PARENTS INVOLVED IN COMMUNITY SCHOOLS V. SEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 (2007)

In June 2007 the United States Supreme Court issued a narrow five to four ruling invalidating racial integration plans in Seattle, Washington and Louisville, Kentucky. The Court reasoned that the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause prohibited schools from voluntarily using racial classifications to achieve integration. The decision imperiled the constitutionality of similar plans in hundreds of school districts across the country. Continue reading PARENTS INVOLVED IN COMMUNITY SCHOOLS V. SEATTLE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 (2007)

THE GREAT MIGRATION (1915-1960)

The Great Migration was the mass movement of about five million southern blacks to the north and west between 1915 and 1960.  During the initial wave the majority of migrants moved to major northern cities such as Chicago, Illiniois, Detroit, Michigan, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and New York, New York.  By World War II the migrants continued to move North but many of them headed west to Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, California, Portland, Oregon, … Continue reading THE GREAT MIGRATION (1915-1960)

NEW YORK CITY SLAVE UPRISING (1712)

Between twenty-five and fifty blacks congregated at midnight in New York City, New York on April 6, 1712. With guns, swords and knives in hand, the slaves first set fire to an outhouse then fired shots at several white slave owners, who had raced to scene to fight the fire. By the end of the night, nine whites were killed and six whites were injured. The next day the … Continue reading NEW YORK CITY SLAVE UPRISING (1712)

NEW YORK SLAVE CONSPIRACY (1741)

he New York Slave Conspiracy of 1741 is an extraordinarily complex story. Some historians have dismissed the idea that slaves actually conspired to overthrow chattel bondage and gain their freedom, while others have argued that the events in New York were part of a mixed rebellion of the Atlantic proletariat. What is clear about this incident is that it is an example of an abuse of power and a misuse of law and community values by white colonists. Continue reading NEW YORK SLAVE CONSPIRACY (1741)