New York City Department of Education -Historian Lectures

1. Forgotten Patriots: Ted Burrows: Between 1775 and 1783, some 200,000 Americans took up arms against the British Crown. Just over 6,800 of those men died in battle. About 25,000 became prisoners of war, most of them confined in New York City under conditions so atrocious that they perished by the thousands. The prisoners were shockingly overcrowded and chronically underfed—those who escaped told of comrades so hungry they ate their own clothes and shoes. Professor Burrows offers a unique perspective on the Revolutionary War as well as a sobering commentary on how Americans have remembered our struggle for independence—and how much we have forgotten. Edwin G. Burrows, Distinguished Professor of History at Brooklyn College as he shares this little known story from the American Revolution.
2. Gotham Goes to War: Mike Wallace: In New York, 1941, the city looked across the Atlantic and saw, especially in the fate of London, a possibly frightening future for Gotham. Wave after wave of German bombers were daily dropping hundreds of heavy explosives and thousands of incendiaries on London, filling morgues and hospitals, and devastating historic buildings like the House of Commons and Westminster Abbey. At the same time U-boats were sinking merchant vessels carrying war supplies from New York to England at a terrifying rate, and moving their operations ever closer to the city itself. On May 21, Mayor La Guardia pushed a massive program to involve citizens in preparing to withstand a massive Nazi hit. La Guardia's leadership role was complemented by other citizens and by military defenders as they responded to approaching war – people like Eleanor Roosevelt, who sought a wider definition of preparedness than did the Mayor, A. Philip Randolph, who mobilized the city's African-Americans to demand the right to fight and work for their country, Lieutenant General Hugh Drum and Rear Admiral Adolphus Andrews, who readied the city's physical defenses of forts, airbases and submarine nets. Most important, Franklin Roosevelt led the country – against fierce opposition in and outside New York – towards a war with fascism, defined that war as more than military victory (the Four Freedoms). We will look at these and other leaders – people in the media (like Henry Luce), the labor movement (Sidney Hillman), the arts and sciences – who promoted varied, sometimes contesting strategies, for preparedness. We will then follow them into the war years themselves, to see how leaders (and citizens) fared under the extreme conditions of global war.
3. Women and the American Revolution:From the Stamp Act to the Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolution, women played vital roles in the struggle for American independence. As boycotters of English goods, propagandists, home manufacturers, spies, saboteurs, and even soldiers, women demonstrated that "Daughters of Liberty" were as critical to victory as the Sons of Liberty. Indeed, one of the most radical changes brought about by the Revolution was the change in women's relationship to politics and the state, as the ideology of "notable housewifes" gave way to "Republican Motherhood." Carol Berkin, Presidential Professor of History at Baruch College & the CUNY Graduate Center, as she shares the story of these often forgotten American heroines.
4. Latinas in New York History:This lecture by Professor Virginia Sanchez-Korrol, focuses on the Latina experience in New York City from the fledgling enclaves that originated around 1868 to the present. Expatriates during the latter half of the 19th century, Cuban and Puerto Rican women engaged in efforts to liberate their home countries from Spanish rule while they worked and raised families in the city. Patterns of leadership continued into the first decades of the 20th century as migrants forged communal foundations for future generations. The struggles for civil and cultural rights during the 1960s demanded justice and equity and opened doors for broader civic participation. Where once their legacy was excluded from the historical record, it is now imprinted in the public and private spheres, the arts, education, religion, community and political organization.
5. Historicizing the Black Panther Party: The intersection of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements in America:n this lecture Dr. Yohuru Williams will explore the rich local history of the Black Panther Party and its efforts to reconcile American democracy with the plight of the urban poor between 1966 and 1976. From its well documented confrontations with law enforcement to its lesser known efforts to promote its innovative community service programs and its foray into electoral politics, the lecture will examine the intersection of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements in America and how the Panthers occupy a unique place in both histories. Registered participants will receive a copy of Liberated Territory: Untold Local Perspectives on the Black Panther Party (2008) by Yohuru Williams and Jama Lazerow.