LREI has been committed to social justice since its founding in 1921. These are just a few examples of the countless ways this commitment is expressed on a daily basis throughout the LREI community.
Democracy Pamphlet
As is promised in LREI’s mission statement, “Students graduate from our diverse community as active participants in our democratic society,…” Elisabeth Irwin and three of her early colleagues, in the language of the times, shares their thoughts on this important..Read More
EI Students Get to Know their Neighbors
EI students interview journalist Celila Ventura about her Italian heritage in an effort to understand the Italian-American community just east of the school. “Instead of interviewing, I was interviewed by thirty well-behaved, friendly children,” Ventura writes. “Their questions ranged from..Read More
Students Mobilize for Yugoslav Relief
LRSH students participated in the American Committee for Yugoslav Relief’s Winter Clothing Campaign to aid Yugoslav children in need.
LRSH Student Gives Speech Before State Legislature, Receives Letter from Eleanor Roosevelt
Paul Coburn, a ten-year-old at LRSH, made a speech before the State Legislature, in favor of the Ives-Quinn Anti-Discrimination Bill, which would make New York the first state to enact legislation curtailing the practice of discriminating against job applicants and employees based on race, religion, or creed...Read More
Abraham Lincoln Carries On Club
10-year old LRSH students fight to end racial bias and advocate for legislation banning discrimination in employment based on race, creed, color, and national origin by forming the Abraham Lincoln Carries On club. They wrote to Mayor Laguardia, urging him..Read More
EI Students Send Christmas Boxes to European Children
EI students send ninety Christmas boxes of goods to European children in need in Russia, Yugoslavia, France, and Greece.
Students Visit Phelps-Dodge Strike
Ninth graders visit the Phelps-Dodge Strike at the Phelps-Dodge Copper Products Corporation plant in Elizabeth, NJ. The eight-month-old strike was one of the longest major industrial disputes on record in the nation, resulting in a 18.5% hourly wage increase and..Read More
LRSH Action Committee
The Little Red School House Action Committee joined other Greenwich Village schools in a brave try at getting some of its “anti-everything neighbors” to see the “other fellow’s point of view”. It established a Human Relations Workshop with the aim..Read More
Integration in Baseball
INFO, the school newspaper, devotes the majority of its February 1, 1946 issue to advocating for integration in baseball. INFO editors, harnessing the power of the press, write to sports writers of their day, and excerpted responses from eight journalists,..Read More
Avon Long Performs at EI
Broadway star Avon Long performs at EI as part of Black History Week celebration.
Israel Drive
EI held a month-long drive to aid people in Israel. The money collected was given to the United Palestine Appeal (UPA), a member of the a member agency of the United Jewish Appeal and a major fund raising agency for..Read More
EI Marches with NAACP
Elisabeth Irwin students marched with a delegation from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Washington D.C. on January 16, 1950 to advocate for Congressional action on the passage of the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC). EI..Read More
Dr. Randolph B. Smith Defends the Bill of Rights
Randolph Smith was called to testify on “Subversive Influence in the Educational Process” at hearings before the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate in September, 1952.
Sophomore Girls Visit Welfare Island
Three tenth grade EI students volunteer at the Metropolitan Hospital on Welfare Island. The students were members of the Councillettes of Jewish Women, an organization composed of girls from thirteen to seventeen years of age. Their job was to “keep..Read More
Frank Silvera Visits EI
As part of E.I.’s observance of Black History Week, Tony-nominated actor Frank Silvera, spoke to students about the history of Black actors in American theatre.
Tribune Forum Exchange Students
For many years, LREI participated in the Herald Tribune Forum, which brought students to the U.S. from all over the world for a period of twelve weeks. LREI hosted students from many countries, including Kimiko Fujii from Japan, and Wentworth..Read More
W.E.B. Dubois Visits
Dr. W.E.B. Dubois, well-known scholar, philosopher and writer, spoke to the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grades on February 14. His topic was freedom of opinion in the United States. In a short analysis of the fight for freedom of opinion..Read More
Pearl Primus Visits LRSH
Pearl Primus, one of America’s greatest interpretive dancers and PhD candidate in Anthropology at Columbia University, performs at LRSH. “There is music everywhere,” she said. “Music is in the wind whistling by my ears. I hear it in the quiet..Read More
EI Students Attend Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom
The date was May 17, 1957. Three years ago on that date the Supreme Court of the land added a new verse to freedom’s song. “Desegregate and state to integrate” chorused the nine men in black. And now three years..Read More
10s Play About Integration
A play by the 10s about integration was performed at an assembly in 1957, and then later at the high school. Teacher Mimi Levy transcribed phrases from class discussions of integration and turned their words into the script, which was..Read More
We Need Our Park
LRSH students make an appeal to Mayor Robert F. Wagner, explaining why building a highway through Washington Square Park would be detrimental to the community.
NAACP Youth Secretary Visits EI
Herbert Wright, NAACP Youth Secretary, speaks to the EI student council
Jackie Robinson Visits EI on Behalf of NAACP
In 1958, Jackie Robinson, ambassador of the NAACP, came to LREI with Herbert Wright, Youth Leader of the NAACP, to accept a check from EI students, funds raised to support their efforts in the fight for racial justice and to..Read More
EI Students Attend Youth March for Integrated Schools
On Saturday, October 25, 1958, EI students traveled to Washington D.C. to attend the Youth March for Integrated Schools led by A. Philip Randolph, Jackie Robinson, Coretta Scott King, Harry Belafonte, Bayard Rustin.
Prime Minister Nehru Writes to Students at LRSH
In 1958, LRSH students sent Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India letters and drawings wishing him a happy birthday. In response, he wrote: I am glad to know that you have been learning about India in your class. India is..Read More
Operation Pennsylvania
EI students take a week-long trip to Pennsylvania to visit Amish farms, a steel plant, and a coal mine, among other stops, to learn about the work and lives of others. Read the trip objectives and itinerary here.
Lorraine Hansberry Visits Book Week
On November 5, 1959, Lorraine Hansberry visited students to talk about her writing, including the play A Raisin in the Sun, as part of Book Week. LREI prides itself on shrinking the distance between the schoolhouse and the “real world.”..Read More
Village NAACP Organized
LREI Director Dr. Randolph Smith, playwright Lorraine Hansberry, and Reverend Howard Moody of Judson Memorial Church, among other prominent Village leaders, are consulted in the formation of the Greenwich Village-Chelsea Chapter of the NAACP.
Student UNICEF Drive
LRSH students organize an annual drive to raise funds for UNICEF.
EI Students Picket Woolworth’s
Students from EI picket Woolworths at 39th Street and Fifth Avenue as part of a Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) drive.
Intercultural Committee Enrollment Drive
Responding to the call of the Education and Intercultural Committees, forty parents and teachers volunteered to work for increased intercultural registration in both schools. Beginning with countless telephone calls, their efforts progressed to visits with community leaders and prospective parents...Read More
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
EI students volunteer at the CORE national office and fundraise. Elisabeth Irwin is the first and only high school in the Metropolitan Area to have endorsed the program of the Congress of Racial Equality with such dedication and sincerity… It..Read More
Students Visit Pennsylvania Coal Mines
As part of our social studies course, the 11th grade took a 6 day trip to Pennsylvania. The three main objectives of the trip were to study coal mining conditions in the mining towns themselves and to visit farms of..Read More
Freedom Summer SNCC Voter Drive
Peter Cummings, who graduated from EI in 1962, was one of the twenty-five freedom workers stationed in Holly Springs, Mississippi over the summer to work on the 1964 campaign, led by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), to register large numbers..Read More
Watts Riots
EI student Robert Rosen spends four days in Los Angeles as a participant on a study of the Watts Riots, co-sponsored by New York University and the Westinghouse Broadcasting Company. The story of Los Angeles and the Watts community is..Read More
LREI’s First Affinity Group
The Organization of Afro-American Students (OAAS) forms in 1970, becoming LREI’s first affinity group. The stated purposes of the OAAS were: To promote unity among the Black students in the school To promote awareness of the Black Revolution To promote..Read More
LREI Marches in the GMHC AIDS Walk
LREI Marches in the annual GMHC AIDS Walk. GMHC fights to end the AIDS epidemic and uplift the lives of all affected.
Willam Kunstler (P’94/P’96) Speaks at MLK Assembly
Lawyer, civil rights activist, and LREI parent William Kunstler spoke to students at the annual Martin Luther King Day assembly.
LREI Lesbian Gay Straight Alliance (LGSA)
Lower School Principal Elaine Winter and parent Alice Krauss, along with other parents, found the LREI Lesbian Gay Straight Alliance (LGSA).
Visibility/Love Makes a Family
Beginning in 1997, LREI hosted an annual traveling photography exhibition entitled “Love Makes A Family” — focused on the families gay and lesbian couples create. In 2010, the LREI community decided to curate its own exhibit, “Visibility: Our LGBTQ+ Community..Read More
Little Red Radicals
School was centered around social and political activism: demonstrating, taking stands, acting on your beliefs, making the world a better place to live in. A New York Times article in the City Section features a reunion of LREI’s class of..Read More
The Bravest Girl: Ruby Bridges
In 2001, Shoshana and Suzanne’s first grade class read a book about Ruby Bridges, a first grader and the first African-American child to desegregate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana during the New Orleans school desegregation crisis on..Read More
LREI Marches in NYC Pride March
LREI marches in the New York City Pride March. For this annual event, LREI shares a float with the Calhoun School complete with a DJ “booth” and rainbows galore. (Photos in slideshow are from 2014)
LREI Hires Director of Diversity and Community
LREI hires Sharon Dupree as its first Director of Diversity and Community. Sandra “Chap” Chapman (also pictured here on the right) becomes Director of Equity and Community in 2007.
The Community Service Roundtable
Community service at LREI has been a core aspect of the school’s values, mission, and program since the school’s inception in the 1920s. Our school’s mission statement underscores the importance of cultivating an ethic of service among all our students..Read More
Students March to Fight Global Warming
On Saturday, April 14, 2007 over 90 members of the LREI community covered themselves in blue and joined hands with thousands of others to form the human coastline around lower Manhattan called the Sea of People. Consisting of a U-shaped..Read More
The Power and Price of Privilege
Tim Wise, Director of the Association for White Anti-racist Education (AWARE) came to LREI to facilitate dialogue on race and privilege in America with students, faculty, and parents. He discussed the historical foundations of white privilege and how it is..Read More
First Eighth Grade Social Justice Project
One of the major themes of the eighth grade curriculum is active citizenship. In humanities classes, students work on the “Social Justice Project.” Students identify civil and human rights topics in which they are interested, and work in small groups..Read More
LREI’s 90th Anniversary + Ideas Speaker Series Launch
LREI celebrated its 90th anniversary by launching the Ideas Speaker Series. The inaugural series included talks by author Siddhartha Mukherjee (P’29, ’23), activist Christy Turlington (P’22,’24), PBS education correspondent John Merrow, and author Steven Johnson.
Adopt-a-Family Sandy Cleanup
On Friday, December 7, 2012, students took the ferry to Staten Island to help in Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.
LREI Students at Drink Up with Michelle Obama
LREI students participated in Drink Up, a collaboration to encourage everyone to drink more water between the Partnership for a Healthier America – which works with the private sector and PHA Honorary Chairwoman Michelle Obama to make the healthy choice..Read More
Student Walkout 2014
In December 2014, thousands of students from schools across the U.S. staged a massive walkout in solidarity with Ferguson and other communities affected by police violence. LREI high school and middle school students joined the many demonstrations that occurred in..Read More
One Teacher in Ten
LREI hosts a panel discussion on One Teacher in Ten in the New Millennium: LGBT Educators Speak Out About What’s Gotten Better . . . and What Hasn’t. The One Teacher in Ten series has served as an invaluable source..Read More
New York Magazine Features LREI Protesters
LREI students featured in New York Magazine’s annual “Reasons to Love New York ” 12th edition, 2016: No. 2 | Because Even Our Protesters Are Precocious. Read the full article here.
Gloria Steinem Visits Feminism Class
Gloria Steinem, feminist journalist and social political activist, visited Ileana Jiménez’ Feminism class.
The Laramie Project + Moisés Kaufman Lecture
LREI’s production of The Laramie Project premiered during election week of November 2016 – a fractious and memorable moment in political history, when hate speech was again on the rise. The students who participated in the play hosted an audience talkback..Read More
LREI Students Protest Constitution Pipeline
LREI students travel to Albany to protest the Constitution Pipeline.
LREI at Women’s March
LREI students and teachers participated in the Women’s March, a worldwide protest on January 21, 2017, the day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump. It was prompted by the fact that several of Trump’s statements were considered by many..Read More
Transgender and Non-Binary Inclusion Assembly
LREI’s first Transgender and Non-Binary Inclusion Assembly
Facing Whiteness
Filmmaker and educator Whitney Dow spoke at LREI as part of the 2017 ideas Speaker Series. His project “Facing Whiteness” examines how Americans who identify as “white,” or “partially white,” process their ethnicity, and pair it with secondary quantitative data..Read More
Politics in the Schoolhouse
LREI Director Phil Kassen publishes “Politics in the Schoolhouse,” an article about the importance of discussing politics in the classroom. We do not teach about politics for politics’ sake. We do not teach through conflict for conflict’s sake. We do..Read More
All-School Read of I AM JAZZ
In 2018, LREI participated in the first annual all-school read of the book I Am Jazz by Jazz Jennings. This book, as well as several other books on the topics of gender and identity, have played an important role in..Read More
Fourth Grade Play
Each year, the fourth grade writes and performs a play centered around their social studies curriculum, which is typically focused on contemporary immigration, historical immigration, civil rights, current events, and social justice. These topics are never fully predetermined – students’..Read More
Heads of Schools Speak Out Against Gun Violence
In February 2018, Heads of independent schools in the New York metropolitan area write an open letter in The New York Times speaking out against gun violence following shooting at the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL that..Read More
ideas Speaker Series with TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky
ideas Speaker Series and Sustainable LREI Present: Eliminating the idea of waste and changing the way people look at garbage, with Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle.
Earth Day Beach Cleanup
Sustainable LREI sponsors an annual beach cleanup at Rockaway Beach. In 2018, they collected over 200 lbs of trash.
The Commons Project
The Commons Project was initiated as a framework for approaching service learning, and civic and community engagement. The school choose to interpret the idea of the “commons” broadly in examining our role as citizens of our school community and of the larger world as..Read More
Silent March for Climate Change
The Fours didn’t want to be left out of the climate change movement. They rallied in the hallways of Sixth Avenue, visiting classrooms and proudly displaying signs to build awareness through their own “Silent March for Climate Change”.
STEM in South Africa
Ellana Lawrence ’18 travels to South Africa with a group that seeks to train and inspire a new generation of ethically minded STEM workers.
Service Learning in the Deepest Sense – 11th Grade Trip
One practice that is grounded in our progressive principles is the field trip, an approach to learning that was pioneered at LREI. Through the trip, we seek to take learning out into the world and to then bring the world..Read More
The Democracy Project
LREI launches a collective, school-wide effort called The Democracy Project to uphold this country’s core democratic values. The Democracy Project is a student-led initiative to help the LREI student community become more knowledgeable on and involved in the democratic process,..Read More
The rights of those who differ from ourselves
Fourteen students from the high school ‘Exile and Immigration’ class came together in conversation with four of New Sanctuary Coalition’s community members – three friends recently released from detention and a family member. This series, “Finding Light: Sharing Experiences of..Read More
Angela Davis ’61 Speaks at Senior Banquet
EI alumna Angela Davis ’61 spoke to the 2021 graduating class at their senior banquet via zoom.
100 Acts of Service
In celebration of the 100th Anniversary of LREI, we are cataloging 100 Acts of Service. Click here to see the photos. Each of these opportunities will incorporate a service-learning component. The service-learning component frames and contextualizes the service opportunity through..Read More
Vision Zero
Zane Walker ‘22, co-leader of the Vision Zero Youth Council, a student-led group that works with local schools, organizations, and elected officials in the fight for street safety, publishes an Op-Ed in The Daily News about the urgent need to..Read More
Senior Project + Service Learning
Beginning spring 2022, all Senior Projects will be required to include a service component. The Senior Project is the culmination of each student’s LREI career. The Senior Project takes the values and academics of LREI and allows students to explore these..Read More