About

The City University of New York (CUNY) Digital History Archive has shared with Project Stand materials from the York College and the Jamaica, Queens Community collection. Curated by Obden Mondesir, this collection features a mix of newspaper articles, press releases and student-produced material, all of which show CUNY’s efforts to carry out its mission to provide education to all New Yorkers, particularly through the placement of York College in Jamaica. It also documents meticulous collaboration between community leaders and CUNY and the student voices that provide a critique of the York College administration and their approach to addressing issues that minority students faced. The majority of items are selections from Spirit Magazine, the publication that focused on issues that students of color faced at York College. Spirit contained articles, poetry, artwork, opinion pieces, and promotion for events on black solidarity, Pan Africanism, and protests against discriminatory acts committed by York College. Its editors always held the goal of promoting strong ties with the South Jamaica community.