First opening its doors to African American juvenile delinquents
in 1936, the Wiltwyck School for Boys was located in Esopus,
New York, on the opposite side of the Hudson River from the
Roosevelt's family home. The school, under the leadership of
the Episcopal City Mission Society, experienced some initial
success at treating the troubled youngsters who attended, most
of whom had grown up in undesirable and neglected sections of
New York City. However, by 1942 Wiltwyck suffered from a such
severe lack of funds that it was in danger of closing.
In 1942, several remarkable women, particularly
the first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, helped reorganize
the school and joined its board of directors. ER,
a former teacher, had been moved by the courage that
the Wiltwyck Academy had shown in taking an interest
in underprivileged African American children and immediately
wanted to help in any way that she could. That same
year Wiltwyck ended its affiliation with the protestant
church and became an interracial treatment center
for young boys between the ages of eight and twelve.
Because a significant portion of the school's budget
came from private donations, ER's role in raising
money for the academy was crucial to its survival.
It was a task that she remained wedded to for the
rest of her life, even up until her last months in
1962 when she busied herself soliciting monies to
relocate the academy to Yorktown Heights, New York.
The school itself managed to survive for another nineteen
years after Roosevelt's death, but was finally forced
to close its doors in 1981 due, ultimately, to a lack
of money.
Sources:
Beasley, Maurine, Holly C. Schulman and Henry R.
Beasley, eds. The Eleanor Roosevelt Encyclopedia.
Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2001, 567-569.
Black, Allida. Casting Her Own Shadow: Eleanor
Roosevelt and the Shaping of Postwar Liberalism.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1996, 107.
For more information on the Wiltwyck
School, see the following web site: