A Black from the South, a Jew from the Bronx unite in fight for East Ramapo schoolkids

Citizens across America are proving that the country is not as hopelessly divided as the headlines may lead one to believe. USA TODAY Network reporters are bringing forth examples of how citizens are working across perceived divides to address differences between conservatives and liberals, promote listening to neighbors with opposing views and to solve issues such as racial inequities and gun violence. The USA TODAY Network is reporting on these ���Strange Bedfellows” as part of Hidden Common Ground, a key component of USA TODAY’s unique local-to-national coverage of the 2020 presidential election.

One is a Black Vietnam War veteran raised in the South who came home from the war disillusioned, eventually venturing north where he found work caring for the mentally ill.

The other is a Jew from the Bronx raised by deaf parents who, after a stop at Columbia University, would go on to lead a school for the deaf.

Black and white, Willie Trotman and Oscar Cohen are united in a singular purpose – making sure Blacks and Latinos get the same education as whites.

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Trotman and Cohen were the driving force behind the Spring Valley chapter of the NAACP’s successful campaign to use the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as a weapon in its long-running battle to improve educational opportunities for minority students in East Ramapo’s public schools.

In May, a federal judge sided with the NAACP, declaring the method East Ramapo uses to elect its school board members violated the Voting Rights Act, a signature victory in the civil rights movement.

The ruling, if it survives an appeal, could lead to more seats for minorities on a school board dominated by white, Orthodox Jewish men for over a decade.

It followed years of frustration for Trotman and Cohen, respectively the president and education co-chair of the NAACP chapter, as they struggled to get state lawmakers and education officials to pay attention to what was going on in the district.

Each brought their own skills to the fight -- Cohen the pragmatic educator, assessing the field, deciding where to leverage support, Trotman leaning hard against his civil rights past when all seemed lost.

“He grew up in the segregated South and he’s not going to compromise,” Cohen said. “And there are times when I say maybe we ought to. And he’ll say ‘How can you do that? You know? Bull Connor?’ He has this history and who the hell am I?”

“We have to keep the fight going,” Trotman said. “You’re not asking for the world. You’re just asking to be equal. At least get some kind of equal treatment."

Trotman, 73, found Cohen, 79, about 15 years ago when he was searching for someone to help challenge East Ramapo’s education policies. At the time, more and more of the district’s roughly $250 million budget was being siphoned to pay for private school busing. Honors courses were eliminated in the public schools. Kindergarten was reduced to a half day.

One of Cohen’s three children, a son, is African-American, adopted when he was four years old. And so, Cohen says, he’d become familiar with the disparate educational opportunities for Blacks and whites in public schools.

And in East Ramapo, graduation rates for Blacks and Latinos were plummeting. Teachers were being laid off.

“From that day to this day we’ve worked very well together,” Trotman says. “I don’t even know if we’ve ever disagreed on a decision believe it or not.”

Meetings were moved to Cohen’s Chestnut Ridge home when Cohen's wife Sue became sick. She'd listen in from upstairs through a baby monitor.

“When my wife was sick we had meetings here with the committee because I wouldn’t go out,” Cohen recalled. “And Willie came here.”

Sue died in 2012.

The friendship between Trotman and Cohen grew.

They have learned to embrace their differences.

 “I have to love the guy,” Trotman says. “Sometimes he points to his skin and says ‘Remember I’m white and I do white privilege.’ He’s an intriguing guy. It’s almost like he was born for this role.”

Hidden Common Ground is supported by a diverse group of foundations, including the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Charles Koch Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. In addition, the Kettering Foundation is a research partner of the initiative.