New York City has the largest public school system in the United States, one that has been heavily impacted in recent months by Covid-19. This system is also one of significant racial segregation; 74.6 percent of Black and Latinx students attend a school with less than 10 percent of white students, and 34.3 percent of White students attend a school with more than 50 percent white students (New York City Council, 2019).

The numbers paint a stark picture of the racial divide in a public institution heralded by many to be a great equalizer, and also implicitly point to a socioeconomic divide in public schools; Black and Latinx students in New York City experience higher levels of poverty than White students, a reality that carries over into students’ educational resources and classroom experiences (Mayor’s Office For Economic Opportunity, 2018).

These realities are crucial to acknowledge in the discussion of the Covid-19 pandemic and its interaction with the experiences of teachers and students in New York City. This case study is centered on the Movement of Rank-And-File Educators (MORE), a grassroots teachers organization fighting to improve teaching and learning circumstances in New York City’s segregated school system. MORE has employed a variety of organizational techniques associated with Paulo Freire and Ella Baker to push for educational equity and safety in the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic.