Bill Kavanaugh's excellent documentary Brick by Brick chronicles the long and bitter Civil Rights battle that took place during the 1980s in Yonkers (just north of Manhattan) over the issue of equal housing. Juxtaposing archival stills, newsreel footage, and interviews—with activists on both sides, former public officials, and Michael Sussman (the NAACP lawyer who spearheaded the legal case)—the film skillfully recounts a little-remembered episode involving a de facto policy of segregation that effectively limited African Americans to an enclave of public housing projects and a single neighborhood fenced off from surrounding areas, thereby perpetuating school segregation. A lawsuit brought against the city (which was initially supported by the Carter administration but not by the Reagan-era Justice Department) resulted in a two-year trial that ended in 1985 with a stinging ruling ordering action to end the segregated housing. But an intransigent municipal council appealed the decision, and even after the Supreme Court upheld it in 1988, councilmen still refused to comply, despite enormous fines leveled against themselves and the city. Not until the early 1990s was a plan implemented to create low-income housing clusters throughout Yonkers. Brick by Brick does a superb job of presenting a historical study of a landmark case in civil rights law, while also illuminating socioeconomic issues that continue to trouble America. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)
Brick by Brick: A Civil Rights Story
(2007) 53 min. DVD: $49.95: public libraries & high schools; $195: colleges & universities. California Newsreel. PPR. Closed captioned. Volume 24, Issue 3
Brick by Brick: A Civil Rights Story
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