*Leveling Lincoln is an edifying documentary about the events that sparked desegregation in New Rochelle, New York.
Producer Arden Teresa Lewis captures the spirit of a community that refused to be marginalized by sub-par education. She has harnessed a history lesson and a teaching tool.
Separate but unequal conditions were promulgated by class, race, and covert real estate & banking practices well into the 1960s.
The problem was complex without a quick and simple solution for the New Rochelle neighborhood school crisis. The local school for blacks was Lincoln Elementary. It required massive renovations and lacked adequate teachers and textbooks.
In 1961 the issue of unfair and ambiguous zoning did not allow New Rochelle’s black students to attend a neighboring school with better accommodations.
The Leveling Lincoln documentary reveals a collective of parents, students and community activists led by Paul Zuber, a young lawyer from the NAACP. Zuber pushed for kids to be admitted to Roosevelt school on the North end of town. They were denied and sit-ins were orchestrated. Eleven families sued the Board of Education of New Rochelle, New York. Their desire was to be granted access to the more affluent, all white schools. The Award Winning “Leveling Lincoln” is available now on PBS App.
In 1961 the desegregation case Taylor vs, The Board of Education of New Rochelle, NY was the first of its kind in the North. It was tried seven years after Brown vs. The Board of Education. Paul Zuber and the students won the case. Consequently, it was praised by the United States Senate as an example of successful integration by peaceful protest, discourse, and jurisprudence. As stated in the case summary at Law.Justia.com, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York found that the City of New Rochelle intentionally created and maintained the Lincoln Elementary School as a racially segregated school and had not acted in good faith to implement desegregation as required by the Fourteenth Amendment. (Taylor v. BOARD OF ED. OF CITY SCH. DIST. OF NEW ROCHELLE, 195 F. Supp. 231 (S.D.N.Y. 1961) :: Justia)
Three years after the decision, the state finally sanctioned bussing, which spearheaded desegregation in New Rochelle. Though victory was declared legally, the climate was still tenuous. Five school board members resigned, along with the Superintendent.
By 1963 Lincoln Elementary School was mostly abandoned and in need of repairs. The school district deemed these repairs to be too costly. Black students were remanded to mandatory bussing outside of their neighborhood. Some parents agreed to bussing so that their children could benefit from a better school. Other parents vehemently opposed and demanded funding to improve the conditions of the school right there in the neighborhood. The district chose to demolish the school instead, thus the title “Leveling Lincoln.”
Leveling Lincoln is directed and produced by Arden Teresa Lewis, in association with Tinks Lovelace and Kimberly Woods. The film has won awards at festivals in Harlem, Las Vegas, Rhode Island, Toronto, and more. So, what brought Arden Teresa Lewis to write, produce, and direct this story? It began with a conversation with her mother.
Arden Teresa Lewis: “In 2016, my mother was aging and telling more stories from my upbringing in New Rochelle. She handed me a Girl Scout Brownie book of pictures of a fully integrated troop and explained we were the ‘leftovers’ because she took all the girls of all colors and faiths who did not get into the other all-white troop at Roosevelt School. Many of those girls were bused up from the projects in the old Lincoln corridor. I never knew it was due to a precedent-setting court case and I thought all schools were naturally integrated in our area. I had to conquer my own ignorance and my own lack of understanding of Civil Rights history.”
There was no film about what happened in Arden’s childhood community, so she made it her mission to document what led to the first successful integration case in the North. Thankfully, some survivors remembered and were willing to open their homes and their hearts to share their memories.
Leveling Lincoln is currently available on the PBS app and website. It was featured during Black History Month at a special screening at Theatre West in North Hollywood, California at the foot of Universal Studios Hollywood. Filmmakers and members of the alumni of New Rochelle High School Class of ‘77 presented their perspectives of this anguished yet cherished part of their history.
Leveling Lincoln is also available to libraries, schools, and universities through Films Media Group, an Infobase company. https://films.com/ecTitleDetail.aspx?TitleID=298284&r=SR
For more info go to: LevelingLincoln.com.
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