Queens College (New York, N.Y.)

Scope and Contents In the interview, Dean discusses his childhood in rural western Washington state; his time at Stanford; his activism, including participation in the Summer Community Organization and Political Education (SCOPE) Project, registering black citizens to vote in 1965; his dissertation research in France; and his career at Queens College, starting in 1971. He describes changes to faculty working conditions, student population, and the curriculum over the years, based on his experience as a...

Scope and Contents Debby Yaffe was one of the youngest members of the Student Help Project who volunteered to go to Prince Edward County, Virginia, in the summer of 1963 to tutor local Black children who were denied a public education for four years in massive resistance to the desegregation of schools. Yaffe contributes her memories of organizing and preparing for the summer initiative. In Prince Edward County, Yaffe served as the librarian of the Queens College group, rather than as a tutor, which she had to...

Scope and Contents Dorothy “Dottie” Zellner (born in 1938) discusses growing up in Manhattan as the daughter of immigrants in a Left, Jewish family in Manhattan. She recalls being a young child during the second World War, when Nazi hatred of Jews and the potential for Germany to attack the United States were experienced as imminent threats. Zellner discusses how McCarthyism affected her family in the late 1940s through the 1950s, and her experience at Music and Art High School, which she attended from...

Scope and Contents Fern Kruger reflects on her time as a student at Queens College in the 1960s, as well as the extent of her participation in the Queens College Jamaica Student Help Project. Kruger was a volunteer in the Jamaica Student Help Project, where she was a tutor to young Black elementary school students in Jamaica, Queens. At its height, the Jamaica initiative of the Student Help Project engaged 500 Queens College students who volunteered to tutor more than one thousand educationally challenged,...

Scope and Contents June Tauber Golden is a graduate of Queens College Class of 1963 and in this interview, she recalls her involvement in both the Jamaica and Virginia Student Help Projects as a tutor. The Student Help Project was a student-led initiative to tutor young Black elementary school students in Jamaica, Queens. The Jamaica initiative of the Student Help Project engaged approximately 500 Queens College students who volunteered to tutor more than one thousand educationally disadvantaged and...

Scope and Contents Leonard Hausman shares his experience fundraising, organizing, and participating in the Virginia Student Help Project of Queens College during the summer of 1963. The Virginia Student Help Project was a six-week long educational effort where Queens College students went to Prince Edward County, Virginia where public schools were closed for five years in massive resistance to federally mandated integration. Hausman discusses his role as a project lead and tutor in the Virginia initiative, as...

Scope and Contents Leslie Francis Griffin, Jr., colloquially known as “Skip,” is the son of Reverend L. Francis Griffin, who coordinated with Dr. Rachel Weddington to have Queens College students tutor children in Prince Edward County during the summer of 1963 as part of the Student Help Project. The public schools of Prince Edward County were closed for five years starting in 1959 in massive resistance to integration, denying many of the local young black students access to education, including Skip Griffin...

Scope and Contents Rosalind Andrews (then Rosalind Silverman) grew up in Jackson Heights, Queens and was a student at Queens College between 1960 and 1965. While at Queens College, Andrews spent the summer of 1963 in Prince Edward County, Virginia among a cohort of selected students who helped tutor and prepare local students for the reopening of public schools that fall, which were closed since 1959 in massive resistance to integration. Andrews describes a typical day in Farmville as a tutor, the failed media...

Scope and Contents Stan Shaw and Michael Wenger discuss their experience initiating, coordinating, and participating in the Virginia Student Help Project and the Jamaica Student Help Project of Queens College in the early to mid-1960s. The Virginia Student Help Project was an intensive education effort during the summer of 1963 in Prince Edward County, Virginia where public schools were closed for five years in massive resistance to integration. The Jamaica Student Help Project took place closer to home....

Scope and Contents

This interview covers topics such as growing up in Flushing in the 1950s; being brought up in a leftist/progressive home; civil rights movement activities he and his older brothers participated in at Queens College and in Flushing in the early to mid-1960s; and later activism in which Rosenthal was a participant.