From Jermain Loguen and the abolition movement to George Wiley and CORE in the 1960s, Syracuse has a long history of dedicated citizens working together to ensure full rights for everyone.
Read on to learn about their lives and accomplishments and consider the lessons that can be applied in the fight for equality today.
The Syracuse area was largely developed by enslavers such as Moses DeWitt and Benjamin Ledyard. The U.S. Census showed about 50 people enslaved in Onondaga County in 1810 and 1820.
Though they were not free, enslaved Syracusans helped build the community. An example is Isaac Wales, who was enslaved in 1810 by John Fleming. He borrowed $80 to purchase his freedom and then paid off the debt by helping dig the Erie Canal in Syracuse.
Because of its location on the Erie Canal, Syracuse was a key Underground Railroad hub. Its undisputed leader was Rev. Jermain W. Loguen, who escaped enslavement in Tennessee and aided as many as 1,500 freedom-seekers. In a famous 1851 event known as the Jerry Rescue, he and other Black and white abolitionists broke a freedom-seeker out of jail and helped him to Canada.
Black Syracusans in the early 19th century built a small but thriving community in the 9th and 15th Wards. Discriminatory federal policies starting in the 1930s greatly damaged those neighborhoods. The federal government and local bankers and realtors created redlining maps that cautioned against investing in minority neighborhoods. In Syracuse, the map warned about “the lowest type of colored race.”
The Federal Housing Administration provided tens of millions of dollars in loans for white people to buy houses in the Onondaga County suburbs. Black people were considered negative influences and could not get loans. Racially restrictive covenants prevented Black people from living in many white neighborhoods unless they were working as servants.
Black community organizations like the Dunbar Center helped everyday people resist discrimination. A local CORE chapter was organized in 1962. Its leader, Syracuse University Professor George Wiley, recruited other Black and white Syracusans to demonstrate against job discrimination and urban renewal. Residents of the 15th Ward joined together to protest the destruction of their homes for Interstate 81.
The Syracuse LGBTQ+ civil rights movement began in 1971 with the creation of the Gay Freedom League at Syracuse University. The League ran support groups and operated a “GayPhone” that people could call anonymously.
The LGBTQ+ community pushed back against harassment by police and workplace discrimination. A gay Syracuse man in 1978 successfully challenged a state law against “consensual sodomy.”
In the decades since then, advocates in Syracuse have built on earlier victories and also expanded their focus to push for the rights of a wider range of LGBTQ+ people.