January 31, 1969 Draft Letter to the Editor of the New York Times from Al Vann

On January 31, 1969, Al Vann, circulated to his fellow Steering Committee Members of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Coalition on Educational Needs and Services (B-SCENS) a draft letter to the Editor of the New York Times, responding to an article published the day before. In the article, the Times had reported that the Ford Foundation, as a condition for disbursement of a $442,000 grant for the establishment of Community College 7, had asked the City University of New York (CUNY) to review its relationship with Vann, in response to concerns voiced by some faculty members’ over allegedly anti-Semitic statements he had made. In his draft letter, Vann decried his accusers’ choice to attack a community “determined to work through the democratic process to eradicate the educational ills” of their youth, and called broadly for an end “to attempts to carry us away from our focus” in the community's efforts to establish the new college.

In February 1968, the City University of New York (CUNY) announced plans to establish a new “Community College 7 in or near Bedford-Stuyvesant. . . oriented to the Bedford-Stuyvesant Community and operated in consultation with the community.” Representatives of a broad network of Central Brooklyn community organizations engaged in an 18 months-long negotiation with CUNY Board of Higher Education officials over CUNY’s plans for its newly announced “Community College 7,” including discussions about the proposed school’s curriculum, who would lead it, and what role the community would play in the school’s governance. The role of the Bedford-Stuyvesant community in planning and determining the leadership of the college remained a central point of controversy between Central Brooklyn’s educational and civil society leaders and CUNY officials in the negotiations that followed.

Woodsworth, Michael

Vann, Al

January 31, 1969

English

Donald Watkins Collection (Brooklyn Public Library)

Correspondence