Skip to content
Chronological Reasoning and Causation

Two Schools of Hillburn: A Victory for New York; A Triumph for America.

  • Documents in this Activity:
  • Historical Eras:

    Postwar United States (1945 - 1970)

  • Thinking Skill:

    Historical Issues - Analysis & Decision-Making

  • Grade Level:

    High School

  • Topics:

    Civil Rights

  • Primary Source Types:

    Map
    Photograph
    Written Document

  • Regions:

    Mid Hudson
    New York State

  • Creator:

    NYS Archives Partnership Trust Education Team

  1. Load Anonymous Letter to the Commissioner of Education Regarding the Hillburn Case in Main Image Viewer
  2. Load Anonymous Letter to the Commissioner of Education Regarding the Hillburn Case in Main Image Viewer
  3. Load Anonymous Letter to the Commissioner of Education Regarding the Hillburn Case in Main Image Viewer

Suggested Teaching Instructions

 

Title: TWO SCHOOLS OF HILLBURN:  A VICTORY FOR NEW YORK; A TRIUMPH FOR AMERICA

Overview: 

  • In 1943 there was a struggle to integrate the village of Hillburn New York’s Main School for white students and the Brook School, where "colored" students were sent.   

  • The segregation battle gained momentum through a boycott by black families and the first public school segregation case brought by a young Thurgood Marshall.  Marshall would later go on to argue the Brown vs Board of Ed case in 1954, and eventually become the first African American Supreme Court Justice from 1967-1991

  • The Hillburn desegregation struggle is one of the signature cases in the history of education and the civil rights movement.

Goal: 

  • Students will evaluate the role of the Federal and State Government in establishing desegregation policies in the 1940s and 1950s

Objectives: 

  • Students will investigate the ways individuals, groups, and government institutions limited the rights of African Americans, specifically examining Supreme Court cases including the Civil Rights Cases (1883) and Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).

(New York State Framework 11.4 Standards: 1, 4, 5; Themes: ID, TCC, CIV, ECO)

  • Students will examine judicial actions and legislative achievements during the Civil Rights movement, such as Hillburn case 1943 and Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954),

(New York State Framework 11.10 Standards: 1, 4, 5; Themes: ID, TCC, SOC, GOV, CIV, ECO)

Investigative (Compelling) Question: 

          How was the Hillburn Case a springboard for national desegregation legislation?

Time Required

  • This lesson is designed for two 45 minute class periods

Recommended Grade Range

  • This lesson is designed for eleventh grade students

Subject: Social Studies

Standards: This lesson is designed to meet New York State Standard 5: 

                                         Civics, Citizenship, and Government 

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing governments; the governmental systems of the United States and other nations; the United States Constitution; the basic civic values of American constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues of participation..

Credits: Kimberly Cleary

                       Suffern High School

                      Social Studies Department Chairperson

PREPARATION 

Materials Used: 

  • Teacher will have access to a smart board to project images on Google Slides during presentation

  • Students will have hard copy/or digital copy of Handouts with readings and SEQ question

  • Students will have a rubric for the SEQ

PROCEDURE

Day 1 45 minute class period

  • Teacher will open the lesson with a KWL Chart Titled…Two Schools of Hillburn: A Victory for New York, A Triumph for America

Teacher will facilitate a discussion asking students  for any prior knowledge about Segregation and Desegregation in the United States; filling in bullets on the K column.

Teacher will then present a short instructional Google Slides presentation (10 minutes)

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11SfYzfsfddlODeoHUyp3hXRNnUNCKLw6I8-YvuBC8-Y/edit?usp=sharing

  • Investigate: Students will then be in small groups of 3.  Groups will be given poster paper and the following  primary and secondary sources.  The goal is to Compare/Contrast 

Students will then work together to evaluate information to answer the following questions on the  T- Chart on poster paper  Students will share their discoveries with the whole class (30 minutes)

Supporting Question 1

What conditions existed in the Brook School?

https://aahsmuseum.org/dt_portfolios/brook-school/

https://considerthesourceny.org/document/anonymous-letter-commissioner-education-regarding-hillburn-case

Supporting Question 2

What conditions existed in the Hillburn School?

https://aahsmuseum.org/dt_portfolios/hillburn-main-school/

 

https://nyacknewsandviews.com/blog/2017/02/nyack-sketch-log-hillburn-case-precursor-brown-v-board-education/

  • For Homework Students will be given a document to read about the Court's decision in Hillburn. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=129834

    https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/2016/03/29/thurgood-marshall-civil-rights/82291572/

  •  Students will be asked the following question

Homework Question: 

Write one paragraph: Creating Inferences:

Based on the document provided, how do you think this decision will affect other schools around the country?

           

               Day 2 45 minutes

  • Teacher will facilitate discussion from the homework prompt.  Students will turn and talk and share their responses. (10 minutes)

 

 

SHORT ESSAY QUESTION – SET #1

This Short Essay Question is based on the accompanying documents and is designed to test your ability to work with historical documents. Each Short Essay Question set will consist of two documents. Some of these documents have been edited for the purposes of this question. Keep in mind that the language and images used in a document may reflect the historical context of the time in which it was created. 

Task: Read and analyze the following documents, applying your social studies knowledge and skills to write a short essay of two or three paragraphs in which you: 

  • Describe the historical context surrounding these documents 

  • Identify and explain the relationship between the events and/or ideas found in these documents (Cause and Effect, or Similarity/Difference, or Turning Point) 

In developing your short essay answer of two or three paragraphs, be sure to keep these explanations in mind: 

Describe means “to illustrate something in words or tell about it” 

Historical Context refers to “the relevant historical circumstances surrounding or connecting the events, ideas, or developments in these documents” 

Identify means “to put a name to or to name” 

Explain means “to make plain or understandable; to give reasons for or causes of; to show the logical development or relationship of” 

Types of Relationships:

Cause refers to “something that contributes to the occurrence of an event, the rise of an idea, or the bringing about of a development” 

Effect refers to “what happens as a consequence (result, impact, outcome) of an event, an idea, or a development” 

Similarity tells how “something is alike or the same as something else” 

Difference tells how “something is not alike or not the same as something else” 

Turning Point is “a major event, idea, or historical development that brings about significant change. It can be local, regional, national, or global” 

Document 1

Travis Jackson was nine years old in 1943 when Hillburn families of color launched a boycott of segregated schools.

…I had a very comfortable childhood. The thing that was, the only thing that was wrong with it is that I was attending a segregated school until fourth grade, and that segregated school was called Brook School.  And it was the kind of school that was in many ways was a good school because all our teachers were African­ American, and I think they had something to do with teaching us more culture - the African­ American culture than later on when I had white teachers, but the school was very crowded and it was not in good shape at all. It had outside toilets. It had no library and I've always been a reader.  My whole family were readers and we'd have to walk across the village to the white school to go to the library.

We had no library in our school so that was kind of a bother.

The white school was interesting enough… it was called main school and that was a school for the white children and that was a much larger school in better shape, more room, had a library and had an ample playground outside where  the Brook school, part of the playground that we had was taken by the expansion of Route 17, as it went through that part of the village. So when you stood back and looked at the two schools they were vastly unequal. In no way in the world were they comparable.  They were just the opposite extremes almost…the school was very crowded and it was not in good shape at all.

 

----Travis Jackson Interview

Source: Travis Jackson Interview, Travis Jackson of Suffern describes going to school in the segregated Brook School in Hillburn, NY and the events surrounding the integration of schools in Suffern.  In the second part of the interview he discusses his career as an educator. Recorded in the Sound and Story Project of the Hudson Valley's Cube at the New City Library on September 20th, 2014.

 

Document 2

…In 1947 a black woman, who sought and was denied admission at the University of Oklahoma law school on the basis of her race brought a suit against the school. Oklahoma, like other southern states, had not set up a separate law school for blacks. Sipuel v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma reached the Supreme Court in 1948. Just three days after hearing oral arguments, the Supreme Court rendered its decision. Holding that, in conformity with the 14th Amendment, the state must provide equal protection within its own borders and that Miss Sipuel was entitled to a legal education provided by a state institution. The Court further held that the state was required to provide such an education as soon as it could for applicants of any of the group. In McLaurin v. Oklahoma State (1950), the Supreme Court held that once blacks were admitted to a previously all-white university, the school could not segregate black students in that institution by forcing them to sit in separate areas of the library or in the classroom…. 

Source: Hon. Constance Baker Motley, “Remembering Brown v. Board of Education and Related Litigation: a Tribute to the New York Attorneys Who Made Legal History”, New York State Bar Association and Minority Bar Association Partners, May 25, 2005 



 

SEQ Set #1 Generic Scoring Rubric 

Score of 5: 

• Thoroughly develops both aspects of the task in depth by discussing the historical context surrounding these documents and explaining the relationship between the events and/or ideas found in these documents 

• Is more analytical than descriptive (analyzes and/or evaluates) 

• Integrates relevant outside information 

• Supports the theme with many relevant facts and/or examples from the documents 

 

Score of 4: 

• Develops both aspects of the task in depth or may do so somewhat unevenly by thoroughly developing one aspect of the task in depth while developing the other aspect of the task in some depth 

• Is both descriptive and analytical (applies, analyzes, and/or evaluates) • Includes relevant outside information 

• Supports the theme with relevant facts and/or examples from the documents 

 

Score of 3: 

• Develops both aspects of the task in some depth 

• Is more descriptive than analytical (applies, and/ may analyze information) 

• Includes some relevant outside information • Includes some relevant facts and/or examples from the documents; may include some minor inaccuracies 

 

Score of 2: 

• Minimally develops both aspects of the task or develops one aspect of the task in some depth 

• Is primarily descriptive; may include faulty analysis • Includes little relevant outside information 

• Includes a few relevant facts and/or examples from the documents; may include some inaccuracies 

 

Score of 1:

• Minimally addresses the task 

• Is descriptive; may lack understanding or application 

• Includes minimal or no relevant outside information 

• Includes a few relevant facts and/or examples from the documents; may make only vague, unclear references to the documents; may include inaccuracies 

 

Score of 0: 

Fails to develop the task; OR includes no relevant facts and/or examples; OR includes only entire documents copied from the test booklet; OR is illegible; OR is a blank paper test booklet; OR is illegible; OR is a blank paper