Sandra Adickes

Sandra L. Adickes is American civil rights activist, both during the Vietnam War and with the New York City teachers' union. She is known for her role in the Mississippi Freedom School of 1964, and as the plaintiff in Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co. She has also written several books including To be Young was Very Heaven and Legacy of a Freedom School.

Early life and education

Adickes was born on July 14, 1933, and grew up in New York.[1] Adickes has a B.A. from Douglass College (1954), and an M.A. from Hunter College (1964).[1] In 1977 she earned a Ph.D. from New York University.[2] She has taught English at multiple schools, including the College of Staten Island[3] where she and Elizabeth Worthman began a program called Vocational Education for Transitional Adults to women in need of funds to attend college.[4] She also taught at Winona State University.[5][6]

Civil rights activism

In 1964 Adickes was a teacher at Benjamin Franklin High School in East Harlem, New York,[7] and the disappearance of civil rights workers in Mississippi made her "sick and sore at heart" so she joined a group of six teachers from New York City on a civil rights project to Mississippi.[8][9] The group in New York relied on fundraising by the United Federation of Teachers, and Adickes co-lead the project with Norma Becker.[10] The program was a part of the movement for Freedom Schools in which temporary and free schools were started in the American south to provide new educational opportunities.[11] In the spring of 1963, Adickes was recruited by Richard Parrish an African American officer of the UFT for a freedom school project in Prince Edward County. Adickes signed up to join members of the civil rights movement for the Freedom Summer of 1964 and she helped recruit forty other teachers for the Freedom Schools.[12]

Supreme Court case
Main article: Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co.

In 1964, was in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and she took her students to the Hattiesburg Public Library to receive a library card.[13]: 276  The library was closed by the chief of police in response to a request from the Hattiesburg town mayor, Claude Pittman.[7] After being denied at the library, she and her students went to get lunch together at a Kress store where they were denied service because Adickes, a white woman, was with six of her black students.[14][12][13]: 276 

In response, Adickes sued and filed a lawsuit, with her lawyer Eleanor Jackson Piel.[15] Adickes sued on two counts— (1) her rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment were violated as she was being denied service on the basis of race, and (2) she claimed the arrest was the result of Kress and Hattiesburg police collusion.[16] The court decision said that Adickes was refused service under color of any . . . custom, or usage, of the State" in violation of her rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Adickes appealed and the Supreme Court granted certiorari.[17][18] The case was settled out of court,[19] and Adickes gave her portion of the settlement to the Southern Conference Education Fund to be used for scholarships for the black youth.[12][20]

Later years

Adickes' activism continued during the Vietnam War when she was again working with Norma Becker in a group called Teachers Committee for Peace in Vietnam who gathered 2700 signatures from people against the war and took out a full-page ad on May 30, 1965, in NY Times.[21][13]: 174–175  She also crossed picket lines in a 1968 New York City teachers' strike when she left the union[22] because she felt it was no longer relevant.[23]

Awards and honors

Adickes was awarded the "Woman of the Year" by the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs in 1966.

Select publications

Adickes is the author of multiple books. Legends of Good Women is a fiction. To be Young was Very Heaven presents women in New York City in the period prior to World War One,[24] and Legacy of a Freedom School presents Adickes' experiences working with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.[25]

  • Adickes, Sandra (1991). The social quest : the expanded vision of four women travelers in the era of the French Revolution. New York: P. Lang. ISBN 0-8204-0657-0. OCLC 23689599.
  • Adickes, Sandra (1992). Legends of good women. Internet Archive. Long Lake, Minn. : Castalia Bookmakers. ISBN 978-1-878723-01-7.
  • Adickes, Sandra (1998). To be young was very heaven : women in New York before the First World War. Internet Archive. Thorndike, Maine : G.K. Hall. ISBN 978-0-7838-0184-1.
  • Adickes, Sandra (2005). Legacy of a freedom school (1st ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-7935-3. OCLC 312463972.

References
  1. "Collection: Sandra E. Adickes Papers | University of Southern Mississippi McCain Library & Archives". specialcollections.usm.edu. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  2. Adickes, Sandra (1977). The social quest: the expanded vision of four women travelers in the era of the French Revolution (Thesis). OCLC 60863327.
  3. Community College Frontiers Spring 1977: Vol 5 Iss 3. Internet Archive. Community College Frontiers. Spring 1977.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  4. Dullea, Georgia (1976-07-12). "City U. Tuition: Obstacle in Leap From Kitchen to Campus". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-06-11.
  5. "Opinion | Even Now the Civil Rights Struggle Needs Young Activists". The New York Times. 1993-06-27. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-06-11.
  6. Hood, Orley (2003-07-22). "Freedom Schools: A page out of history". Clarion-Ledger. pp. , . Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  7. "Hattiesburg Library Closes After 7 Negroes Enter It". The New York Times. 1964-08-15. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-06-11.
  8. "EIGHT CITY TEACHERS OFF FOR MISSISSIPPI". The New York Times. 1964-07-01. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-06-11.
  9. "Fear rises by more enlist". Daily News. 1964-06-25. p. 953. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  10. "30 EXPRESS FEAR ON WORK IN SOUTH; Teachers Will Help Negroes in Mississippi Project". The New York Times. 1964-06-25. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-06-11.
  11. Erenrich, Susie (1999). Freedom is a constant struggle : an anthology of the Mississippi civil rights movement. Internet Archive. Montgomery, AL : Black Belt Press. ISBN 978-1-881320-58-6.
  12. Adickes, Sandra (2005). The legacy of a freedom school. Springer.
  13. McAdam, Doug (1988). Freedom Summer. Internet Archive. New York : Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-504367-9.
  14. Ranzal, Edward (1964-11-14). "Civil Rights Worker Sues Kress For Arrest at Mississippi Store". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-06-11.
  15. "Wall teacher to bring $550,000 rights suit against Kress chain". Asbury Park Press. 1964-11-11. pp. , . Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  16. "Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co. | Case Brief for Law School | LexisNexis". Community. Retrieved 2021-05-03.
  17. "Supreme Court's Actions". The New York Times. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  18. Burton, Anthony (1970-06-04). "Lunch counter gal of 1964 is still fighting". Daily News. p. 135. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  19. Burton, Anthony (1971-05-08). "Saga of a sandwich". Daily News. p. 46. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  20. "Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement -- Sandra Adickes". www.crmvet.org. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
  21. Marzell, Terry Lee (2012). Chalkboard Champions: Twelve Remarkable Teachers Who Educated America's Disenfranchised Students. Wheatmark, Inc. pp. 216–218. ISBN 978-1-60494-810-3.
  22. Perlstein, Daniel H. (Daniel Hiram) (2004). Justice, justice : school politics and the eclipse of liberalism. Internet Archive. New York : P. Lang. pp. 73–74. ISBN 978-0-8204-6787-0.
  23. Ramparts 1968-11-17: Vol 7 Iss 7. Internet Archive. Ramparts Magazine Inc. 1968-11-17.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  24. Reviews for To Be Young Was Very Heaven
  25. Review of Legacy of a Freedom School

Further reading
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