- “Jim Crow Can't Teach” was the slogan in a massive New York City school boycott against inadequate, separate, and unequal education. On February 3, 1964, 464,362 of New York’s one million public school students stayed home, went to alternative “Freedom Schools,” or marched for equality protesting de facto segregated schools. African American and Hispanic communities from around the city joined with concerned whites to make this citywide action the largest civil rights demonstration to date. “Jim Crow” laws and practices had enforced segregation of African Americans and whites in virtually every aspect of life. The 1964 boycott proclaimed the importance of quality school integration to employment, housing, and community life. Concerned mothers demonstrated and encouraged their children to join the school boycott movement. The protest sparked similar boycotts in major Northern cities, thus focusing on one of the most insistent racial issues in the 1960s.
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