Knocking at Our Own Door: Milton A. Galamison and the Struggle for School Integration in New York City / Edition 1

by Clarence Taylor

Overview

What caused one of America's most promising civil rights movements to implode on the eve of change? Knocking at Our Own Door chronicles the life of New York's preeminent but little-studied integrationist, Milton A. Galamison, and his controversial struggle to improve the lives of the city's most underprivileged children. This detailed account brings insight into the complexities of urban politics, race relations, and school reform.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231109505
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	10/14/1997
Series:	Columbia History of Urban Life Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	260
Product dimensions:	0.75(w) x 6.00(h) x 9.00(d)
Lexile:	1430L (what's this?)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Clarence Taylor is associate professor of history and African new world studies at Florida International University and author of The Black Churches of Brooklyn.

What People are Saying About This

David N. Dinkins

This book enriches our understanding of a key moment in the American civil rights movement—the struggle to desegregate the nation's largest school system. With clarity and detail, Taylor examines the social history and context behind this campaign, as well as the personal background and quest for a just society of one of its central figures, Milton A. Galamison, a major civil rights leader, and a respected champion for racial and economic justice. This thoughtful work is an important addition to the scholarship on civil rights and school integration. It contributes a great deal to the discourse on race and class in America.

Editorial Reviews

This book enriches our understanding of a key moment in the American civil rights movement—the struggle to desegregate the nation's largest school system. With clarity and detail, Taylor examines the social history and context behind this campaign, as well as the personal background and quest for a just society of one of its central figures, Milton A. Galamison, a major civil rights leader, and a respected champion for racial and economic justice. This thoughtful work is an important addition to the scholarship on civil rights and school integration. It contributes a great deal to the discourse on race and class in America.

David N. Dinkins

By turning our attention away from the Southern civil rights movement to the equally intense racial battles in the urban North, Clarence Taylor's moving history of the struggle to desegregate New York City's schools is a much-welcomed addition to the literature. With subtlety and sophistication, he succeeds in painting a complex portrait of Milton A. Galamison without diminishing his courage or ignoring his flaws.

Robin D. G. Kelly

Clarence Taylor is the most important historian of the most important institution among African-Americans: the church. In this, his latest book, he expertly and deftly tells the fascinating story of Rev. Milton A. Galamison and his struggle to desegregate the public schools of New York City. All interested in religion, education, and urban history must read this indispensible book.

Gerald Horne

By turning our attention away from the Southern civil rights movement to the equally intense racial battles in the urban North, Clarence Taylor's moving history of the struggle to desegregate New York City's schools is a much-welcomed addition to the literature. With subtlety and sophistication, he succeeds in painting a complex portrait of Milton A. Galamison without diminishing his courage or ignoring his flaws.

Robin D.G. Kelly

Narrates how Galamison (1923-88) rose from a bleak childhood in the Philadelphia ghetto to become a Presbyterian minister, leader of the Brooklyn NAACP, and champion of school integration and community control to improve the education of the New York's black and Puerto Rican children. Highlights his and the Parents' Workshop's three-year struggle with a primarily white school board and a succession of intransigent superintendents that led to the first city-wide boycott of the school system in 1964. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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