| Chapter 7: | The Schools |
liberal programs to City Hall.24 In that year Benjamin Franklin High School, a major LaGuardia goal, was opened to boys in East Harlem.
Vito Marcantonio, closely associated with Covello and LaGuardia, had been a major supporter of a high school in East Harlem. Born in East Harlem in 1902, Marcantonio was a radical political reformer, to the left of both Covello and LaGuardia. In the early 1920’s Marcantonio became LaGuardia’s campaign manager. Like LaGuardia, Marcantonio spoke Yiddish, Italian, and Spanish. Elected to Congress in 1934, Marcantonio was to the left of Roosevelt’s New Deal supporting the rights of miners and agricultural workers. He supported civil rights for African Americans as early as 1941, when he lobbied unsuccessfully for a federal antilynching bill. Marcantonio was the only congressman to oppose American intervention in Korea. Marcantonio supported Communist Party positions but was not a Communist himself. Since he supported bread and butter programs, the voters in East Harlem kept sending him back to Congress. Marcantonio died of a heart attack in 1954.25
Associated politically with Marcantonio and LaGuardia was Edward Corsi, a liberal reformer and advocate of immigrant causes. Corsi was born in 1896 in the Abruzzo village of Capistrano, Italy. His father, a politician, died early in Edward’s childhood. Edward’s mother remarried and the family migrated to East Harlem. Edward graduated from St. Francis Xavier College and Fordham University Law School. Committed to competent government and social justice for immigrant groups, he organized a Theodore Roosevelt Club in East Harlem. In the 1920’s Corsi was appointed director