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Creator
Edwards, Babette
Call number
Sc MIRS Edwards 2008-05
Physical description
17 video_recordings. 4 audio_recordings
Language
English
Preferred Citation
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
Sponsor
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.
Repository
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division
Access to materials
Appointment preferred: Request an in-person research appointment.

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.

Biographical/historical information

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.

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.

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.

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.

Scope and arrangement

The collection consists of four audio recordings and seventeen videos organized chronologically. Recordings are video unless indicated otherwise.

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.

Two audio recordings document meetings of the governing board of I.S. 201 during Edwards's time as a community representative.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Babette Edwards, 2008.

Processing information

Collection inventoried by Heather Lember. Collection processed and described by Lyric Evans-Hunter, archivist; and Shola Lynch, curator. Finding aid published in 2024.

Separated material

See the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division for the Babette Edwards Education Reform in Harlem collection, Sc MG 809.

Using the collection

Location

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Third Floor

Access to materials

Appointment preferred: Request an in-person research appointment.