Oral history interview with Edwin Ross Lewinson, 1999

Biographical Note

Edwin Ross Lewinson was born in 1930 and grew up in Detroit, Michigan. Edwinson first encountered the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) during a 1949 National Student Association conference while a student at the University of Michigan. Lewinson went on to attend graduate school at Columbia University, where he received a PhD in history. During his graduate studies, Lewinson came across CORE again and became a member of both National and Brooklyn chapters. He served on CORE's National Action Committee from 1962 until 1964. Lewinson launched a lawsuit against New York City in 1965, when he was deemed unqualified as a juror due to blindness. He served as a professor of American history and political science at Seton Hall University, and has traveled to Iraq and Cuba several times. Lewinson is the author of John Purroy Mitchell, Symbol of Reform (1961) and Black Politics in New York City (1974)

Scope and Contents

Edwin Ross Lewinson begins this interview by recalling his first experiences with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Lewinson describes attending a primarily Black high school in Detroit. He elaborates on the school's availability of braille and its segregation of extracurriculars before mentioning his mother's ambivalence to race issues. He describes his experience in the National Student Association at the University of Michigan and his participation in the project to desegregate the Greyhound Bus Terminals in Washington, DC in the late 1940s. Lewinson goes on to characterize CORE members and early projects. Lewison explains his reintroduction to CORE in 1960 while attending Columbia University, and his election to the National Action Council. He goes on to describe the growing tensions in CORE between Evelyn Rich and Gladys Harrington from 1962 until 1965. He recalls the lead up to the 1964 "stall-in" demonstration to disrupt the New York World's Fair and the work of Brooklyn CORE members Isaiah Bronson and Arnold Goldwag. Finally, Lewinson describes a brief visit to Jackson, Mississippi, his international work after leaving CORE, and the eventual disintegration of the organization

Subjects

• Blind--Education--United States.
• Civil rights demonstrations--United States.
• Civil rights movements--United States--History--20th century.
• Congress of Racial Equality.
• Congress of Racial Equality. Brooklyn Chapter.
• Interviews.
• Lewinson, Edwin R., 1930-2012--Interviews.
• Michaels, Sheila, 1939-2017, interviewer.
• New York World's Fair (1964-1965 :--New York, N.Y.)
• Oral histories.
• United States--Race relations--History--20th century.
• United States National Student Association.