The New York City teachers' strike of 1968 was a months-long confrontation between the new community-controlled
school board
A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution.
The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional are ...
in the largely black
Ocean Hill–
Brownsville neighborhoods of
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
and
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
's
United Federation of Teachers
The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) is the labor union that represents most teachers in New York City public schools. , there were about 118,000 in-service teachers and 17,000 paraprofessional educators in the union, as well as about 54,00 ...
. It began with a one day walkout in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville school district. 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 Blacks and Jews.
Thousands of New York City teachers went on strike in 1968 when the school board of the neighborhood, which is now two separate neighborhoods, transferred a set of teachers and administrators, a normal practice at the time. The newly created school district, in a mostly
black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...
neighborhood, was an experiment in community control over schools—the dismissed workers were almost all
white
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
or
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
.
The
United Federation of Teachers
The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) is the labor union that represents most teachers in New York City public schools. , there were about 118,000 in-service teachers and 17,000 paraprofessional educators in the union, as well as about 54,00 ...
(UFT), led by
Albert Shanker, demanded the teachers' reinstatement and accused the community-controlled school board of anti-semitism. At the start of the school year in 1968, the UFT held a strike that shut down New York City's public schools for nearly two months.
The strike pitted community against union, highlighting a conflict between local rights to self-determination and teachers' universal rights as workers.
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. As one historian wrote in 1972: "If these seemingly simple acts had not been such a serious threat to the system, it would be unlikely that they would produce such a strong and immediate response."
Background
Brownsville
From the 1880s through the 1960s, Brownsville was predominantly
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
ish and politically radical. The Jewish population consistently elected socialist and
American Labor Party
The American Labor Party (ALP) was a political party in the United States established in 1936 that was active almost exclusively in the state of New York. The organization was founded by labor leaders and former members of the Socialist Party of A ...
candidates to the state assembly and was a strong supporter of
unionized labor and
collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The i ...
.
Margaret Sanger
Margaret Higgins Sanger (born Margaret Louise Higgins; September 14, 1879September 6, 1966), also known as Margaret Sanger Slee, was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. Sanger popularized the term "birth control ...
chose Brownsville as the site of America's first birth control clinic because she knew the community would be supportive.
In 1940, Blacks made up 6 percent of Brownsville's population, a portion that doubled over the next decade. Most of these new residents were poor and occupied the neighborhood's most undesirable housing. Although the neighborhood was racially segregated, there was more public mixing and solidarity among Blacks and Jews than could be found in most other neighborhoods.
Around 1960, the neighborhood underwent a rapid demographic shift. Citing increased crime and their desire for social mobility, Jews left Brownsville en masse, to be replaced by more Blacks and some Latinos. By 1970, Brownsville was 77 percent Black and 19 percent Puerto Rican. Furthermore, Brownsville was frequently ignored by Black civil rights organizations such as the
NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
and Urban League whose Brooklyn chapters were based in nearby
Bedford-Stuyvesant and were overall less concerned with the issues of the lower income Blacks who had moved into Brownsville, thus further isolating Brownsville's population. These changes corresponded to overall increases in segregation and inequality in New York City, as well as to the replacement of blue-collar with white-collar jobs.
The newly Black Brownsville neighborhood had few community institutions or economic opportunities. It lacked a middle class, and its residents did not own the businesses they relied upon.
Schools
Despite the Supreme Court's 1954 ''
Brown v. Board'' ruling against segregated schools, educational segregation in Brooklyn actually increased in the following years, due to segregationist districting and school construction. Some whites on the neighborhood's periphery lobbied with the school board against the building of a new school that would draw a racially diverse population. They were opposed by Blacks, Latinos, and pro-integration whites, but nevertheless succeeded in functionally limiting the new school's racial makeup.
In the years before the strike, Brownsville's schools had become extremely overcrowded, and students were attending in shifts. Junior High School 271, which became the nexus of the strike, was constructed in 1963 to accommodate Brownsville's expanding population of youth. The school's performance was low from the outset, with most students testing below grade level in reading and math, and few advancing to the city's network of elite high schools.
New York City's school system was controlled by the Central Board of Education, a notoriously large and centralized bureaucracy headquartered at 110 Livingston Street in Brooklyn. 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.
Teachers union
Brownsville's teachers were members of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), a new union local that had recently displaced the more leftist Teachers' Union (TU).
[The UFT won the right to represent NYC teachers for the purpose of collective bargaining in 1961: ] The TU, which contained active
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
and
communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
members campaigned actively for racial equality, desegregation, and other radical political goals.
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. The union also championed individualist values and
meritocracy
Meritocracy (''merit'', from Latin , and ''-cracy'', from Ancient Greek 'strength, power') is the notion of a political system in which economic goods and/or political power are vested in individual people based on talent, effort, and achiev ...
.
Some called its policies 'race-blind' because it preferred to frame issues in terms of class.
The UFT contained a high proportion of Jews.
Membership in the
American Federation of Teachers
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is the second largest teacher's labor union in America (the largest being the National Education Association). The union was founded in Chicago. John Dewey and Margaret Haley were founders.
About 60 per ...
, the national union of which the UFT is a part, had increased dramatically during the 1960s, as had the rate of teachers' strikes.
In 1964,
Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin (; March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987) was an African American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights.
Rustin worked with A. Philip Randolph on the March on Washington Movement, ...
and Reverend
Milton Galamison
Milton Arthur Galamison (March 25, 1923 – March 9, 1988) was a Presbyterian minister who served in Brooklyn, New York.
As a community activist, he championed integration and education reform in the New York City public school system, and ...
coordinated a citywide
boycott of public schools to protest
de facto segregation
Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crime against humanity under the Statute of the Internat ...
. Prior to the boycott, the organizers asked the UFT Executive Board to join the boycott or ask teachers to join the picket lines. The union, however, declined, promising only to protect from reprisals any teachers who participated. 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. Later, at the time of the 1968 school crisis, Brooklyn
CORE
Core or cores may refer to:
Science and technology
* Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages
* Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding
* Core (optical fiber), the signal-carrying portion of an optical fiber
* Core, the centra ...
leader Oliver Leeds and Afro-American Teachers Association President Al Vann would cite the UFT's refusal to support the 1964 integration campaign as proof that an alliance between the teachers' union and the black community was impossible.
Black schools and teachers
The UFT's program for poor Black schools was called "More Effective Schools". Under this program class sizes would shrink and teachers would double or triple up for individual classes. Although the UFT expected this program to be popular, it was challenged by the African-American Teachers Association (ATA; originally the Negro Teachers Association), a group whose founders in 1964 were also part of the UFT. 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.
The UFT opposed both involuntary assignment and extra incentives for experienced teachers to come to poor schools.
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. The ATA argued that this provision exemplified and accelerated the system's overall racism. 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. In February 1968, some ATA teachers helped to produce a tribute to
Malcolm X
Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Is ...
that presented African music and dance, and glorified
Black power; the UFT successfully asked that these teachers be disciplined.
Community control
In the New York City school system, regulated by a
civil service examination
Civil service examinations are examinations implemented in various countries for recruitment and admission to the civil service. They are intended as a method to achieve an effective, rational public administration on a merit system for recruiti ...
, only 8 percent of teachers and 3 percent of administrators were Black.
Following ''Brown v. Board'', 4,000 students in Ocean Hill–Brownsville were bused to white schools, where they complained of mistreatment.
Faith in the controllers of the school system sank lower and lower.
Bolstered by the
civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
, but frustrated by resistance to desegregation, African Americans began to demand authority over the schools in which their children were educated. The ATA called for community-controlled schools, educating with a "Black value system" that emphasized "unity" and "collective work and responsibility" (as opposed to the "middle class" value of "individualism").
Leftist white allies, including teachers from the recently eclipsed Teachers Union, supported these demands.
Mayor
John Lindsay
John Vliet Lindsay (; November 24, 1921 – December 19, 2000) was an American politician and lawyer. During his political career, Lindsay was a U.S. congressman, mayor of New York City, and candidate for U.S. president. He was also a regular ...
and wealthy business leaders, supported community control as a pathway to social stability.
) When in 1967 the
Bundy Report
''Reconnection to Learning'', better known as the Bundy Report, was a proposal to decentralize New York City schools in the late 1960s.
In the late 1960s Black Power movement, New York City activists advocated for "community control" of their ...
, a creation of the
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...
, recommended trying
decentralization
Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding planning and decision making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group.
Conce ...
, 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.
The
New York City Board of Education established the Ocean Hill–Brownsville area of
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
as one of three decentralized
school district
A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public primary and secondary schools in various nations.
North America United States
In the U.S, most K–12 public schools function as units of local school districts, wh ...
s created by the city. In July 1967, the Ford Foundation issued Ocean Hill–Brownsville a $44,000 grant. The new district operated under a separate, community-elected governing board with the power to hire administrators. If successful, the experiment could have led to citywide decentralization. While the local Black population viewed it as empowerment against what it saw as an intransigent white bureaucracy, the teachers' union and other unions saw it as
union busting
Union busting is a range of activities undertaken to disrupt or prevent the formation of trade unions or their attempts to grow their membership in a workplace.
Union busting tactics can refer to both legal and illegal activities, and can range ...
—a reduction in the collective bargaining power of the union who would now have to deal with 33 separate, local bodies, rather than a central administration.
Rhody McCoy, the new superintendent of the board, began working as a substitute teacher in 1949. He worked in the city's public school system ever since, as a teacher and then principal of a special needs school.
He told the ''New York Times'' he was gentle but ambitious, and eager to change schools for neglected children.
Some described him as a militant follower of
Malcolm X
Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Is ...
,
and the UFT opposed the board's decision to appoint him in July 1967.
McCoy often frequented a mosque Malcolm X preached at and often visited the preacher's home.
McCoy was reported to be influenced by the Harold Cruise book ''The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual'' and to believe Jews had too much influence in the
civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
.
McCoy nominated Herman Ferguson as the principal of JHS 271. Ferguson had penned an article in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' in which he wrote his ideal school would have lessons on "instructions in gun weaponry, gun handling, and gun safety" as survival skills in a hostile society. The nomination was withdrawn.
Curriculum and school environment
Educational stratification in elementary schools was reduced. Fewer grades were issued, and one school abolished grade ''levels'' completely.
The schools expanded the role of Black and African history and culture in the curriculum. Some schools began to teach
Swahili and African counting.
One school with a large number of Puerto Rican students became completely
bilingual.
Reports on the 1967–1968 school year were generally positive. Visitors, students, and parents who supported the schools raved about the shift to student-focused education.
However, the district still relied on the school board for funding, and many of its requests (e.g., for a telephone and new library books) were reportedly met slowly if at all.
Teachers were taken aback by the level of control exercised by the school board, and many objected to the board's new policies concerning personnel and curriculum. The UFT opposed the new principals denounced the Ocean Hill–Brownsville curriculum, saying that awareness of one's racial heritage would not be helpful in the job market.
Personnel
Once created, the new
administration
Administration may refer to:
Management of organizations
* Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal
** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...
of Ocean-Hill Brownsville began to select principals from outside the approved civil service list.
The schools appointed a racially diverse set of five new principals—including New York City's first Puerto Rican principal—winning broad support from the community but angering some teachers.
In April 1968, the administration sought additional control over personnel, finance, and curriculum.
When the city did not grant these powers, the district's parents initiated a boycott of the schools.
The boycotts coincided with unrest due to the April 4
assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. During disturbances in JHS 271 three teachers were injured.
On May 9, 1968, the administration requested the transfer of 13 teachers and 6 administrators from Junior High School 271. The governing board accused these workers of attempting to sabotage the project.
All received short letters similar to the following, sent to teacher Fred Nauman:
This unilateral decision violated the rules of the union's contract. The teachers were nearly unanimously Jewish. One Black teacher included on the list, seemingly by accident, was quickly reinstated.
In total, 83 workers were dismissed from the Ocean Hill–Brownsville district.
Parents in Brownsville generally supported the governing board.
Outsiders appreciated the Black school board's attempt to regain control over its own school system.
Shanker called the dismissals "a kind of vigilante activity" and said the schools had neglected
due process
Due process of law is application by state of all legal rules and principles pertaining to the case so all legal rights that are owed to the person are respected. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual pers ...
. The Board of Education urged the teachers to ignore the letters.
Mayor
John Lindsay
John Vliet Lindsay (; November 24, 1921 – December 19, 2000) was an American politician and lawyer. During his political career, Lindsay was a U.S. congressman, mayor of New York City, and candidate for U.S. president. He was also a regular ...
issued a statement countermanding the district's decision and condemning "anarchy and lawlessness".
The dismissals were also condemned by the
American Jewish Congress
The American Jewish Congress (AJCongress or AJC) is an association of American Jews organized to defend Jewish interests at home and abroad through public policy advocacy, using diplomacy, legislation, and the courts.
History
The AJCongress was ...
.
Strikes
May
When the teachers tried to return to the school, they were blocked by hundreds of community members and teachers who supported the administration's decision. One sign displayed in the window of the occupied school read, "Black people control your schools".
(At the same time, other teachers were staying off the job as per UFT instructions.)
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. The city's Board of Education and the Ocean Hill–Brownsville board both announced on the same day that the schools would close.
From May 22–24, 350 UFT members stayed out of school in protest.
On June 20, these 350 strikers were also dismissed by the governing board.
Under the terms of the decentralization agreement, the teachers were returned to the control of the New York City public school system, where they sat idle in the school district offices.
September through November
A series of citywide strikes at the start of the 1968 school year shut down the public schools for a total of 36 days. The union defied the new
Taylor Law
The Public Employees Fair Employment Act, more commonly known as the Taylor Law, is Article 14 of the New York State Civil Service Law, which defines the rights and limitations of unions for public employees in New York.
The Public Employees F ...
to go out on strike, and more than a million students were not able to attend school during strike days.
On September 9, 93 percent of the city's 58,000 teachers walked out. They agreed to return two days later after the Board of Education ordered the reinstatement of the dismissed teachers, but walked out again on September 13, once it became clear that the Board could not enforce this decision.
Reactions
Black leadership
The NAACP announced support for the strike even though community control deviated from the official
integrationist agenda.
The strike did have support from Black leaders
Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin (; March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987) was an African American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights.
Rustin worked with A. Philip Randolph on the March on Washington Movement, ...
and
A. Philip Randolph, who had gained prominence in the
labor movement
The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other.
* The trade union movement ...
as well as within the
civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
. Rustin and Randolph were shunned from the black community due to their position.
Dissent within the UFT
Not all UFT teachers supported the strike, and some actively opposed it with 1,716 union delegates opposing the strike and 12,021 supporting. A statistical study published in 1974 found that teachers—white and Black—of Black students were significantly more likely to oppose the strike.
A coalition of Black and Puerto Rican UFT members, supported by members of other local unions, released a statement supporting Ocean Hill–Brownsville and opposing the strike.
Immediate effects
On schools
In Ocean Hill–Brownsville
Students and teachers returned to a chaotic atmosphere in the fall. Classes were held despite UFT picket lines outside.
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.
The board hired new teachers to replace the strikers, including many local Jews, in an effort to prove that the district was not antisemitic.
The district's third graders were shown to have fallen from four months behind before community control to twelve months behind after it. The reading skills of the district's eighth graders were shown to have barely improved by the end of their time in ninth grade.
When the original teachers were restored to their posts at JHS 271, students refused to attend their classes.
[Sometimes the students were led into a separate room by a co-teacher: ] New York School Superintendent Bernard E. Donovan attempted to close schools in the district and to remove McCoy and most of the principals. When they refused to vacate their positions, Donovan called in the police.
The returning teachers were told to go to an auditorium to meet with Unit Administrator McCoy. When they arrived they were threatened and bullets were thrown at them by audience members, a pregnant teacher was punched in the stomach as she left the auditorium.
In New York City at large
Striking teachers were in and out of school during the first weeks of the year, affecting over one million students.
Superintendent Donovan ordered many schools locked; in many places, people smashed windows and broke locks to re-enter their school buildings (sealed by union janitors sympathetic to the strike).
Some camped on school grounds overnight to prevent further lockouts by janitors and custodians. Some were arrested on trespassing charges.
Other parents sent their children to Ocean Hill–Brownsville because the schools there were operational. Most of these outside students were Black but some were white; some came long distances to attend the community–controlled schools.
Racism and antisemitism
Shanker was routinely branded a racist, and many African-Americans accused the UFT of being 'Jewish-dominated'. A Puerto Rican group in the Ocean Hill–Brownsville neighborhood burnt Shanker in effigy.
Shanker and some Jewish groups attributed the original firing of the teachers to
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
.
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
Black separatism is a separatist political movement that seeks separate economic and cultural development for those of African descent in societies, particularly in the United States. Black separatism stems from the idea of racial solidarity, an ...
.
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"
[''When They Come for Us, We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry'' by Gal Beckerman]
On December 26, on radio station
WBAI
WBAI (99.5 FM) is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station licensed to New York, New York. Its programming is a mixture of political news, talk and opinion from a left-leaning, liberal or progressive viewpoint, and eclectic music. ...
, 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." The poem then goes on to say the author is sick about hearing about the Holocaust because it lasted only 15 years compared to the 400 years blacks had been suffering. Lester suggested he read that particular poem. Campbell asked Lester "Are you crazy?". Lester replied "No. I think it's important for people to know the kinds of feelings being aroused in at least one child because of what's happening in Ocean Hill-Brownsville." The union filed a complaint with the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
and tried to get Campbell fired. The incident further divided the Black and Jewish Communities.
Some members of the school community, as well as the
New York Civil Liberties Union
The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) is a civil rights organization in the United States. Founded in November 1951 as the New York affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, it is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan organization with nea ...
,
[Pritchett, ''Brownsville, Brooklyn'' (2002), p. 233.] accused Shanker of playing up antisemitism to win sympathy and support.
Of the district's new hires, 70 percent were neither Hispanic nor black, and half of these were Jewish.
Resolution
The strike ended on November 17, when the New York State Education Commissioner asserted state control over the Ocean Hill–Brownsville district.
The dismissed teachers were reinstated, three of the new principals were transferred, and the trusteeship ran the district for four months.
The conflict at Ocean Hill–Brownsville smoldered after the end of the strike. Eight people charged with harassing strikers counter-sued the city, alleging that law enforcement had been discriminatory and excessive.
[They charged the city with incarcerating them necessarily and argued that the real obstruction of government had been the strike itself: ] In 1969 some charged that the schools underwent "a purge of militant black teachers".
When school opened in September 1969, the school district shut itself down for a day in protest of new regulations that deprived it of further autonomy.
Aftermath
In the following weeks, hostility continued between the returning teachers and their students and replacement teachers. During the week of December 2 disorders by black students were reported in schools in four of the five of the city's boroughs as well in the
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
. They were said to be instigated by a rally held by the City Wide Student Strike committee organized by
Sonny Carson
Sonny is a common nickname and occasional given name. Often it can be a derivative of the English word "Son", a name derived from the Ancient Germanic element *sunn meaning "sun", a nickname derived from the Italian name Salvatore (especially in N ...
and JHS 271 teacher Leslie Campbell.
Shanker emerged from the strike a figure of national prominence. He was jailed for 15 days in February 1969 for sanctioning the strikes, in contravention of New York's
Taylor Law
The Public Employees Fair Employment Act, more commonly known as the Taylor Law, is Article 14 of the New York State Civil Service Law, which defines the rights and limitations of unions for public employees in New York.
The Public Employees F ...
. The Ocean Hill–Brownsville district lost direct control over its schools; other districts never gained control over their schools.
The UFT crippled the ATA during the 1970s through a lawsuit, filed under the
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and United States labor law, labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on Race (human categorization), race, Person of color, color, religion, sex, and nationa ...
, accusing the ATA of excluding white teachers. The UFT also sought to cut off the ATA's sources of funding and remove its leaders from the school system.
Residents of Brownsville continued to feel neglected by the city, and in 1970 some staged the "Brownsville Trash Riots". When the schools agreed to impose a standardized reading test in 1971, its scores had fallen.
The strike badly divided the city and became known as one of
John Lindsay
John Vliet Lindsay (; November 24, 1921 – December 19, 2000) was an American politician and lawyer. During his political career, Lindsay was a U.S. congressman, mayor of New York City, and candidate for U.S. president. He was also a regular ...
's "Ten Plagues".
Scholars have agreed with Shanker's assessment that "the whole alliance of liberals, blacks and Jews broke apart on this issue. It was a turning point in this way." The strike created a serious rift between white liberals, who supported the teachers' union, and Blacks who wanted community control. The strike made it clear that these groups, previously allied in the
Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
and the
labor movement
The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other.
* The trade union movement ...
, would sometimes come into conflict.
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
Jerald is a male, masculine given name which is a variant of Gerald, a German language, German name meaning "rule of the spear". Gerald was brought to Great Britain by the Normans, along with variants Jerold and Jerrold, and the feminine Geraldine ...
, 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.
The events surrounding the strike were a factor in the decision by
Meir Kahane
Meir David HaKohen Kahane (; he, רבי מאיר דוד הכהן כהנא ; born Martin David Kahane; August 1, 1932 – November 5, 1990) was an American-born Israeli ordained Orthodox rabbi, writer, and ultra-nationalist politician who serve ...
to form the
Jewish Defense League
The Jewish Defense League (JDL) is a Jewish far-right religious-political organization in the United States and Canada, whose stated goal is to "protect Jews from antisemitism by whatever means necessary". It has been classified as "a right w ...
.
Terrorist Organization Profile: Jewish Defense League University of Maryland
/ref>
References
Notes
Further reading
*
*
*
*
External links
News video containing interviews with people involved
{{Ethnicity in New York City
1968 in Judaism
Labor relations in New York City
Education labor disputes in the United States
1968 labor disputes and strikes
1968 in New York City
American Federation of Teachers
Multiracial affairs in the United States
Jews and Judaism in Brooklyn
African-American history in New York City
African American–Jewish relations
History of racism in New York (state)
Labor disputes in New York City