962.


 

Petition of Certain Parents and Taxpayers of Hillburn, N.Y. to the Commissioner of Education, 1943.

In the fall of 1943, Commissioner Stoddard received a petition from the African American residents of the Village of Hillburn for equal educational opportunities for their children. For more than a decade, the parents of African American children in this small New York community had struggled to obtain the same level of educational accommodations as the white children in their village. A redrawing of the district lines in the 1930s placed all but a few African American students in the Brook School which lacked indoor plumbing, a library, and an area for recreation. All of the white students, according to the new district lines, were assigned to the Main School which was newer and furnished with all the modern amenities.

Map of Hillburn


Discrimination in the Workplace


Learn More with New York Archives Magazine

Spotlight on New York’s “Law Against Discrimination"

by Brian Purnell

Spring 2011, Volume 10, Number 4

A Natural Right to Knowledge

by Denise Roe

Teacher Myrtilla Miner from Madison County, New York was a feminist and abolitionist who went South to teach. What she saw caused a revolution in her—and in education.

Spring 2013, Volume 12, Number 4

Safe Travels

by David Layne

The Negro Motorist Green-Book kept travelers out of harm's way.

Winter 2019, Volume 18, Number 3


More on the Hillburn Case

Hillburn Case Online Exhibit