1968 New York City teachers' strike
It escalated to a citywide strike in September of that year, shutting down the public schools for a total of 36 days and increasing racial tensions between Black and Jewish Americans.
[1] Although the school district itself was quite small, the outcome of its experiment had great significance because of its potential to alter the entire educational system—in New York City and elsewhere.
Citing increased crime and their desire for social mobility, Jews left Brownsville en masse, to be replaced by more blacks and some Latinos.
[13] It became clear to activists in the 1960s that the Central School Board was uninterested in pursuing mandatory integration; their frustration led them away from desegregation and into the struggle for community control.
[17] The UFT held a philosophy of limited pluralism, according to which different cultures could maintain some individuality under the umbrella of an open democratic society.
[20] In 1964, Bayard Rustin and Reverend Milton Galamison coordinated a citywide boycott of public schools to protest de facto segregation.
More than 400,000 New Yorkers participated in a one-day February 3, 1964, boycott, and newspapers were astounded both by the numbers of black and Puerto Rican parents and children who boycotted and by the complete absence of violence or disorder from the protestors.
It was, a newspaper account accurately reported, "the largest civil rights demonstration" in American history, and, Rustin argued that "the movement to integrate the schools will create far-reaching benefits" for teachers as well as students.
However, when protesters announced plans to follow up the February 3 boycott with a second one on March 16, the UFT declined to defend boycotting teachers from reprisals.
The ATA felt that New York City's teachers and schools perpetuated a system of entrenched racism, and in 1966 it began campaigning actively for community control.
[22] In 1967, the ATA opposed the UFT directly over the "disruptive child clause", a contract provision that allowed teachers to have children removed from classrooms and placed in special schools.
In the fall of 1967, the UFT held a two-week strike, seeking approval for the disruptive child clause; most of the ATA's members withdrew from the union.
[25] Bolstered by the civil rights movement, but frustrated by resistance to desegregation, African Americans began to demand authority over the schools in which their children were educated.
[23]) When in 1967 the Bundy Report, a creation of the Ford Foundation, recommended trying decentralization, the city decided to experiment in three areas—over the objections of some members of the white middle-classes, who disliked the ideological tendencies that black-controlled schools might embrace.
Feedback from the 1967–1968 school year was largely positive, with visitors, students, and parents praising the shift toward student-centered education.
Despite these advancements, the district remained dependent on the school board for funding, and many resource requests, such as for telephones and new library books, were reportedly addressed slowly or not at all.
The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) criticized the new principals and the Ocean Hill–Brownsville curriculum, arguing that fostering awareness of racial heritage might not be beneficial for students in the job market.
Once established, the new administration of Ocean-Hill Brownsville began selecting principals from outside the approved civil service list.
[18] In April 1968, the administration sought greater control over personnel, finances, and curriculum.When the city refused to grant these expanded powers, parents in the district initiated a school boycott.
In the event you wish to question this action, the Governing Board will receive you on Friday, May 10, 1968, at 6:00 P.M., at Intermedia School 55, 2021 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, New York.
On May 15, 300 police officers, including at least 60 in plainclothes, cordoned off the school (making five arrests), effectively breaking the parent blockade and allowing the teachers to return.
Schools ran more smoothly in the Ocean Hill–Brownsville neighborhood than elsewhere, due to the fact that system was less reliant on the striking teachers and keys to the buildings.
[54][55] The board hired new teachers to replace the strikers, including many local Jews, in an effort to prove that the district was not antisemitic.
[59] During the strike, the UFT distributed an official pamphlet called "Preaching Violence Instead of Teaching Children in Ocean Hill-Brownsville", citing a lesson that advocated Black separatism.
[18] Shanker distributed 500,000 copies of a pamphlet some of his members found behind the schools in dispute worded "The Idea Behind This Program is Beautiful, But When the Money Changers Heard About It, They Took Over, As is Their Custom in the Black Community"[36] On December 26, on radio station WBAI, Julius Lester interviewed Leslie Campbell, a history teacher, who read a poem written by one of his students entitled "Antisemitism: Dedicated to Albert Shanker" that began with the words "Hey, Jewboy, with that yarmulke on your head / You pale-faced Jew boy – I wish you were dead."
[36] Some members of the school community, as well as the New York Civil Liberties Union,[37] accused Shanker of playing up antisemitism to win sympathy and support.
They were said to be instigated by a rally held by the City Wide Student Strike committee organized by Sonny Carson and JHS 271 teacher Leslie Campbell.
[24] Some groups allied with the civil rights movement and Black Liberation struggles moved towards the creation of independent African Schools, including The East's Uhuru Sasa Shule in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
According to historian Jerald Podair, these events also pushed New York's Jewish population into accepting an identity of whiteness, further polarizing race relations in the city.
He argues that the shift in coalitions after the 1968 strike pushed New York City to the political right for decades to come—in part because race came to eclipse class as the main axis of social conflict.
