Michael Lorenzini
Breaking the Color Line: Mayor LaGuardia and ...

On October 24th, 1945, newspapers announced that the Brooklyn Dodgers had signed Jackie Robinson to their Montreal farm team, effectively ending segregation in professional baseball. General manager Branch Rickey did not participate in the signing ceremony, but he quickly made sure that the press knew he was the one behind it.

What went underreported at the time were the behind-the-scenes efforts of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and the City’s Committee on Unity, led by Dan Dodson, a professor within the Educational Sociology Program at NYU…. The Mayor’s correspondence files and the records of the NYC Commission on Human Rights in the Municipal Archives help tell the little-known story of the political pressure at play in breaking the color line in baseball.

Amy Stecher
Manhattan Building Plans Processing Project ...
Alexandra Hilton & Matthew Minor
Mystery Item, Part II
Pauline Toole
200 Years of the Erie Canal
Kenneth Cobb
The NYC Department of Health Celebrates 220 ...

The Dutch & the English Part 5: The Return of the Dutch and What Became of the Wall

The popular narrative of New Amsterdam often concludes this way: In 1664, the English arrived and forever after it was New York. The English won, the Dutch lost, end of story. But once again, the history is more complicated...

The Dutch & the English Part 4: Invasion?

In late August 1664 the Burgomasters & Schepens (mayors and aldermen) of New Amsterdam were faced with “four King’s frigates from England, sent hither by his Majesty and his brother, the Duke of York, with commission to reduce not only this place, but also the whole N. Netherland under his Majesty’s authority…”