Inside Ocean Hill–Brownsville

Charles S. Isaacs

Description

Silver Winner, 2014 ForeWord IndieFab Book of the Year Award in the Education Category

In 1968 the conflict that erupted over community control of the New York City public schools was centered in the black and Puerto Rican community of Ocean Hill–Brownsville. It triggered what remains the longest teachers' strike in US history. That clash, between the city's communities of color and the white, predominantly Jewish teachers' union, paralyzed the nation's largest school system, undermined the city's economy, and heightened racial tensions, ultimately transforming the national conversation about race relations.

At age twenty-two, when the strike was imminent, Charles S. Isaacs abandoned his full scholarship to a prestigious law school to teach mathematics in Ocean Hill–Brownsville. Despite his Jewish background and pro-union leanings, Isaacs crossed picket lines manned by teachers who looked like him, and took the side of parents and children who did not. He now tells the story of this conflict, not only from inside the experimental, community-controlled Ocean Hill–Brownsville district, its focal point, but from within ground zero itself: Junior High School 271, which became the nation's most famous, or infamous, public school. Isaacs brings to life the innovative teaching practices that community control made possible, and the relationships that developed in the district among its white teachers and its black and Puerto Rican parents, teachers, and community activists.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Preface

Part I. Prelude to Confrontation

Part II. Ten Weeks, Three Strikes

Part III. The Vise Tightens

Part IV. Aftermath

Notes
Illustration Credits
Sources
Index

Sujets

• USA
• United States of America
• Local history
• History of education
• Region
• 20th century
• History of the Americas
• Education
• Regional
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 09 mai 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438452975
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

Praise for Inside Ocean Hill–Brownsville
“ Inside Ocean Hill–Brownsville makes a vital contribution to a much-needed reinterpretation of the epochal struggles over community control of the New York City public schools in the 1960s, and the divisive UFT fall 1968 strikes in opposition to that community-based movement. Writing from the firsthand perspective of a young Jewish math teacher at JHS 271, Isaacs brings this important story vividly to life with insight, candor, and humor. He evokes the attitudes and actions of a rich array of ordinary teachers, administrators, students, and parents who fought to defend the community-control experiment in the face of the lies and distortions perpetrated by UFT officials and the mainstream press. A must read for anyone interested in creating successful public schools, this book helps us remember what democratic public education might look like.”
— Stephen Brier, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
“Charles Isaacs’s Inside Ocean Hill–Brownsville is a firsthand account of the dramatic events of New York City’s greatest school crisis. Isaacs debunks many of the popular myths of black militants waging assaults on teachers. Instead, he demonstrates that the episode in Ocean Hill–Brownsville was a case of black and Latino parents, with the support of a number of teachers at JHS 271, struggling for the education of their children and for a more democratically run educational system. These parents faced one of the most powerful unions in the city and a bureaucratic board of education that wanted to protect the status quo. There have been many books written on the 1968 teachers’ strike, but Isaacs’s well-written, detailed account is by far the best.”
— Clarence Taylor, author of Knocking at Our Own Door: Milton A. Galamison and the Struggle to Integrate New York City Schools
Inside Ocean Hill–Brownsville
Inside Ocean Hill–Brownsville
A Teacher’s Education, 1968–69
Charles S. Isaacs
Cover Photo: Children pass through a police gauntlet to the doors of JHS 271 (Fall 1968)
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2014 Charles S. Isaacs
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
Excelsior Editions is an imprint of State University of New York Press
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu
Production by Diane Ganeles Marketing by Kate McDonnell
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Isaacs, Charles S., 1945– Inside Ocean Hill-Brownsville : a teacher s education, 1968–69 / Charles S. Isaacs. pages cm. — (Excelsior editions) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4384-5296-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Strikes and lockouts—Teachers—New York (State)—New York. 2. Ocean Hill-Brownsville Demonstration School District (New York, N.Y.) 3. Discrimination in education—New York (State)—New York. 4. Isaacs, Charles S., 1945– 5. Teachers—New York (State)—New York—Biography. I. Title. LB2844.47.U62N485 2014 331.88 113711—dc23
2013042569
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to the memory of
Bill Birenbaum Thelma Hamilton Major Owens Annie Stein Jitu Weusi Preston Wilcox Teachers … Warriors … Friends
This experiment does not concern just New York City, but the whole nation, wherever people tried to make democracy work.
—Rev. C. Herbert Oliver The New York Times (November 1, 1969)
The 1968 battle over school decentralization in an obscure Brooklyn district called Ocean Hill–Brownsville ripped apart New York City as nothing has before or since.
—John Kifner The New York Times (December 22, 1996)
Over forty years (later), Jews’ and African-Americans’ relationship remains deeply affected by the Ocean Hill–Brownsville strikes … This episode looms large in the American collective consciousness because it solidified the national splintering and collapse of generations of collaboration.
—Melissa Weiner Power, Protest and the Public Schools (2010)
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Preface
Part I Prelude to Confrontation
Part II Ten Weeks, Three Strikes
Part III The Vise Tightens
Part IV Aftermath
Notes
Illustration Credits
Sources
Index
Illustrations
Fig. 0.1 The author typing notes of school experiences (1969).
Fig. 1.1 Rev. Milton A. Galamison (undated, c. 1962).
Fig. 1.2 Thelma Hamilton at Board of Education hearing (undated, mid-1960s).
Fig. 1.3 Preston Wilcox at a 1968 parent meeting.
Fig. 1.4 Father John Powis (1969).
Fig. 1.5 BCC Director Major R. Owens.
Fig. 1.6 Rhody A. McCoy, Ocean Hill–Brownsville Unit Administrator (1968).
Fig. 1.7 Activists block the entrance to JHS 271 (May 13, 1968).
Fig. 1.8 Albert Shanker leads UFT rally against Ocean Hill–Brownsville (May, 1968).
Fig. 1.9 Teacher-lobbyists gathering for chartered train to Albany (May, 1968).
Fig. 2.1 William H. Harris, principal of JHS 271 (1968).
Fig. 2.2 John Doar, NYC Board of Education president (1968).
Fig. 2.3 Marching through Ocean Hill–Brownsville (October 1, 1968).
Fig. 2.4 Police bracing for trouble (October 9, 1968).
Fig. 2.5 Patrolling the skies over JHS 271 (October 9, 1968).
Fig. 2.6 Bernard E. Donovan, NYC Superintendent of Schools (1968).
Fig. 2.7 Crowds assemble for the October 14, 1968 rally.
Fig. 2.8 Marchers take the Brooklyn Bridge. McCoy and Rev. Oliver are flanked by Claude Oliver and Governing Board members Elaine Rooke and Agnes Hansen.
Fig. 2.9 UFT flyer promoting its October 17, 1968, City Hall rally.
Fig. 2.10 Bayard Rustin and Albert Shanker rushing to the UFT rally (October 17, 1968).
Fig. 2.11 Les Campbell at the blackboard (October 23, 1968).
Fig. 2.12 A JHS 271 bulletin board.
Fig. 3.1 Teachers voting to end the strike (November 18, 1968).
Fig. 3.2 Fred Nauman (undated).
Fig. 3.3 Rev. C. Herbert Oliver, Governing Board chairman, after a long day (1968).
Fig. 3.4 “Shame” scrawled on news coverage of author’s press conference (January 28, 1969).
Fig. 3.5 First issue of the revolutionary High School Free Press.
Fig. 3.6 Al Vann speaking at ATA press conference. Author is at upper left. (June 17, 1969).
Fig. 4.1 Annie Stein (1975).
Fig. 4.2 Rev. Oliver presiding (April 9, 1978).
Acknowledgments
I have never done anything but write, but I don’t possess the vocation or talents of a narrator, have no knowledge at all of the laws of dramatic composition, and if I have embarked upon this enterprise it is because I trust in the light shed by how much I have read in my life.
—Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Memories of My Melancholy Whores
This book was written without a publishing contract, or even a reasonable expectation that it would ever be published. Three experienced, sympathetic literary agents predicted that it would never see the light of day. I had no experience with book publishing, no agent, no interns or researchers, and no financial assistance, university post, or any other reliable source of income. What I did have, and what proved indispensable, was the ongoing support of good friends and old colleagues who believed that this was a story worth telling, and who kept my spirits up when clouds of pessimism gathered. My thanks to Lynne Slater, Fran Barrett, Mac Barrett, Alan Shulman, Carol London, Dorothy Williams, and Maurice Reid; to my sons, Marc and Steven Stern; and particularly to Wayne Barrett, Helen Birenbaum, Steve Bloomfield, Dr. Stephen Brier, Monifa Edwards, and Jitu Weusi, each of whom took the time to read drafts or excerpts and offered valuable, though sometimes conflicting, comments and suggestions. It’s also about time that I thanked my JHS 271 colleague, Steve Mayer, who contributed many of his own experiences back in 1969.
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Steve Brier, whose interest in the subject first triggered the idea for a book. Steve held my hand throughout the entire process. He digitized some of my old notes; he showed me the modern methods of referencing sources; he copyedited my first draft (without being asked); he opened doors at publishing houses; and he gave me thoughtful answers to an endless series of questions. Without his expertise and his patience, as well as his own commitment to this story, it would never have been told.
My wife, Carole, and I were brought together by the Ocean Hill–Brownsville struggles. She has put up with me for almost forty years now. Carole was the first to encourage me to take on this project, and her enthusiasm never flagged for a moment. She was always available for sounding out ideas, and for good advice based on her own deep community organizing experience. Never once did she suggest that my time would be better spent in a more remunerative activity.
The writing of memoir has a Rashomon-like quality to it. Since we experience the world solely through our own individual senses, and filter the input through our own mindsets, no two narratives can be