Mar. 12, 1964 - In demonstrations at New York City Hall and at Board of Education headquarters in Brooklyn, 15,000 persons — most of them mothers — braved a wet, uncomfortable snowstorm today to show their uncompromising opposition to any school integration plan which required busing of children out of their own neighborhoods.
From 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., 10,000 persons ringed the school board’s headquarters at 110 Livingston St., eclipsing in numbers the 6,000 pickets at the building last Feb. 3, when integration-now demonstrators exhibited their sentiments. Hundreds of police at both buildings had nothing to do other than to protect the orderly marchers from traffic.
The demonstration was held under the auspices of two groups, the Brooklyn Joint Council for Better Education and the Parents and Taxpayers Coordinating Council.
Said Mrs. Rosemary Gunning, a Queens attorney and executive secretary of the PAT council: “This demonstration had better influence the Board of Education’s thinking on plans for integration. Otherwise, we’ll insist on a new board and return to common sense in education in New York.”
Said Mrs. Joan Addabo, president of the Jackson Heights PAT: “For every mother who’s here, there’s another one sitting at home with the children wishing she could be here.”
Said Gerald Dallek, chairman of the Brooklyn Joint Council: “Instead of spending money to pay transportation costs [to bus children], the money can be better spent improving educational services for all children.”
A number of spokesmen stressed that they did not oppose integration as such.
Comments