With the approach of the 50^th anniversary in 2011 of the Lincoln School desegregation decision, the city has begun looking at how the New Rochelle was changed by the case — the first to be filed in a northern city after the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling.

On Monday night at City Hall, Schools Superintendent Richard Organisciak, along with co-project manager Linda Tarrant-Reid hosted a community forum on the planned "Reflections of Change: A 50-year Retrospective of the Lincoln School Decision" to explore the historic case.

In October 1960, attorney Paul B. Zuber, on behalf of the parents of 11 Lincoln Elementary school students, filed a complaint against the city's Board of Education claiming that board had maintained a racially segregated school. A 1961 court decision found the Board of Education had drawn district lines to make the Lincoln School's district match the areas with the highest black populations.

Judge Irving R. Kaufman found the districting violated equal protection rights under the 14th Amendment. After appealing and the U.S. Supreme Court not reviewing the case, a new Board of Education decided to close and tear down Lincoln Elementary School. The students who had being going to Lincoln were bussed to the other 11 elementary schools throughout New Rochelle.

"I was part of the last class to graduate from there," said Dennis Gladden, a Lincoln Elementary school alumnus at the event. "After that they tore it down. But I felt that I got a quality education there, teachers really cared."

Mark Major, another Lincoln Elementary alumnus, had just graduated from Lincoln when the decision was reached.

"I was about 10 or 11 when the decision to desegregate the schools happened. It was then when I began to pay attention to what was going on," Major said. "It's important that history be embraced. Everyone should be proud that we had a community that stood up against segregation."

Paul W. Zuber, was invited to speak at the event about his father, Paul B. Zuber, and came down from Albany with his mother, Barbara.

"My father always said that there's two things that they can't take away from you: The right to vote, and a quality education," said Zuber.

"He believed that the first step to economic prosperity, was a quality education."

Pearl C. Quarles, the first black person to chair the New Rochelle Board of Education, was also at the event to reflect on the changing times.

"I'm glad that they're remembering and commemorating the event," Quarles said. "If you don't remember the history, than you can never move forward."

Carlos Rodriguez, a student at New Rochelle high School, feels that the case really made New Rochelle more diverse.

"New Rochelle high school is the perfect example of the strides the city has taken since the case," Rodriguez said. "It's one of the most diverse schools in the country."