Charles Pratt founded the Institute in 1887 with a mission to provide education “to people from all walks of life, irrespective of their standing in society.” This project explores Pratt’s archival sources about Pratt Institute’s founding and early history with a particular focus on Charles Pratt and how his ideas reflected many of the beliefs of the Progressive reformers at the time. The archival sources amplify the voice of Charles Pratt and illuminate the Institute’s founding values, including philosophical perspectives that continue to influence the Institute today in a very different historical context. Project website by Anisha Karr.

The Black Student Union (BSU) played an instrumental role in Pratt’s early student strikes as their activism helped propel each movement forward. Black students were fighting for additional causes on top of those that the general student body was addressing, such as Black representation among students and staff, awareness of the Black community in classes and within the administration, accessibility for Black students, and the protection of Black students from harassment and assault. This was a major call for the Institute to stop being complicit in racial injustice. Project website by Kaitlin Millen.

As of March, 2021, new and ongoing research is looking into the impacts of Federal, State and City urban renewal policies on the Pratt campus and surrounding community. What we know so far is that the area surrounding the Pratt campus was subject to redevelopment during the 1950s and 1960s pursuant to a City-sponsored Urban Renewal plan, which also greatly impacted the organization of the campus itself. Maps, photographs, and other material are being analyzed and compiled in order to fully understand the evolution, background, and players involved in this redevelopment which predates, but also coincides, with the Activism era. Project website by Rofidah Alhumaidi. Learn more about Urban Renewal from Ron Shiffman’s Oral History.

The Youth Skills Development Program  grew out of Pratt’s Black Student Union demands in the 1960s and the radical approach to youth services spearheaded by the Black Panthers, including their Free Breakfast Program. Some of the activists had worked with the programs in Central Brooklyn.  The first three years, 1970-1973, experimented with different venues and sources of support. By 1973, the program became institutionalized with support from federal funds for free breakfast and lunch, youth employment, and other federal programs that were critical to contributing to a sense of collective purpose in the 1970s and early 80s.  With the election of Ronald Reagan in 1981, major cuts in federal support for youth programs and education, along with other social services, decimated the public welfare state that had developed in the 1970s.  By the late 80s into the 90s, the program relied more heavily on private and corporate support.