Today's Hours
My research and teaching focus on the film and literature of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). When my tenure at CCNY began in 2013, a couple of 
colleagues mentioned a plaque in the NAC honoring a dozen CCNY alumni, students and teachers who died fighting against fascism in Spain. When I was able to find my way around the NAC, seeing the plaque prompted many questions. Who were these volunteers who risked their life for a political cause across the ocean? What did it mean to be politically committed for CCNY students in the 1930s? What do we know about political activism on the CCNY campus in the context of the global conflict between totalitarianism and democracy in the 1930s? A conversation with CCNY Archivist Professor Sydney Van Nort provided fascinating answers that inspired me to design a FIQWS named “Activism and the College Experience: From Anti-Fascism to #MeToo.” The materials I discovered in the Cohen archives perfectly align with the FIQWS aim “to harness where the faculty energy is and couple it with student experience.”
Two special collections include invaluable information on the fight against fascism on campus that resulted in over 60 students joining the Abraham Lincoln Brigade to go to the Spanish front between 1936 and 1939. “CCNY Antiwar Notices (1934–1936)” comprises 367 political pamphlets and flyers currently housed in Artstor. Approximately 10% of them are related to the anti-fascist movement on campus. In particular, they announce protests in support of Spanish democracy and workers at the outbreak of the civil war in 1936. “The Struggle for Free Speech at CCNY, (1931-1942)” includes “relevant ephemera (illustrations, newspaper clippings, and essays) related to the intense political activism on our campus that earned the College the label “The Little Red School House.” In the 1930s, CCNY faculty and students protested against militarism, social and economic injustice at home, and the threat of fascism abroad, and, as a result, students were dismissed or expelled and some faculty members were denied reappointment.” Materials show evidence of student involvement in organizations such as the National Student League (NSL), The American Student Union (ASU), and The Student League for Industrial Democracy (SLID). Of particular interest is the documentation regarding: 1) the denial of a professorship to world-renowned philosopher Bertrand Russell for his support of sexual freedom (1940); 2) the imprisonment of English instructor Morris Schappes for acknowledging he was a member of the Communist Party; and 3) the non-reappointment of Dr. Marx Yergan, the first African-American faculty member ever hired at any of New York City’s public colleges (1937).
And then, while reviewing materials in the CCNY Archives, a real treasure fell into my hands: a manuscript titled Let My People Know: The Story of Wilfred Mendelson (“Mendy”), Student Leader, Organizer, Journalist, Anti-Fascist Soldier Who Fell in Spain July 28, 1938, edited by Joseph Leeds, and written and published by Mendy’s friends in the summer and fall of 1942. The manuscript provided further insight into the CCNY community. The son of Eastern European immigrants, Mendy was an avid reader of Marxist and an active member of the Communist Party and the Young Communist League in Brighton Beach. He wrote about the threat of fascism in Ethiopia in the student newspaper The Clionian and was expelled from the college for his subversive political activity. As my students read the manuscript, Mendy became one of us, and his commitment to freedom helped us ponder our own political responsibility. Only a few weeks after the spring 2020 semester started, we were overcome by loss and uncertainty. Some of my students became ill, some lost their jobs while others worked double shifts to support their families. And yet their engagement with the course readings and with their peers never faltered. Student Camila Rodriguez wrote in her final essay that the class helped her view writing as a form of activism, and she intends to major in Anthropology and minor in Journalism to make positive change. We need Camila now more than ever. CCNY students continue to be fighters.
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