Our Lady of the World’s Fair: After Moses and Cardinal Spellman Brought the Pietà to the Fair, They Brought the Pope

By Ruth D. Nelson

Many services and facilities were donated. A “Papal Visit News Center” was set up in the wing of a high-rise building at United Nations Plaza, courtesy of Alcoa Plaza Associates, and volunteers from two public-relations firms worked the telephones, typed, and mimeographed the latest updates. To ensure that not one car in the pope’s motorcade would hit a pothole, the city’s Department of Highways assigned a two-thousand-man crew to the streets along the motorcade route one week before the visit. New York streets never looked so good.

Built Environment, Media, Urban Planning, Excerpts, Metropolitan Region, Politics, Postwar New York, Queens, ReligionRachel PitkinSeptember 25, 2024Comment

The Battle For Gay Rights In New York City – a Conversation With Stephen Petrus

Stephen Petrus, interviewed by Adam Kocurek

Adam Kocurek interviews Dr. Stephen Petrus about his new project, a virtual exhibition titled The Battle for Intro. 2: The New York City Gay Rights Bill, 1971 – 1986. Petrus is the Curator, as well as the Director of Public History Programs, at the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives. This exhibition dives into the story of New York City’s Gay Rights Bill, a local law known as Intro. 2 in the City Council. This was a collaborative project, with faculty and undergraduate students at LaGuardia Community College compiling sources, conducting and recording oral history interviews, and chronicling the many key individuals and moments leading up to the passage of the Gay Rights Bill.

“The Same Slow Pace”: Nelson Rockefeller and Resistance to Open Housing in New York

By Marsha E. Barrett

Despite his continued interest in housing policy and urban renewal programs, integration proved to be a stumbling block that Rockefeller could not overcome. It was an especially difficult issue for Rockefeller because he relied heavily on suburban voters who, as the 1960s progressed, became more organized and vocal in their opposition to housing integration and state efforts to promote equality. Rather than bring diverse New Yorkers together, issues such as housing demonstrated the limitations of Rockefeller’s original approach to coalition building and a fundamental weakness to his brand of pro-government moderate Republicanism.

The War Brought Home: The Greenwich Village Townhouse Explosion of 1970

By Brendan Mahoney

The Weather Underground (Weathermen) rose from the dust as the pallbearers of the now deceased SDS and dying anti-war movement. This group sought to destroy many of the white, bourgeois remnants of the SDS, abandoning electoral and peaceful tactics in favor of guerrilla warfare, with solidarity across racial lines. Their motivation was to bring the war home. In plain terms that meant bringing the destruction and chaos that the US war machine had brought to the people in Vietnam and elsewhere, into the United States.

Manhattan, Built Environment, Crime & Policing, Media, Postwar New York, PoliticsRachel PitkinAugust 7, 2024Comment

Spectacular Ruins: Conservation and Boosterism in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park

By Melissa Zavala

On either side of debates over development and progress is the need to protect public health and open space belonging to us all equally. The borough of Queens faces a future of sinking developments just a short walk from each other. The funding and political will to preserve a prized structure have been missing for over half a century despite public interest. Now, the city considers losing 65 acres of parkland to a capitalist venture as its best option for preservation, especially as a response to flooding and rising temperatures, as has happened along the waterfront in Long Island City. It does not matter that LaGuardia Airport and nearby Arthur Ashe Stadium are also sinking or that a casino can very well mean more tumbling ruins. Will the city soon inherit another shrine to consumption in need of rescue from the fate of a neighboring sinking relic, if not in Flushing, then near the airport or elsewhere? Which world of tomorrow is worth preserving? This is an ongoing challenge facing the city.

How the Catholic Church Drove Suburban Expansion Within and Outside New York City

By Stephen M. Koeth, C.S.C.

Often overlooked, therefore, is the role that Catholic leaders, associations, and media played in spurring suburbanization, shaping the pattern of suburban development, and establishing the necessary infrastructure to sustain suburban communities. The Catholic bishops of metropolitan New York cooperated with urban planners and developers in order to maximize the Church’s real estate holdings and to anticipate where the Church would need to expand in order to serve its suburbanizing flock. They also moved financial resources from well-established urban parishes to newly established suburban parishes and oversaw massive building campaigns in suburban areas.

“'The World's Most Arrested Lesbian:' Corona Rivera and the New York Gay Activists Alliance, 1970-72.” An Interview with Marc Stein

“‘The World’s Most Arrested Lesbian:’ Corona Rivera and the New York Gay Activists Alliance, 1970-72.” An Interview with Marc Stein

Interviewed By Ben Serby

I think historians of LGBTQ+ activism should become more familiar with Corona’s story because it’s fascinating in and of itself, but also because it might change the way we think about the history of GAA-New York and the broader history of LGBTQ+ activism in the 1970s. More generally, I think GAA-New York was responsible for one of the most creative and powerful waves of direct action ever seen in the United States, with lessons for LGBTQ+ and other activists today. Corona was a leading GAA-New York activist for two years and we should know more about her.

Interviews, Media, Manhattan, Gender & Sexuality, Crime & Policing, Metropolitan Region, Postwar New York, WomenRachel PitkinJune 5, 2024Comment

The Case of Ernest Gallashaw: Achieving Justice in an Earlier Era of White-Backlash Politics

By Robert Polner and Michael Tubridy

The episode proved to be a revelatory moment in a city whose conceit of tolerance was belied by stark economic inequality as well as segregation in housing, employment and schools. Now virtually forgotten, the eruption on poor and working-class streets 15 miles from City Hall was—and still remains—historically significant for signaling New York City’s seething racial tensions and the potential for intense right-wing reaction.

Joyful Resilience: Celebrating Untold Stories of Civil Rights History in New York City

By Judy DeRosier, Jas Leiser, and Errol C. Saunders II

The New York City Civil Rights History Project (NYCCRHP) aims to document the crucial and often neglected histories of Black, Brown, and Disability Rights activists who worked tirelessly to promote conversations and policy changes that are diverse and in line with the city’s population. […] By presenting these narratives, the NYCCRHP offers an invaluable resource for understanding the multifaceted nature of civil rights activism and expands beyond the commonly recognized figures and events to include a broader range of activists and movements. This diversity reflects the true breadth of the struggle for rights and equality in New York City.

Politics, Postwar New York, Poverty & Inequality, Race & Ethnicity, EducationRachel PitkinApril 17, 2024Comment

Policing the World from New York City: Emily Brooks Interviews Matthew Guariglia on How Policing Changed from 1880 to 1920

Policing the World from New York City: How Policing Changed from 1880 to 1920

A Collaboration with Public Books: Matthew Guariglia, interviewed by Emily Brooks

From the 1880s to the 1940s, New York City was transformed—and so too was the New York City Police Department. This is the second of two interviews—published in collaboration with Public Books—where Matthew Guariglia and Emily Brooks discuss this pivotal era, through their exciting new books on the NYPD. The first interview was published on Public Books. You can read it here.