Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Arts and Humanities Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

City University of New York (CUNY)

Publications and Research

New York

United States History

Articles 1 - 10 of 10

Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

The Preservation Moment: Gentrification Saved New York, Jeffrey A. Kroessler Jan 2017

The Preservation Moment: Gentrification Saved New York, Jeffrey A. Kroessler

Publications and Research

In the 1960s and 1970s, New York City was in decline. Crime was rising, jobs were leaving, and the population was falling. At the same time, much of the historic city was being lost and replaced by less distinctive architecture. But the declining city offered an opening for recovery and re-imagining. New residents moved into old, declining neighborhoods. Gentrification stabilized sections of the Bronx, Manhattan, and Brooklyn. Between 1965 and 1989 the city designated more than fifty historic districts, and those areas prevented further decay and anchored the recovery. Unlike other older cities, New York continues to grow. The previous …


The City As Palimpsest, Jeffrey A. Kroessler Jan 2015

The City As Palimpsest, Jeffrey A. Kroessler

Publications and Research

“Palimpsest preservation” suggest the necessity of keeping the successive layers of urban form alive rather than simply effacing and rebuilding, for that keeps a city’s history alive. No city without a tangible, tactile history, without the capacity for denizens and visitors to reach into the past while experiencing the present, can be truly vital. But this is a contested approach. George Orwell’s 1984 offers a warning in the guise of a party slogan: “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” Preservationists may advocate on historical, architectural, or cultural grounds, but the final decision …


Bombing For Justice: Urban Terrorism In New York City From The 1960s Through The 1980s, Jeffrey A. Kroessler Jan 2014

Bombing For Justice: Urban Terrorism In New York City From The 1960s Through The 1980s, Jeffrey A. Kroessler

Publications and Research

From the mid-1960s into the 1980s New York City experienced a wave of political violence and urban terrorism. Groups planted bombs, hijacked airliners, and engaged in assassination and attempted assassination to advance political, racial, or nationalist agendas. They included the Jewish Defense League, the Weathermen, the Black Panthers and the Black Liberation Army, FALN and other advocates of Puerto Rican independence, the United Freedom Front, Omega 7 and other anti-Castro Cubans, and Croatian nationalists. Juries often failed to convict these individuals, and others received light sentences. Judges scrutinized police actions for abuses of constitutional rights, and attorneys like William Kunstler …


Where From Here? Ideological Perspectives On The Future Of The Civil Rights Movement, 1964-1966, Kristopher B. Burrell Apr 2012

Where From Here? Ideological Perspectives On The Future Of The Civil Rights Movement, 1964-1966, Kristopher B. Burrell

Publications and Research

Many civil rights movement activist-intellectuals declared that the movement was in a state of "crisis" by the mid-1960s. This article discusses how four black intellectuals--Kenneth Clark, Bayard Rustin, George Schuyler, and Malcolm X--from different ideological perspectives responded to the perception that the movement was in crisis and examines how their ideological underpinnings affected their policy proposals for achieving black equality in the United States. These leaders also wanted to ensure the continued relevance of the movement for racial equality in the United States.


Crossroads: New York's Black Intellectuals And The Role Of Ideology In The Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1965, Kristopher B. Burrell Sep 2011

Crossroads: New York's Black Intellectuals And The Role Of Ideology In The Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1965, Kristopher B. Burrell

Publications and Research

This dissertation studies the importance of New York City, and the black intellectuals who gathered there, to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Studying key activist-intellectuals from across the ideological spectrum allows for a more complete understanding of the importance of ideas propelling the movement. The dissertation also contributes to the growing literature on the civil rights movement outside of the South.


Digitizing Criminals: Web Delivery Of A Century On The Cheap., Ellen A. Sexton, Ellen Belcher Dr. Jan 2008

Digitizing Criminals: Web Delivery Of A Century On The Cheap., Ellen A. Sexton, Ellen Belcher Dr.

Publications and Research

This article presents the process, challenges and lessons learned from carrying out a small digital project to create a web resource of unique historic materials related to crime in New York City. All aspects of digital project management are discussed including selection, infrastructure, budgeting, workflow and delivery. Experiences from project administration, including management of a combination in-house and outsourced digitization and metadata are discussed. Formation and management of the resulting web resource is explained, which is the product of a creative amalgamation of commercial and open source software. Challenges encountered are presented with suggestions for practical solutions and considerations …


Would Brown Make It To New York City? The First Phase Of The Battle For School Integration, 1954-1957, Kristopher B. Burrell Oct 2003

Would Brown Make It To New York City? The First Phase Of The Battle For School Integration, 1954-1957, Kristopher B. Burrell

Publications and Research

This conference paper looks at the struggle to desegregate New York's City's public schools in the immediate aftermath of the Brown v Board of Education decision in 1954. For the first three years following the Supreme Court decision, the New York City Board of Education make public overtures toward fulfilling the letter and spirit of Brown in New York, but in practice the Board of Education engaged in stalling and half-measures that succeeded in effectively stopping widespread school desegregation in the city.


Bob Lewis’ Encounter With The ‘Great Death:’ Port Jervis’ Entrance Into The ‘United States Of Lyncherdom, Kristopher B. Burrell Jan 2003

Bob Lewis’ Encounter With The ‘Great Death:’ Port Jervis’ Entrance Into The ‘United States Of Lyncherdom, Kristopher B. Burrell

Publications and Research

This paper is a local study of a lynching in Port Jervis, New York in 1892. The victim was a black man, Bob Lewis. This study intends to situate Lewis’ lynching in both its historical and cultural contexts. Larger than that, this paper argues that even though southern and northern lynchings, particularly when the victims were African American, resembled one another in several important ways—including higher incidences of mutilation and torture; often becoming a form of white communal entertainment in which white participants often collected and/or sold relics in order to commemorate the event; and the bodies often being left …


New Amsterdam, Janet Butler Munch Jan 2003

New Amsterdam, Janet Butler Munch

Publications and Research

New York City was originally called New Amsterdam. Established by the Dutch West India Company as a commercial center for the colony of New Netherlands, New Amsterdam was noted for its religious and ethnic diversity. When England pressed its claim on a virtually defenseless New Amsterdam, Director-General Peter Stuyvesant surrendered and the city was renamed New York in honor of James, Duke of York.


Richard Mills Of Stratford, Connecticut; Or Is It New Haven, Long Island Or Westchester?, John A. Drobnicki Jul 1994

Richard Mills Of Stratford, Connecticut; Or Is It New Haven, Long Island Or Westchester?, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

The following paper is Intended to clarify information about Richard Mills, whom several standard genealogical reference works offer conflicting information about. The author believes that they were in fact three different men: Richard Miles, Richard Mills, and Richard Mills.