Downtown CORE

This is a photo of Rita Schwerner a founding member of Downtown CORE and the the wife of Mickey Schwerner. She also worked on the Mississppi Freedom Project.

Originally an English major at Queens College/CUNY, she went on to get a J.D. From…

This is a photo of Mickey Schwerner, founding member of Downtown CORE on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

He was also one of the three field workers killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by the Ku Klux Klan in the summer of 1964 for his civil…

This is a photo of a Long Island CORE member being arrested for his part in the chapter's July 4, 1963 demonstration at Jones Beach. The chapter was protesting in order to gain jobs for Blacks and Puerto Ricans in the Long Island State Park…

This is a 1964 photo of a Downtown CORE rent strike demonstration in front of 125 North St., Manhattan. The CORE members here are currently unidentified.

This is an early 1970’s photo of Downtown CORE member Chris Sprowal. His personal story speaks to what Dr. Nishani Frazier identifies as the transformative nature of CORE.

Originally from Philadelphia, Sprowal had been locked up on several…

This is a photo of Chris Sprowal on the cover of the November 1986 issue of the news magazine, City Limits. By the early 1980’s, a failed marriage ultimately led him to return to Philadelphia, drug addiction and homelessness.

Rather than stay…

This is a 1936 yearbook photo of Downtown CORE member Betsy Wyckoff. The future Dr. Elizabeth Wyckoff, PhD, was at the time a senior at Bryn Mawr college where she graduated magna cum laude.

The daughter of Dr. John H. Wyckoff, a prominent…

This is a 1961 photo of Dr. Elizabeth Wyckoff as a Freedom Rider. Known as Betsy, she was fined $200, sentenced to two months and served time in Parchman prison after being arrested in Jackson, Mississippi and convicted for ‘breach of the…