- unitid
-
{"value"=>"186403", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"b22238558", "type"=>"local_b"}
{"value"=>"Sc MIRS Edwards 2008-05", "type"=>"local_call"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1970-1972", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1970/1972"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Babette Edwards Education Reform in Harlem audio and moving image collection"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"17 video_recordings", "unit"=>"video_recordings"}]}
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"4 audio_recordings", "unit"=>"audio_recordings"}]}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division</span>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Dr. E. Babette Edwards is an educator and Harlem-based education reform activist. The collection consists of seventeen videos and two audio recordings related to her organizing, dating from 1970 to 1972."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Edwards, Babette", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Dr. E. Babette Edwards is an educator and Harlem-based education reform activist. From the 1960s through the 1970s, she was a parent leader in the movement for community control to improve education for Black and Latino children.</p> <p>In 1958, Edwards mobilized parents in Harlem to establish the Arthur A. Schomburg Intermediate School 201 Complex, or I.S. 201. In 1967, Edwards was elected a community representative on the governing board of I.S. 201, where she implemented alternative modes of learning. After the Board of Education ended community control in 1971, Edwards resigned in protest.</p> <p>From 1969, Edwards co-founded and directed the Harlem Parents Union (HPU). The HPU conducted workshops led by policy scholars, administrators, and activists. The HPU also performed advocacy services including assisting parents and students at suspension hearings, liaising with community school boards, and participating in citizen-led efforts to improve the public school system.</p> <p>In 1977, Edwards received a PhD from Union Graduate School, Yellow Springs, Ohio. She wrote her dissertation on school vouchers. From the 1980s through the 1990s, she continued to work with the HPU to advocate for parental involvement in education through direct actions, legal actions, vouchers, and school choice. In 2000, Edwards helped found the Harlem Education Roundtable, where she served as both chairperson and board president.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The collection consists of four audio recordings and seventeen videos organized chronologically. Recordings are video unless indicated otherwise.</p> <p>The bulk of the material is the HPU's 1972 workshops on critical issues in education. Edythe Gaines, Milton Galamison, Marilyn Gittell, Sam Halperin, Kenneth Haskins, Nellie Jones, Alan H. Levine, Rhody McCoy, John O'Neill, Frances Fox Piven, Lillian Roberts, Isaiah Robinson Jr., and Annie Stein gave presentations. Berlin Kelly, a former social worker, consultant to I.S. 201, and the director of the Community Education Center, facilitated the workshops. The topics discussed include the ongoing struggle to integrate New York City schools, the movement for community control, and labor unions.</p> <p>Two audio recordings document meetings of the governing board of I.S. 201 during Edwards's time as a community representative.</p>"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Babette Edwards, 2008.</p>"}
- separatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<p>See the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division for the Babette Edwards Education Reform in Harlem collection, Sc MG 809.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Collection inventoried by <span class=\"name\">Heather Lember</span>. Collection processed and described by <span class=\"name\">Lyric Evans-Hunter</span>, archivist; and <span class=\"name\">Shola Lynch</span>, curator. Finding aid published in <span class=\"date\">2024</span>.</p>"}
- sponsor
-
{"value"=>"An anonymous donor funded preliminary processing for this collection. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported a research library-wide grant for the digitization, and funded the Schomburg for the description and production of the finding aid as part of The Next Century of Black Studies Project."}
- revisiondesc
-
{"value"=>"Extent notes updated to facilitate public access by Lyric Benjamin-Hunter.", "date"=>"2026-04-30"}
- date_start
-
1970
- keydate
-
1970
- date_end
-
1972
- date_inclusive_start
-
1970
- date_inclusive_end
-
1972
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"Babette Edwards Education Reform in Harlem audio and moving image collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division, The New York Public Library"}