The LaGuardia and Wagner Archives provide an extensive collection of primary resources and material that documented key events of New York City’s history. At a student’s disposal, it seems quite helpful as the archives offer exclusive documents that can be essential in researching for an essay or paper. It being my first visit there, I’ve learned that primary resources range from speeches, newspaper articles, artifacts, documented footage, photographs, etc. We were also instructed about the proper guidelines on how to read the material we’ve chosen from the Wagner archives. These guidelines included on who were the people and major factors involved, dates and places, the five W’s—who, what, why, when, and where.
At the archives, I and my fellow students were handed a document titled “Remarks by Mayor Robert F. Wagner” which was then a televised speech on CBS regarding the 1964 Harlem Riots. While Mayor Wagner was away attending a world conference in Geneva, Switzerland, addressing unemployment and poverty issues, he constantly stayed in touch with City Hall, which relayed the troubling news. Returning to New York sooner than expected, Mayor Wagner prepared a tour and personally inspected areas of Harlem ravaged by the riots. After describing what was considered an aftermath of battle, he also noted districts of Harlem and its residents’ who did not partake in the riots. This was sufficient enough to convince Mayor Wagner that the majority of the Harlem residents did not engage in violent and disorderly behavior. He further exclaims that police officers should maintain law and order while stating illicit conduct and disobedience towards police authority will not be tolerate.
Not only do I find this new speech from Mayor Wagner’s take on the 1964 Harlem riots helpful in gaining an expanded knowledge of this historical event. I am quite pleased he didn’t take a stance like The Times articles. Wagner’s stance seemed neutral. He didn’t openly criticize the Harlem residents as foul, impoverished thinking people. At the same time he didn’t ignore the actuality of police brutality while fervently reminding them how their initial duty of maintaining law and order should be carried out.
Hi Emmanuel, I'm a practicing Peer Tutor in Prof Rogers-Cooper's ENG 220 class. My name is Janet, and I had the pleasure of reading your second blog assignment on your archives visit. Your summary about your visit was very detailed. I like how you gave a brief description of all the different resources that are available to students. You could maybe explain were these resources are from? Are they all archives from Mayors? I also like how you explained that five W's which is very important. One thing you could have done at the beginning of your second paragraph, was to briefly explain what the Harlem Riots were. This could help your reader just in case your reader is unaware of the Harlem Riots. Use your example of the five W's as a way to inform your reader very quickly. What were the riots about, why did it happen, and so on. The rest of your summary was written very well. I got a clear picture of what you were trying to summarize for me, as the reader. I would have liked to see you expand a little more on your stance. You mention The Times articles, you want to make sure to say that it was The Times Magazine that the article was from. You said that you were quite pleased that Mayor Wagner didn't take a stance like The Times article, what stance did The Times article take? Did you agree with Mayor Wagner's stance of being neutral? Overall I really enjoyed reading your blog, and I think you are a great writer. I look forward to maybe hearing what your stance would be!
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