May 07, 2020 - Sale 2534

Sale 2534 - Lot 201

Price Realized: $ 938
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(CIVIL RIGHTS.) Van Dunk, Mildred M. Letter discussing Thurgood Marshall's important school integration lawsuit in rural New York. Autograph Letter Signed as "Mit" to cousin Hilda S. De Freese, a Women's Air Corps private stationed in Arizona. 6 pages on 3 separate sheets, 10 x 6 inches; mailing folds, minimal wear. With original stamped envelope. Hillburn, NY, 15 September 1943
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An important letter describing a school integration case led by young N.A.A.C.P. lawyer Thurgood Marshall. The case took place in rural Hillburn, NY, right on the border with northern New Jersey, an area with a large mixed-race community thought to be descended from early Lenape Indian, Dutch, and African-American settlers. They identify as the Ramapough Mountain Indians and have since received state recognition, but in the 1940s faced the full brunt of northern prejudice in a binary society. The author Mildred M. "Mit" Van Dunk (born circa 1906) was listed as "Negro" in the 1940 census. She was a teacher in a poorly funded segregated school; white students attended a larger modern facility. When Thurgood Marshall successfully sued the school district, only one white student attended the new integrated school, with the remainder sent to private schools. Here, Ms. Van Dunk describes the furor:
"Things are jumping at such a rate that I hardly know how to put my mind on anything but this terrible school situation. I suppose by the time you receive this letter that our contracts will be declared null and void. The thing that we all knew must eventually happen, if democracy was to really mean anything, has come to a climax. The town has been on fire since Aug. 31 and Edgar Davidson fights them with literally every breath that he draws. He is determined to keep Brook School in existence and the people (at least the great majority) are determined to close it. NAACP representatives, lawyers, reporters, communists, etc. have attended meeting after meeting. Last night Lawyer Marshall, counsel of the NAACP, and Marion Sisco Van Dunk were allowed to attend the regular board meeting. Their appeal was flatly turned down. . . . Now the case will be taken to the State [Supreme] Court, and Heaven only knows how things will turn out. Marshall says if the state doesn't clear up the situation, he is prepared to take it to the Supreme Court. Mary Brown made the remark last night that, 'It was too bad Mrs. Gunner had to die. She was the only one who could keep the niggers in their place.' The feeling of course in the whole town is very bitter. The mayor, John Creelman, said it was too bad the slaves had been set free, and Kate, his wife said we were black hawks. They unfortunately made these remarks to reporters, and they came out in the papers too. . . . I'm undecided as to whether to try to get a teaching position or go into defense work. I'm sure that if the pupils are finally allowed to attend Main School that the (colored) teachers will be kicked out. The board's alibi will probably be that if the state closes Brook School, we go out with it."