New York City is Urged to Establish Bureau to Combat Racial Prejudice in Schools

The establishment of a Bureau of Human Relations in the New York City Board of Education in order to develop a city-wide program for combatting racial and religious intolerance in the school system was today recommended to Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia by Commissioner of Investigation Louis E. Yavner. In his report Commissioner Yavner suggested that two advisory committees, one of school officials and the other of lay citizens, be organized to work with the proposed bureau.

Mr. Yavner pointed out that while a worthwhile human relations program is already in operation in the New York school system, it is haphazardly directed, insufficiently coordinated, and inadequately publicized. He also urged a school-community drive to combat prejudice because the schools alone “cannot create a complete environvent in which the pupil may develop into an effective citizen.”