Norwalk

CORE v. Norwalk Board of Education

East of Dr. MLK Jr. Drive

Story 2

Story 2

Norwalk

CORE v. Norwalk Board of Education

East of Dr. MLK Jr. Drive

East of Dr. MLK Jr. Drive

11 Ingalls Ave, Norwalk, CT 06854

What

In the late 1960’s, Norwalk’s chapter of the Congress of Racial Equity (CORE) and the Roodner Court Fair Rent Association alleged that the Norwalk Board of Education, while openly committed to racial integration, had continued the preservation of neighborhood schools in middle and upper class white neighborhoods.

Impact

It was alleged that the Board intentionally abandoned or laid unused the neighborhood schools in neighborhoods predominantly populated by low income African-American and Puerto Rican families.

The crux of the lawsuit rested on the fact that the children had a right to attend an integrated neighborhood school, and not to be bussed out into white neighborhoods to attend ‘their’ schools.

WHY? SPATIALIZED?

In South Norwalk, the neighborhood school, Nathaniel Ely, on Ingalls Avenue was closed in the late 1970s. For decades, students have had to take long bus rides to and from various schools located outside of South Norwalk.

This struggle has persisted through the generations, and the municipal government only recently has begun the charge to change that with the construction of a neighborhood school near the intersection of Meadow Street Extension and Wilson Avenue.