I believe that the teachers’ strike in New York during 1968 was stemmed solely from the unwarranted opposition to any strides to improve the academic situation for minorities. An early example of this was the unnecessary backlash and deliberate sabotage of the Educational Park project. In the early 1960’s many civil rights and integration activists persistently pushed the notion of Educational Park to city hall. They believed by creating a college-like campus with the state of the art resources and labs, it could help promote the intellectual advancement of their students. An argument for this plan was that instead of dispersing limited resources to many small schools, the city could heavily invest in a shared community campus and have these luxurious resources focused on one school. White parents in eastern Brooklyn strongly opposed this strictly stating that they opposed the busing of their children to outside neighborhoods they deemed to be dangerous. From reading the arguments white parents stated in opposition of Educational Park, it is quite obvious that the educational aspect of schooling was not the highest priority. The highest priority for these parents were to keep their schools highly concentrated with white students and to keep their children out of “dangerous” neighborhoods.
Throughout this time period, many minority students also received unwarranted abuse while attending their assigned schools. On their way to school, students, parents, and busing advocates were all pelted with eggs and were called “niggers”. The other white students themselves ostracized the black students being bused into their school. For many black and latino families, the main priority was to simply receive equal educational opportunities as their white counterparts. With repeated unwarranted racism and abuse, the idea of the community controlled schools was created. Many of those who advocated for this strongly urged to allow the community to dictate schools in the children’s’ and community’s best interests. However, though liberal, many of the teachers in the United Federation of Teachers opposed this idea. They believed that implementing this kind of program would undo the many benefits and changes they fought so hard to gain.
I believe the idea of community controlled schools is where liberal school reformists started to split in their ideology and mission. After being granted an experimental district to test out new schooling organizations, teacher discontent quickly ensued. Teachers started resigning, accusing the governing board of the experimental district of ignoring their views. Discontent grew even further when Rhody McCoy was selected as unit administrator who was not listed as an approved personnel to fill the position. McCoy hired teachers and principals not on the approved lists. He also regularly made decisions that seemed arbitrary and contrary to his directives. Soon, in May 1968, 13 teachers were fired due to their undermining of the community control program. 350 more teachers striked in support for the 13 terminated teachers, only to meet the same fate; McCoy dismissed all 350 teachers. I believe that the root to these conflicts was due to the early opposition to integration efforts. So when given the opportunity to run a program they saw fit, community control advocates did so at the expense of the teachers in the experimental district.
The 1968 teacher strike is another example that shows how policies, ideology, and reality collided and put different groups of people in dilemma. I agree with you that the root to the strike is the “early opposition to integration efforts”. In addition, “the split” that you mentioned in your post is also essential in the escalation of the conflicts.
Just as you mentioned in your post, minorities were under serious attacks, such as being “pelted with eggs and called ‘niggers’”. Such treatment was very disappointing, especially after the government had approved equal education opportunities. As the conflicts between minorities and white majority were piling up, the advocates for the community-controlled schools “split” – unit supervisor Rhody McCoy fired 13 teachers and over 300 teachers protested against McCoy. You can see there are multiple layers of conflicts at the same time.
The undergoing social transformation was also one of the major reasons that led to the teacher strike, although it does not seem very obvious. During the teacher strike, the whole society was still trying to find its direction and balance in educational system while the objects of the society (in this case, the students, parents, and teachers) were in demand of protection. Individuals needed to feel secure about their families, future, living environment, and education environment. It was very difficult to try to find balance because of the special circumstance at the time: teachers’ and minorities’ benefits could be “against” each other.
In my opinion, it must cost a huge amount of efforts and time to keep pushing for a perfect education system for all people. Conflicts happened and will happen. Right now, we have over 11,000 people signing a petition against LaGuardia High School admission policy; there are heated discussions on racial representations in elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools; de Blasio’s “choice” system also led to many debates… The experimental schooling system and teacher strike in 1968 represented an attempt to change the unsatisfactory social environment and the strike might happen in the future – you never know.
Thanks for these posts. Derek, I appreciate so much that you identify the roots of this particular struggle in the racist views and actions of white New Yorkers, which made successful integration in the city schools impossible. Given this impasse, is it not surprising that families in under-resourced and under-served communities turned inward for solutions? Sophie, I appreciate your point that in a school system as large as New York’s there will always be conflict in the pursuit of reform. But surely not all conflicts are of equal merit and importance?