It’s March, which means it is Women’s History Month, a commemoration of “the specific achievements women have made over the course of American history in a variety of fields”…with one notable exception: the field of domestic labor.
Domestic labor—cooking, cleaning, childcare, and other activities related to household maintenance—remains largely invisible and undervalued. Domestic labor is mostly done by women, and particularly women of color, who keep those around them fed, safe, clean, and cared for. It is essential work, without which no other economic activity could take place, but it is considered unworthy, for example, of being an achievement to celebrate during Women’s History Month.
Wages for Housework supporters at an International Women’s Day march in New York City, 1977. Photo by: Freda Weinland.
Silvia Federici, who was one of the organizers of the Wages for Housework movement, has described domestic labor as “a form of gendered economic oppression and an exploitation upon which all of capitalism rests.” Domestic labor enables others to work outside the home, and to enjoy higher status jobs and better wages. It is the invisible work that makes all other work possible.
If women in the United States earned minimum wage for their unpaid domestic labor, they would have made $1.5 trillion last year, according to a recent article in the New York Times. Imagine what would happen if women either refused to do any domestic labor or insisted on being paid for it. Our entire economy would be transformed.
Of course, some people are paid for doing domestic labor. During the past three decades, as more and more women entered the workforce, those with enough income (usually white, college-educated, and middle to upper class) began to pay others to help care for their children or clean their homes or even buy their groceries for them. The majority of domestic workers in the United States are low-waged women of color and immigrants. Women with privilege working outside the home have depended on outsourcing domestic labor to women with less privilege. Even though there have been efforts to organize and protect domestic workers from exploitation, they don’t have much protection, and are often denied formal benefits and time off to care for their own families.
During the last year, with schools and offices closed and an New York State executive order that classified most domestic workers as “inessential”, more people had to perform their own domestic labor rather than outsourcing it. Many women with privilege have been forced to quit their jobs, as they can no longer hire domestic workers to help them. Because of the pandemic, some have become more aware that their careers and comfortable lifestyles depend on the underpaid labor of undervalued domestic workers. It seems like a good moment to reevaluate the low value assigned to life-maintaining labor and to start celebrating women for all of the kinds of work they do.
Want to learn more about women and work? Check out these ebooks from the City Tech Library!
[This post was co-authored with City Tech Librarians Nora Almeida and Wanett Clyde.]
The African American Studies (AFR) Department at CityTech presents a virtual exhibit to celebrate Black History Month, entitled Black Lives Lead: We, Too, Sing America! See the exhibit below. (Transcript forthcoming).
Dr. Yelena Bailey, AFR Adjunct, is the author of the newly published How the Streets Were Made (UNC Press). Join Dr. Bailey as she uses historical and contemporary photographs to examine the creation of “the streets” not just as a physical, racialized space produced by segregationist policies, but also as a sociocultural entity that continues to shape our understanding of Blackness in America.
Transcript
2021 Black History Month Virtual Exhibit, Black Lives Lead: We, Too, Sing America! Transcribed by College Assistant Yu Lau
My name is Dr. Yelena Bailey and I am so grateful to have this opportunity to share a little bit with you about my book project How the Streets Were Made: Housing Segregation and Black Life in America. I want to thank the Department of African American Studies for making this possible and extending the invitation. I also want to thank the City Tech library for cosponsoring this event. You’re going to hear me, um, do a voice over and show you some images of kind of Black urban space in my hometown of Minneapolis-Saint Paul area.
Many of you will be familiar, um, with the Twin Cities that were in the news this past year with the murder of George Floyd and I think that, um, those events are closely tied to my book and the main ideas there. So I am going to walk through some of that and then I am also going to share with you the ways in which one of the authors I talk about in the book, Ann Petry, shows us that these places can also be spaces of liberation and empowerment.
Soon after musician Nipsey Hussle was murdered on March 31, 2019, social media was flooded with the reactions of Black artists, authors, and activists mourning his death. In the wake of this loss, writer and creative strategist Duanecia Evans tweeted, “The hood is a construct. The deepest underbelly of survival and poverty. The science project of classism and elitism. If you get out you have survivors’ guilt forever, if you stay in… man. Ain’t no middle.” This description of the hood or the streets is something more than physical geography is the heart of this book.
How the Streets Were Made examines the streets as a sociocultural construct that stems from the U.S. geographic segregation and continues to define the contours of Blackness and belonging in the U.S. today. This notion of the streets resonates with me on a personal level. Although I did not grow up in the streets, I was raised by a mother whose parenting was in no small way shaped by her determination to keep me from them.
My mother spent most of her childhood in the projects of North Minneapolis. She is intimately familiar with the streets and the threats they pose to Black life. She’s equally familiar with the way such spaces foster community and belonging. Although my mother made it out of the hood, throughout my childhood she was painfully aware of just how little separated us from that life. This awareness created a ferocious determination in her.
Although we did not have much money, she was resolved to keep me from the fate of other poor Black folks. This often meant moving us from place to place, actively fighting against the social, economic, and cultural forces that attempted to corral us back into poor urban neighborhoods. Even we lived in the projects, my mother moved us across town just so we could get into one of the few available suburban public housing projects. We may have been poor; she would be damned if I didn’t get a middle-class education. When those housing and school opportunity ran out, my mother was willing to relocate to another suburb or another area of the city. I say this not to exalt her as an example of exceptional perseverance but rather to highlight the way the streets, even in their strict absence, radically shaped my childhood.
My mother accepted a life of transience just so her daughter could have a shot at a decent education and a childhood free from the violence of the streets. Reflecting on my own experience has helped me to recognize the streets as much more than a physical space.
How the Streets Were Made explains why racialized spaces like the streets exist and why it is that urban and ghetto most often signify Black. The streets have shaped perceptions of Black identity, community, violence, spending habits, and belonging. They produce myths about urban Black pathology, financial irresponsibility, and inherent violence. These myths have fielded the economic and social divestment of Black communities as well as a boarder divestment from Blackness as a part of U.S. identity. How the Streets Were Made explores these topics as well as how we might approach the topic of redress in a practical and robust way.
While How the Streets Were Made explores the history of geographic segregation and how that lead to narratives that negatively impact Black life, often reinforcing economic disparities, it is also a book about how Black people have fought against these forces and how racism takes place. George Lipsitz argues that people who do not control physical places often construct discursive space as sites of agency, affiliation, and imagination. In the case of Black urban inhabitance, literature became one of the primary means through which Black intellectuals constructed these discursive spaces. While government policies, economic rationales, and marketing campaign worked to create a derogatory narrative around urban Blackness, Black authors were simultaneously wrestling with the cultural and ideological impact of living in racialized urban spaces.
In chapter two of my book, I analyze Ann Petry’s The Street, a novel that exemplifies the way the streets have been depicted and theorized in African American literature. Ann Petry published The Street in 1946, just twelve years after the National Housing Act was established. Set in 1944 Harlem, the novel follows the journey of the protagonist, Lutie Johnson, as she attempts to build a life for herself and her son Bub. Lutie migrated to Harlem after her marriage fell apart.
Determined to work her way up the social ladder, Lutie pursues a number of careers all while her son Bub finds himself alone on the streets. The novel is a tragedy that highlights the specific impact the streets have on Black familial relationships and the pursuit of the American dream. More relevant, however, is the way Petry works to narrate the transformation of A street, 116th in Harlem, from the figurative representation of everyday life in Black spaces in a menacing sociocultural entity, The street. Despite the harsh realities of the streets, depicted in the novel, they are also depicted as a safe space where Black people build community and live free from the constricting gaze of White supremacy. There is a moment in the novel when the protagonist, Lutie, is returning to Harlem after working in another part of the city and she expresses the sentiment in a clear nuanced way.
Rather than summarize it, I’ll read a short excerpt because Petry’s skill as an author is highlighted here and is a primary example of what I mean when I say that Black authors were using their writing to claim space. The book narrates that Lutie got off the train, thinking that she never really felt human until she reached Harlem and thus, got away from the hostility in the eyes of the White women who stared at her on the downtown streets and in the subway, escaped from the openly appraising looks of the White men whose eyes seem to go through her clothing to her long brown legs. These other folks felt the same way, she thought, that once they are freed from the contempt in the eyes of the downtown world, they instantly become individuals. Up here, they are no longer creatures labeled simply colored and therefore, alike. She noticed that once the crowd walked the length of the platform and started up the stairs towards the street, it expanded in size. The same people who had made themselves small on the train, even on the platform, suddenly grew so large, they could hardly get up the stairs to the street together. She reached the street at the very end of the crowd and stood watching them as they scattered in all directions, laughing and talking to each other. This is a powerful moment, both within the text and outside of it. In the novel, this realization stands in stark contrast to Lutie’s fears for her son, the dark dank apartment she lives in, and the harassment she receives on a daily basis as a Black woman. Harlem becomes a safe space where she is free to be herself and to feel fully human.
Outside of the novel, Petry uses Lutie’s realization to reclaim Black space, even space that was initially created through anti-Black policies. She writes these spaces as fostering community and freedom. This passage in Petry’s novel reminds me of the chant “Whose street, Our street.’’ When Black protesters make this statement, it’s a bold reclaiming of power over the space we live in.
In her book Demonic Grounds, Catherine McKittrick says that Black matters are spatial matters in that we produce space, reproduce its meanings, and we work very hard to make geography what it is. When we look at Black organizers today and the protests that take place in the streets, this is a prime example of giving space meaning, of turning the streets into a space of liberation.
The themes of food justice and activism have been in the forefront of public consciousness as we live through a pandemic. Our recent virtual exhibit, Sustainability & Self Determined Food Systems, examined the intersection of food justice and Black Power, and featured people rebuilding relationships to the land and reimagining food systems.
This Black History Month, our African American Studies department hosted a virtual event with similar themes. Environmental and food justice activist, Tanya Denise Fields’ conversation with City Tech’s Dr. Emilie Boone called to mind the library’s collection of texts related to Black foodways. We have been steady in our intention to acquire newly published works by Black authors as well as those about to Black culture. We are also fortunate to have many important out-of-print or difficult to find texts in our collection.
Though we are currently away from campus, please enjoy this selection of titles.
A tintype portrait of a woman from Weeksville, Brooklyn
“A white ally acknowledges the limits of her/his/their knowledge about other people’s experiences but doesn’t use that as a reason not to think and/or act. A white ally does not remain silent but confronts racism as it comes up daily, but also seeks to deconstruct it institutionally and live in a way that challenges systemic oppression, at the risk of experiencing some of that oppression. Being a white ally entails building relationships with both people of color, and also with white people in order to challenge them in their thinking about race. White allies don’t have it all figured out, but are deeply committed to non-complacency.” White Allyship 101 by the Dismantle Collective
February is Black History Month in the United States. As 2020 demonstrated, the situation of Black people in the US is still challenging, often unfair and discriminatory. One way we can honor the historical struggles of Black Americans is to invest in the ongoing work to make our society and ourselves (if we are not Black) less racist. For nonBlack people, February 2021 is a good opportunity to educate ourselves on how to be better allies to our Black family, friends, and neighbors. There are many excellent educational online materials on Anti-Racism free and open to all:
Films
The PBS website offers several films about racism in America, adding historical context to racial issues. PBS’ programs include profiles of police departments, documentaries that cover the treatment of African Americans since slavery, and films about both past and current civil rights activism.
1619 An audio series on how slavery has transformed America, connecting past and present through the oldest form of storytelling.
Code Switch: “fearless conversations about race…hosted by journalists of color, our podcast tackles the subject of race head-on. We explore how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and everything in between.”
Seeing White: “Just what is going on with white people? Police shootings of unarmed African Americans. Acts of domestic terrorism by white supremacists. The renewed embrace of raw, undisguised white-identity politics. Unending racial inequity in schools, housing, criminal justice, and hiring. Why? Where did the notion of ‘whiteness’ come from? What does it mean? What is whiteness for?”
Uncivil: “Uncivil brings you stories that were left out of the official history of the Civil War, ransacks America’s past, and takes on the history you grew up with. We bring you untold stories about resistance, covert operations, corruption, mutiny, counterfeiting, antebellum drones, and so much more. And we connect these forgotten struggles to the political battlefield we’re living on right now. The story of the Civil War — the story of slavery, confederate monuments, racism — is the story of America.”
Other Online Resources
The Color Line: “A lesson on the countless colonial laws enacted to create division and inequality based on race.” from the Zinn Education Project
Facing History and Ourselves: “Facing our collective history and how it informs our attitudes and behaviors allows us to choose a world of equity and justice. Facing History’s resources address racism, antisemitism, and prejudice at pivotal moments in history; we help students connect choices made in the past to those they will confront in their own lives.”
Talking About Race is a comprehensive, multimedia site produced by the National Museum of African American History & Culture, with rich offerings.
Weeksville Heritage Center is an historic site in Central Brooklyn that preserves the history of Weeksville, one of the largest free Black communities in pre-Civil War America.
This is the second part of a two-part post on Winter Holiday Foodways and Cookbooks, co-written with Monica Berger, our Instruction and Scholarly Communications Librarian. The first part of the blog is here.
For those who love sweets, the winter holidays are a highly anticipated time of year! This is the season when many special desserts are made by diverse cultures to celebrate their holidays.
Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, memorializes a miracle during the Jewish rebellion against the Greeks, where the Jews were able to regain the ancient city of Jerusalem, and restore their desecrated Temple in Jerusalem. The miracle was that the oil for the menorah in the Temple, only enough for one night, lasted eight days and nights. To honor the sacred oil, for generations the theme surrounding Hanukkah cuisine has been deep fried foods, including delicious desserts.In Israel, the most popular holiday treat is sufganiyah which translates to doughnut in English. It is a specialty item for the holiday because it’s sweet and deep fried, sold exclusively around the holiday season. Sufganiyot (the plural of sufganiyah in Hebrew) originated in Europe. Jalebi, a treat enjoyed by Iraqi Jews, is basically a funnel cake, made out of a flour-based dough then deep fried and soaked in a sugar syrup. One exception to fried desserts is rugelach, an Eastern European pastry, which are crescent-shaped dough cookies filled with fruit preserves, poppy seeds, or chocolate and nuts. Hanukkah Sweets and Treats is a kid-friendly introduction to making these and more. The Kosher Baker is an excellent resource for dairy-free desserts.
Kwanzaa is an African-American festival that lasts from December 26 through January 1. Its purpose is to celebrate African-American family and community, while honoring African ancestors and culture. The holiday is based on seven guiding principles, one for each day of the observance: unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith. Celebrations begin by lighting candles, giving gifts, and decorating with the African colors of red, green, and black. Throughout the week, favorite African-American dishes, as well as traditional African and Caribbean favorites, are on many menus. On December 31, the holiday culminates in a feast called Karamu. Desserts might include soul food favorites like Sweet Potato Pie, Peach Cobbler, or Caramel Cake. Global Bakery has recipes for delicious cakes from Africa and the Caribbean perfect for Kwanzaa, including Ginger Cake, Rum Cake, and Semolina Cake. A wonderful book on African-American foodways is Vibration Cooking: Or, the Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl by Vertamae Smart-Grosveno. It is a cookbook/memoir reflecting on food as a source of pride and validation of Black womanhood, and it inspired filmmaker Julie Dash to make Daughters of the Dust.
Traditionally, holidays are times when families, friends, and communities come together, with food playing an essential role in celebrations. Obviously, the winter holidays (Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and others) will be different this year, as fewer people will gather in groups. However, for comfort, many will still cook up their favorite holiday dishes.
In New York City, during the winter, people from many different cultures celebrate multiple holidays with unique foods. It is impossible in a short blog post to “give a taste” of the diverse traditional dishes being served this season. Here are just a few holiday highlights, as well as a selection of e-cookbooks available through the library.
Hanukkah:
Hanukkah is an eight-day festival of lights commemorating the miracle when—after the Second Temple was desecrated then rededicated—one day’s worth of sacred oil for the altar’s eternal lamp lasted eight days. The eight-night celebration of Hanukkah is therefore supposed to include fried foods at the festive meal that is preceded by lighting the menorah, a eight- or nine-branched candelabrum. In Central and Eastern Europe, latkes (potato pancakes) were fried in schmaltz (poultry fat) because potatoes were plentiful while December was the season for slaughtering goose and ducks. Today, many people choose to make their latkes with vegetable oil. Jelly donuts, or sufganiyot, another food deep-fried in oil, are a Hanukkah tradition from Israel popular with Americans.
Other Hanukkah foods reflect the ethnic diversity of Judaism. For example, Sephardic Jews (Mediterranean Jews) prepare elaborate vegetarian dishes with cheese while many Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jews eat roasted brisket as a main dish. For more special Hanukkah recipes, take a look at Sweet Noshings: New Twists on Traditional Jewish Desserts. For a Jewish perspective on Christmas, check out A Kosher Christmas: ‘Tis the Season to be Jewish.
Christmas:
Many New Yorkers from different cultural backgrounds will soon celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas with big, multi-course feasts. One of the most elaborate feasts is The Feast of the Seven Fishes, an Italian-American Christmas Eve celebration. The Christmas Eve feast may include seven or more specific fish dishes that are considered traditional, such as whiting in lemon, clams in spaghetti, or baccalà (dried, salted cod). If you ever want to try to create your own feast, there are several pesci recipes in Canal House Cooking: Pronto! for you to try.
Filipinos celebrate Christmas from December 16 until the first Sunday of January and the Feast of the Three Kings. After Christmas Eve midnight mass, preparation begins for Noche Buena, when family, friends, and neighbors drop by for an open house celebration. Food is often served in buffet style. Among the typical foods prepared are lechon (roasted pig), queso de bola, ham, spaghetti, and fruit salad.Filipino Family Cookbook : A Treasury of Heirloom Recipes and Heartfelt Storiesis a great resource if you’d like to learn more.
For many Latinos in the United States, the holiday season is synonymous with tamales. Mexican Americans often opt for corn-husk-wrapped tamales, while those from Central America typically wrap theirs in banana leaves. And while most Mexican and Central American tamales contain corn-based masa, Puerto Rican pasteles don’t use any, instead using a combination of ground yautía (yuca) and green plátanos (plantains). Tamales, Comadres, and the Meaning of Civilization is filled with family recipes and stories. It also celebrates tamaladas, large family gatherings to prepare the Christmas tamales.
Kwanzaa:
Kwanzaa is not a religious holiday nor a substitute for Christmas, and many people celebrate both. Maulana Karenga founded the weeklong festival in 1966 as a way for African-Americans to celebrate their heritage. Today, Kwanzaa is celebrated across North America and the Caribbean. The seven principles of Kwanzaa are umoja (unity), kujichagulia (self-determination), ujima (collective work and responsibility), ujamaa (cooperative economics), nia (purpose), kuumba (creativity) and imani (faith).
The largest meal—Karamu Ya Imani—is held on December 31. The main dish served tends to be a stew, such as Ghanaian groundnut stew, Cajun jambalaya, Creole gumbo, West Indian curry. Other classics include Hoppin’ John, Nigerian jollof rice, fritters, catfish, collard greens, fried okra, spoonbread, plantains, and (are you hungry yet?) sweet potato pie. Celebrate Vegan: 200 Life-Affirming Recipes for Occasions Big and Smalloffers delicious vegan versions of traditional soul food dishes. The Real Jerk : New Caribbean Cuisineprovides recipes for Caribbean classics like jerk chicken, sorrel punch, and rum cake.
Michael Twitty is a wonderful food historian and writer who identifies as “an African American who happens to be Jewish, or a Jew who happens to be African American.” He writes a little about Christmas but he writes much more about Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. His blog is a rich resource for both recipes and food histories.
Part 2 of this blog will cover delicious sweets and desserts for winter holidays!
Traditional Lenape land, the Lenapehoking, was a large territory encompassing parts of Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. Scholars have estimated that at the time of European contact, there were about 15,000 Lenape people around New York City in approximately 80 settlement sites. In Brooklyn, the Lenape had settlements in what are now Bushwick, Canarsie, Flatlands, Fort Hamilton, Gowanus, and Sheepshead Bay.
A map of Lenape settlements and trails in what is now Brooklyn, New York
The Lenape thrived for thousands of years in New York, before the arrival of Europeans. They developed sophisticated techniques of hunting and managing their resources. They assigned land of their common territory to a particular clan for hunting, fishing, and farming. Individual private ownership of land was unknown; the land belonged to the clan collectively.
The Lenape kinship system was matrilineal: children belonged to their mother’s clan, while their father was generally of another clan. Within a marriage itself, men and women had relatively separate and equal rights.
Clans lived in fixed settlements, using the surrounding areas for communal hunting and planting. Planting was managed by women, who cultivated maize, squash, beans, and tobacco. They also did most of the processing and cooking of food. The men cleared the field and broke the soil. During the rest of the year, they would fish and hunt deer, bears, beavers, raccoons and foxes.
European explorers arrived in the 16th century. By the 17th century, European investors, including the Dutch West India Company, were setting up colonies to extract resources from Lenapehoking. As the European presence grew, traditional life for the Lenape was interrupted. The loss of their land led to a scarcity of essential resources, as they could not farm and were forced to over-hunt.
In 1626, the Lenape “sold” the island of Manahatta to the Dutch. The Dutch were of course deceptive in their dealings, as the concept of private land-ownership was not recognized by the Lenape. This deceit marked the beginning of the end for the Lenape in New York.
Lenape population fell sharply, due to high fatalities from infectious diseases brought by Europeans, such as measles and smallpox, as they had no natural immunity. Violent conflicts with Europeans and inter-tribal fighting also reduced their numbers. By 1750, the Lenape had lost an estimated 90% of their people.
The Treaty of Easton, signed in 1758 between the Lenape and English colonists, forced the Lenape to move westward, out of present-day New York and New Jersey and into Pennsylvania and Ohio. Other deceptive land treaties and forced migrations followed, and the Lenape were pushed further and further west. In the 1860s, the federal government sent most Lenape remaining in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) under the Indian removal policy. Today, Lenape communities are found in Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Ontario, and New Jersey.
November is Native American History Month, and a good time for non-Natives in Brooklyn to acknowledge the Lenape peoples who lived here before us.
Land Acknowledgements are given to recognize the indigenous peoples who originally occupied “our” land but who were then displaced. Land Acknowledgements are often offered in places as statements of honor and respect for the places’ original inhabitants.
Land Acknowledgements can raise awareness about histories that are often suppressed or forgotten. The acknowledgement process involves asking: “Who lived here before us?” “What happened to them?” “Who should be accountable for their displacement?” “What can be done to repair the harm done to them?”
Here are their answers to the question: “Why practice Land Acknowledgement?”:
• Offer recognition and respect
• Share the true story of the people who were already here
• Create a broader public awareness of history
• Begin to repair relationships with Native communities
• Support larger truth-telling and reconciliation efforts
• Remind people that colonization is an ongoing process
• Opening up space with reverence and respect
• Inspire ongoing action and relationships
And here is their step-by-step guide to acknowledgment:
1. Identify: “The first step is identifying the traditional inhabitants of the lands you’re on. . . it is important to proceed with care, doing good research before making statements of acknowledgement.”
2. Articulate: “Once you’ve identified the group(s) who should be recognized, formulate the statement.. . . Beginning with just a simple sentence would be a meaningful intervention in most spaces.”
3. Deliver. “Offer your acknowledgement as the first element of a welcome to the next public gathering or event that you host . . . Consider your own place in the story of colonization and of undoing its legacy.”
In Brooklyn, and at City Tech, we currently occupy land that was known originally as the “Lenapehoking” or the Land of the Lenape. Lenapehoking included present day New Jersey, New York, and Delaware. At the time of European settlement, in the New York City and Brooklyn area alone, there were about 15,000 Lenape living in 80 settlements.
The destruction and displacement of the Lenape people began with European contact. Giovanni da Verrazzano sailed into New York harbor and traded with the Lenape in 1524. Verrazzano was followed by the Dutch in 1598. With every new contact between the Lenape and Europeans, more Lenape died due to disease and war.
By 1623, according to some accounts, there were only 200-300 Lenape left. European settlers pushed the remaining Lenape out of the East Coast and pressed them to move west. Today, after numerous wars, treaties, and forced displacement, most Lenape live in Oklahoma and Canada, with only a small number remaining in New York.
More on local Lenape history and culture forthcoming in Part 2!
This November 3rd is election day. The history of voting in this country is complex and some communities still are underrepresented in national political forums. Voter suppression, voter intimidation, and obstacles to voting still prevent people from going to the polls.
This time of year, it’s important to remember that the right to vote, for many of us, was hard won. Civil rights advocates and Suffragettes fought so women and Black communities were able to participate in democratic elections and have a say in the people who represent them.
Below are some voting resources about this election cycle as well as some reminders of historic voting milestones and resources to learn more about the history of voting rights in America.
If you are registered outside of New York, please check out the U.S. governmental website to confirm your voting status.
The New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) has a Student Voter Helpline which will run from 6am-9pm on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3rd. Student voters can call their Helpline at (212) 822-0282 and trained professionals and lawyers will help answer questions about where their poll site is, their voter eligibility, what to expect at the polls, or what to do if their right to vote is challenged.
Ebooks related to Voting Rights available to the City Tech Community
The right to vote (also known as suffrage) is a fundamental part of our democracy. But from the founding of the United States, different groups have been excluded from the voting process. At one point, women, people of color, and immigrants could not vote. People without money, property, or education were also barred from voting. Men held legal power over women, whites held legal power over nonwhites. Many Americans had no political power and no influence over the laws that affected their lives.
As a result of many hard-won battles, voting today is more inclusive. The following timeline, of voting milestones during U.S. history, is a reminder of those in the past who fought for the rights we now have.
1788: The U.S. Constitution is ratified. It allowed states to determine who could vote. Most states gave voting rights to white, land-owning men only; some states also require voters to be Christian. Only a small minority of white males qualify.
1867-1965: Voting Rights for African Americans
The 14th Amendment, passed in 1867, required all states to recognize all males born in the U.S. as full voting citizens regardless of race. The 15th Amendment, passed in 1870, gives the right to vote to all men, regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Southern states then used intimidation and other tactics—such as poll taxes and literacy tests—until they made it impossible for African American men to vote.
These intimidation tactics remained in place for decades, until the 1960s, when the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement focused their efforts on voting rights. In response, many states began to publicly and violently intimidate African Americans. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others organized marches and rallies for voting rights. After the American public witnessed the violent suppression of these actions, public opinion began to change. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act was signed by President Johnson, with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and other leaders of the Civil Rights Movement at his side. The Voting Rights Act enforced the 15th Amendment by making voter intimidation and legal obstacles, such as literacy tests, against federal law.
1848-1920: Voting Rights for Women
The first Women’s Rights Convention was held in 1848, during which activists demanded that women be granted all rights as full citizens including the right to vote. For the next 72 years, women—and some men—protested, marched, and engaged in civil-disobedience for the right to vote. They braved beatings, jail, and other abuses for demanding full citizenship. In 1890Wyoming became the first state to grant women the right to vote, and soon more states followed suit. In 1919, the suffrage movement finally gained enough support that Congress passed the 19th Amendment: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”
1790-1924: Voting Rights for Native Americans
In 1790,U.S. citizenship was limited to “whites” only. This meant that Native-Americans could not be citizens so they could not vote.Native Americans had to fight for many years before they gained full U.S. citizenship and legal protection of their voting rights with the Snyder Act of 1924. It still took another 40 years for all states to allow Native Americans to vote.
1971: Voting Rights for Youth
A long debate over lowering the voting age began during World War II and intensified during the Vietnam War, when young men denied the right to vote were being conscripted to fight for their country. The 26th Amendment is passed by Congress lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 in 1971.
1974: Voting Rights for Non-English Speakers
Congress expands the Voting Rights Act in 1974 to protect the voting rights of those people who do not speak or read English. Voting materials and assistance in languages other than English now have to be provided wherever needed.
During voting season, it is worth remembering those who fought for the rights we now enjoy. Let’s honor their hard won victories and their many sacrifices.
NY Archives Week banner via https://www.nycarchivists.org/
This year, the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York will celebrate New York Archives week online. Though the NYCCT Archives is currently inaccessible as we continue to restrict access to campus while the city contends with Covid-19, Archives Week is a great opportunity to highlight our collection as well as introduce you to our new NYCCT Archives Research Guide.
The Archives contain historical materials from City Tech’s precursors: the New York Trade School, Voorhees Technical Institute, and New York City Community College. These collected student records, yearbooks, university catalogs, photographs, newspapers, and more can enrich a research project or provide detail of past coursework completed at City Tech . In Spring 2016 the City Tech Science Fiction Collection joined the Archives. This collection has been used to support coursework in the English department and is at the center of an annual symposium.
Visit the new NYCCT Archives Research Guide for information about our visitation policy, how to view the Science Fiction Collection, to peruse our collections policy or to reach out the archivist. We look forward to welcoming you to the Archives in the future.
Until then, enjoy a selection of photos from when City Tech was the New York Trade School. The entire collection is available via Academic Works.
Students, likely studying carpentry, are shown working on the roof of a model of a house in a classroom at the New York Trade School.Students in the Paper Hanging Department at the New York Trade School are shown in various stages of hanging paper. Black and white photograph.Two students learning painting at the New York Trade School are shown here working on decorative designs. Black and white photograph. An electrical classroom at the New York Trade School is shown here absent of any students. Black and white photograph that is yellowing and is torn in the upper left-hand corner.A lithography student at the New York Trade School is shown working on a machine. Black and white photograph.
