ABSTRACT
Central Park in the 1930s was truly a people's park. Not by any municipal proclamation, but simply because everyone went there. It was the nightly retreat for Manhattanites from the realities of very difficult days. Central Park was a vast school without walls—a place where learning occurred naturally. No teachers struggling to survive their pupils; no kids seeking to "beat the system" by not learning. The other special place of the Central Park environment was the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Visits to museums essentially took place during the school year. In this sense, there were two Central Parks: the pedagogic periphery and the entertainment center. It was as if everyone understood Central Park as a special turf, a retreat from reality, especially the harsh realities of race struggles. Everyone involved in the social conflicts of the day could somehow take a breather and reconsider the world in the calmer, if not broader, perspective of the evening.
