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FIT’S LOCATION IS CONNECTED TO CIVIL RIGHTS HISTORY
Two momentous events in U.S. civil rights history had connections to the site where FIT stands—the New York City Draft Riots in 1863 and the planning for the 1963 March on Washington. Both had significant anniversaries in 2023.
The draft riots were a violent, racist uprising against the Civil War military draft that convulsed New York. During the riots, an African American man named Abraham Franklin was dragged from his home on Seventh Avenue and 27th Street, now the corner of FIT’s campus, and lynched.
A century later, the March on Washington was planned, in part, across the street from FIT on Eighth Avenue, in the Penn South apartments of activists Bayard Rustin and A. Philip Randolph. Labor leader David Dubinsky and the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union, of which Dubinsky was president, contributed half the funds for the sound system that amplified Dr. King’s legendary “I Have a Dream” speech; today, FIT has a building named for Dubinsky.
Throughout fall 2023, the college hosted events to commemorate the anniversaries. The 1863-1963-2023 Project was planned by Taur Orange, director of FIT’s Office of Educational Opportunity Programs; Amy Werbel, professor of Art History and Museum Professions; and Daniel Levinson Wilk, professor of Social Sciences.
