Protesting the 1964 World's Fair: Activists Recall Effort to Highlight Civil Rights, Labor Struggles

On the 50th Anniversary of the 1964 World's Fair in New York City, which drew 51 million visitors over the span of two years, we look at the untold history of massive protests highlighting racial and economic inequality and to demand equitable hiring practices at the international event. "We got 700 people from around the country to come in, to sit in at pavilions, to say we want the passage of the Civil Rights bill, and minorities visibly working at the World's Fair," says Velma Hill, longtime civil and labor rights activist. "Because this world is not a white world. It is a white world, and a brown world, and a black world." She and her husband, Norman, were part of the Congress of Racial Equality, which led the demonstrations. "We thought it important that [they] understand that there could not be a peaceable gathering without economic justice, without equitable representation," Norman says. He went on to work with the AFLCIO before becoming president of the A. Philip Randolph Institute. Velma went on to work as assistant to the president of the United Federation of Teachers. They are now writing a memoir about love and activism called, "Climbing Up the Rough Side of the Mountain."

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