Crippin' School Segregation: Reframing Equity for the 21st Century

• In Event: Framing the Past, Present, and Future: Historical Narratives and Language Ideologies

Abstract

Any conversation about equity in the 21st century is incomplete if disability continues to be siloed in its own history. By articulating history about youth of color labeled “disabled” within the New York City school system from the 1940s to the 1960s, this paper illustrates how the documented history of school segregation in New York City is a selective truth. Archival and other resources on disabled youth are rife with silences and gaps; biased distortions and full erasures characterize the representations of institutional structures and political movements. Reaching back into urban schooling’s institutional history, the process of historical excavation is a sideways journey into known history that offers a new and substantive imaginary of the time.

Authors

• Jan W. Valle, City College of New York - CUNY

• Francine Almash, Graduate Center - CUNY