White Plains, New York in the 1960s

Work

Law, stores, offices

The downtown economy rested on legal, banking, real-estate, architectural, and office work³, while department-store shopping³ pulled people in from the county.

Law & power

Renewal boards ruled blocks

A state-created Urban Renewal Agency⁴ and federal money gave officials power over land, clearance, and relocation. The plan aimed at 493 parcels and 130 acres⁴, an enormous claim on the center of the city.

In the air

Integration before crisis

The school board adopted a racial-balance policy in 1964⁶, presenting it as a planned local answer to segregation rather than a response to street protest. The same decade, people argued over newspaper-backed school integration⁶ and downtown rebuilding.

What people feared

Displacement, traffic, demolition

The most visible local danger was not famine or frontier violence but being uprooted by planning: the renewal contract included up to $833,200 for resident relocation payments⁴. The new road world also pressed in through the Cross Westchester Expressway corridor⁷.

Home & table

Schools mapped the city

Housing patterns shaped children’s days: the district said center-city low-income apartments⁶ helped concentrate Negro pupils in older schools. In 1964, about 20 percent of elementary pupils⁶ were reassigned under new attendance lines.

Money

Federal dollars downtown

The decade began with a $9,199,000 federal grant² for center-city renewal. By 1965, the project involved tens of millions in loans and capital grants⁴, putting national urban-renewal money into local streets.

Who lived here

Stable numbers, changing balance

The city’s head count stayed near 50,000 residents¹ from 1960 to 1970. Inside that stability, officials described racial concentration in center-city schools⁶ as a central local fact.

Roads & news

Afternoon paper, fast roads

The daily Reporter Dispatch⁵ carried municipal, school, and county news from White Plains. Roads and rails tied the place outward, especially the Cross Westchester Expressway⁷ and the New York commuter connection.

Year by year

1. 1960White Plains recorded 50,485 residents in the federal census. here¹
2. 1960A new all-city White Plains senior high school opened as part of a strategy to avoid divided high schools. here⁶
3. 1960A federal urban-renewal grant of $9,199,000 went to the center-city project. here²
4. 1963President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, a national shock followed in White Plains through newspapers, radio, and television. the country
5. 1964The White Plains Urban Renewal Agency was created by the New York State Legislature. here⁴
6. 1964The Board of Education adopted a racial-balance policy and closed Rochambeau School as part of integration. here⁶
7. 1965The Urban Renewal Agency and the federal government signed the loan and grant contract for the approved renewal plan. here⁴
8. 1969Apollo 11 landed humans on the Moon, a world event watched and discussed in American households, schools, and newspapers. the world

What the sources say

• White Plains recorded 50,485 residents in the 1960 census and 50,346 in the 1970 census, so the city was essentially not growing in population during the decade. from the sources¹
• White Plains was the county seat of Westchester County, a wealthy suburban county directly north of New York City. from the sources^2,2
• The city was already known as a central shopping district for Westchester, with branches of New York City stores drawing shoppers from outside the city. from the sources³
• By the early twentieth century White Plains had become a legal and banking center, with buildings near the courthouse occupied by legal, real-estate, architectural, and banking tenants. from the sources³
• A new Westchester County Court House had been begun on Main Street in 1915, anchoring the civic and legal district that still shaped downtown in the 1960s. from the sources³
• The Westchester County Center had opened in 1930, and the County Office Building and Grand Street Post Office followed in 1931. from the sources³
• White Plains urban renewal changed downtown between 1966 and 1980, with 130 acres redeveloped to create a modern central business district. from the sources³
• The White Plains Urban Renewal Agency was created by the New York State Legislature in 1964. from the sources⁴
• On July 14, 1965, the White Plains Urban Renewal Agency and the federal Urban Renewal Administration entered a loan and capital grant contract to carry out the approved renewal plan. from the sources⁴
• The 1965 renewal contract provided for loans up to $39,353,211, a federal capital grant up to $27,507,331, and up to $833,200 for resident relocation payments. from the sources⁴
• The revised renewal plan contemplated acquiring 493 parcels, covering 130 acres, and reconstructing the central section of White Plains. from the sources⁴
• The Reporter Dispatch was a daily White Plains newspaper published from 1941 to 1998 by Westchester County publishers. from the sources⁵
• Local newspaper coverage mattered in the 1964 school racial-balance effort; a White Plains school official later credited news, features, and editorial support with helping community acceptance. from the sources⁶
• White Plains opened a new all-city senior high school in 1960, a choice made partly to avoid creating separate high schools divided by race, economics, or academic status. from the sources⁶
• The Cross Westchester Expressway corridor connected the Tappan Zee Bridge and the New England Thruway through the White Plains area by the early 1960s. from the sources⁷
• In 1964 the White Plains Board of Education adopted a racial-balance policy under which Negro enrollment in each school was to be roughly between 10 percent and 30 percent. from the sources⁶
• Rochambeau School, a center-city school with Negro pupils making up 67 percent of its 500-pupil enrollment, was closed as part of the 1964 integration plan. from the sources⁶
• The 1964 integration plan redrew lines for the other 10 elementary schools and reassigned about 20 percent of White Plains elementary pupils. from the sources⁶
• The school district described center-city low-income apartments in the urban renewal area as a major factor concentrating Negro pupils in older schools. from the sources⁶
• A group of six parents went to court trying to block the school integration plan, and the White Plains Teachers Association later appeared in support of the plan as amicus curiae. from the sources⁶
• On March 29, 1960, White Plains received a federal grant of $9,199,000 for an urban renewal project in the center of the city. from the sources²
• No online source opened here gives a street-by-street description of ordinary White Plains houses in the 1960s. not known
• No local price list for White Plains groceries, rents, or bus fares in the 1960s was found in the opened sources. not known
• As across New York suburbs in the 1960s, many households followed television news, daily newspapers, church calendars, school-board meetings, and commuter schedules as ordinary rhythms of civic life. inferred

Sources

1. Total Population and Percent Change by Municipality, Westchester County, 1940-2010. Westchester County Planning
2. Suburban Renewal. Foundation for Economic Education, 1960
3. History of White Plains. City of White Plains
4. Save the Courthouse Committee v. Lynn. Environmental Law Reporter, 1975
5. The Reporter Dispatch (White Plains, N.Y.) 1941-1998. Library of Congress
6. White Plains Public Schools Racial Balance Plan. ERIC, 1967
7. 1967 Map of White Plains, Greenburgh, NY. Pastmaps / USGS, 1967

Nearby, about the same time