United States Immigration Policy: A Decades-Old Conundrum
by

United States Immigration Policy: A Decades-Old Conundrum

Authored by Casey L. Stiller

This scanned excerpt, written by Charles B. Keely and included in Mary M. Kritz’s U.S. Immigration and Refugee Policy, describes the challenges faced in changing United States immigration policy. Keely gives a brief overview of the current immigration climate within the United States in the early 1980’s.

There have been three major migration periods in the United States in the last century: a largely laissez faire outlook in the 1930s; the Bracero Program, in effect during and after World War II; and, following the elimination of the Bracero Program, passage of major immigration laws in 1965 (Rosenblum and Brick 2011, 1). The Bracero Program was a formal agreement signed between the United States and Mexico in 1942, establishing “a migrant guest worker program,” which had favorable conditions for Mexican immigrants (Rosenblum and Brick 2011, 4). The Bracero Program experienced significant pushback, and upon its expiration in 1964, was followed instead by the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1965, which established per-country caps and a tiered preference system for rationing visas within a country (Rosenblum and Brick 2011, 5). 

Continue reading →
by

Sixth Grade Friendship Quilt at Brooklyn Center Secondary School: Building Community Through Craft

Authored by Marissa Heim

Three quilt panels from the Friendship Quilt. Each panel is made of cardstock, decorated with markers, crayons, and pencils, and connected to other panels using yarn. Each panel represents a single student. In this image, one student’s panel expresses that playing (misspelled as “palying”) and having a house make him happy. In another panel, a student names a specific teacher as a source of happiness.

While education systems unjustly underserve students of color, tenacious and creative teachers and librarians are working hard to strengthen their school communities. At Brooklyn Center Secondary, one example is a larger-than-life, colorfully connected friendship quilt. 

Continue reading →
by

Gigi: How an Unlikely Duo Created Magic on Screen and on Stage to Bring Stories to Life

Authored by Melissa Nogues

This newspaper clipping shows an advertisement for the Broadway Musical Gigi, along with an advertisement for the original Broadway cast album. Favorite songs and new songs are highlighted.

‘Gigi’ is a great example of how a story can be told in different formats to give the viewers unique experiences. The story of ‘Gigi’ originated as a novel by Collete (Barnes 1973). This was then turned into a play, which Lerner and Loewe originally decided to adapt into a movie musical in 1958 (Encyclopedia of World Biography 2020). From the movie musical, the pair then created the Broadway show with additional songs and flair. The above advertisement highlights these new changes. In this story, the main character Gigi is sent off to be taught how to be an elegant woman, but on the way she falls for a man for which an interesting arrangement is then made (Barnes 1973). The details from the original story might be lost in the musical production, but what is gained is an enchanting viewer experience.

Continue reading →
by

The Historical Context of the Explanation of Section 10 of H.R. 14831

Authored by Darian Donachie

The Explanation of Section 10 of H.R. 14831 is part of the CMS.105, Arthur P. (“Skip”) Endres Papers, 1960-1980s collection at the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS-NY)

President Lyndon B. Johnson authorized the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) on October 3, 1965, during the mid-Cold War period (Kennedy 2019). The INA changed America’s formerly biased policy to reunite immigrant families as well as encourage skilled workers from other countries to establish a new life in the United States (History 2019). As a result, immigration to the United States soared throughout the 1960s and 1970s as people sought to start a new life free from “poverty or the hardships of communist regimes in Cuba, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere” (History 2019, under “Immediate Impact”). The number of immigrants from Asian countries to the United States was considerably high on account that they were now allowed to migrate to the United States; moreover, many of these immigrants sought to relocate to the United States from “war-torn Southeast Asia” (History 2019, under “Immediate Impact”).

Continue reading →
by

Coretta Scott King: An Unyielding Voice for Change

Authored by Elliot Clement

After receiving an honorary doctorate from Marymount Manhattan College, Coretta Scott King sent this letter to Sister Colette Mahoney at the college. This event took place a little over a year after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.

Coretta Scott King devoted “a lifetime to raising public consciousness around issues related to human rights and social justice,” and although many know her primarily through her husband, Martin Luther King, Jr., she was a powerful force for change in her own right (Crawford 2007, 116). She earned numerous accolades and over sixty honorary doctorates, including one from Marymount Manhattan College, during her lifetime, but her story is still often overshadowed by her husband’s (Suggs 2006). Her own dedication to social justice arose when she was not allowed to student teach in the Ohio public schools, because despite the fact that the students were integrated, the faculty remained all white (Crawford 2007). It was this instance that spurred King into a life dedicated to social justice, both with and without her husband.

Continue reading →
by

Growth Mindset Interventions as Tools for Increasing Student Achievement

Authored by Paula Leahy Welch

Research indicates that student interventions that focus on growth mindset can help improve grade point averages, especially in schools with strong peer support. The article pictured is being added as an educator resource to the Growth Mindset Resource List in the collection of the Springfield Public Schools Libraries (Massachusetts).

Since Carol Dweck first published her research around the concept of growth mindset more than 20 years ago, social scientists, corporations, and educators have been searching for ways to apply the theory to obtain practical benefits. “Numerous studies have found that students fare better if they believe that their intellectual abilities can be developed—a belief called growth mindset—than if they believe that their intellectual abilities are immutable—a belief called fixed mindset” (Claro, Paunesku, and Dweck 2016, 8664). 

Continue reading →
by

Rent: Humanizing the LGBT+ Community

Authored by Allison Payne

One side of the Rent program during its off-Broadway run with the New York Theatre Workshop. Photo courtesy of Marymount Manhattan College.

When Jonathan Larson’s musical Rent debuted in the 1990s, the small show quickly grew in popularity. Rent started as seven performances in late 1994 that led to an extended off-Broadway run, all presented by the New York Theatre Workshop (Heredia and Span 1996). It then spent over 5,000 performances between 1996 and 2008 at Broadway’s Nederlander Theater, telling its story of a diverse group of friends trying to live their lives while dealing with the horrors of AIDS (Grode 2015, 253). 

Continue reading →
by

The “West Egg” Debate: Great Neck’s famed correlation to F. Scott’s Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

Authored by Brittany E. Partinico

Following F. Scott Fitzgerald’s two-year residency in Great Neck, Long island, this 1926 news article from “The Great Neck News” editorial references to the highly debated discussion as to which part of the North or South shore of Long Island, New York was loosely based on and inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald’s depiction of the infamous “West Egg”. This part of New York known as “West Egg” was mentioned in his famous modernist novel “The Great Gatsby,” which was released in 1925.

On March 13, 1926, the “Great Neck News” editorial first addressed the allegations present in Owen Davis’s playwright depiction of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” where critics surmised that the peninsula of Great Neck was loosely based on his fictionalized “West Egg” (Lanigan 1926, 18). Fitzgerald’s literary masterpiece, not only sparked enlightenment in American culture and addressed the “American Dream” regarding cumulative wealth, but also sparked a debate amongst New Yorkers and Long Islanders as to whom was synonymously represented as the infamous “gaudy, West Egg” (Pumphrey 2011, 115-119). The presumptions of critics did not sit well with Great Neck residents, with feelings that the correlation to the novel would evoke preconceptions and undesirable impressions of Great Neck. Great Neck residents felt the “unfair” symposium by critics was presumptuous based on the lack of factual evidence present in the novel as well as the bias being reflected merely on Fitzgerald’s short-lived residency in Great Neck (Lanigan 1926, 18).

Continue reading →
by

Ernst Neibergall: Preserving the Memory of the Ice Harvesting Industry of Ohio

Authored by Amy M. Smith

Image captured by Ernst Neibergall depicting Lake Erie ice harvesters using a horse and specialized plow to make the first cut in the ice for harvesting in 1913.

Prior to the invention of the electric refrigerator in 1912, people used an icebox that had to be stocked with ice that had been harvested from frozen bodies of fresh water in the winter and shipped to consumers (Hurt 1986). For most of the 19th century, Sandusky, Ohio was known as the “Ice Capital of the Great Lakes” with ice houses and transportation equipment all along the shores of Lake Erie (Kavanaugh 2003). 

Continue reading →
by

Fort Hood, The Great Place Memorializing Heroes that Shape the Standards for Today

Authored by Victoria Crosby-Haslim

“Perhaps it is fitting if this illustrious commander had to die on the field of battle, that his final mission was to visit the wounded and hospitalized soldiers of his division. Such was the man, General George Casey.” Stated by General Lemnitzer during Major General George William Casey Senior’s eulogy at Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. on July 23, 1970.

Texas is the second-largest state in the United States and is known for its independent status by the single star on its state flag (Migiro 2018). Nevertheless, from personal experience, it proves its dedication to the citizens through the pride it takes in how they support their citizens. Located in the center of Texas, Fort Hood, along with other cavalry units, in tribute to its long-ago history, soldiers can earn “spurs,” through deployments or successfully completed missions and tasks, that attach to their boots and have the option of wearing the “Cav Hat” that is not mandatory, but encouraged if considered a “trooper,” or a soldier in a cavalry unit (1st Cavalry Division Association 2020). Military members in the Army characterize “L-D-R-S-H-I-P, an acronym for the seven Army core values: Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage” (U.S. Army 2018, under “Lifestyles”). Fort Hood, known for its cavalry, originated for patrol of the Mexican border via horseback and rode into battle yelling “charge!” It “is the only post in the United States currently capable of stationing and training two full armored divisions, first and third, within its campus” (Williams 2017, para 4.1), hence the name, The Great Place.

Continue reading →