FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14 | 3 – 4:30 PM in the SSC Theater
Author Jerry Mikorenda tells the story of Elizabeth Jennings, an early civil rights advocate who helped kickstart the desegregation of NYC transit.
In 2007, students from P.S. 361 on the Lower East Side mobilized to have Jennings’ name immortalized, collecting petitions and pressuring elected officials to get a street sign installed. Now, Elizabeth Jennings Place sits at the corner of Park Row and Spruce Street.
But “America’s first freedom rider” was recently memorialized more permanently: A sculpture of Jennings was commissioned by She Built NYC, and installed in 2021 on Vanderbilt Place, right near Grand Central Terminal—a reminder to commuters of a time when equal rights were not a guarantee, and of the woman who refused to buckle to discrimination. READ MORE ABOUT THIS STORY!
In 2015, What History Forgot program host Joe Moniaci interviewed me for a segment about early civil rights advocate Elizabeth Jennings, who desegregated Manhattan’s transit system in 1854. Atlas Media, producers the series for AHC, read my Gotham Blog piece on Jennings as well as my biography about her. Below is a clip from the full segment. It first appeared on July 7, 2015 (Season 1, Episode 6) and still broadcasts on the network.
