Chapter 6 Resources
Introduction to Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Movement (Parts III and IV)
For an introduction to Brown v. Board of Education, school desegregation in the 1950s, and the civil rights movement, see parts III and IV in this chapter from American Yawp, an online open American history textbook.
Alice Citron was a teacher and a leader of the Teachers Union in New York City. As a member of the Harlem Teachers Committee, she saw the union’s role as a movement for radical social change. This oral history held at New York University’s Tamiment Library discusses the Harlem Committee and other aspects of her activism and teaching career in Harlem.
Charles Cogen was a teacher and a leader of the Teachers Guild in New York City. As discussed in chapter 6, Cogen and the Teachers Guild were focused on the union’s role to push for better working conditions, and did not build alliances with Black parents and civic organizations. In the 1960s, Cogen became president of the United Federation of Teachers and later the American Federation of Teachers. This oral history is held at New York University’s Tamiment Library.
Teachers Union Editorial Cartoons (1948-1962)
These cartoons by Teachers Union member Bernard Kassoy were published in the union’s New York Teacher News. They reference many of the issues addressed by the union, including school overcrowding, inadequate pay, teacher overwork, and the Board of Education’s anticommunism.
This Board of Education report describes progress made on the 1954 Committee on Integration’s recommendations. The introduction and table of contents help to characterize the Board’s policies on integration in this period. Chapter V discusses the teacher transfer policies meant to address racial disparities in access to qualified teachers, which the Teachers Guild opposed.
Wadleigh Junior High School Oral Histories
These oral histories describe students’ experiences at a segregated school in Harlem in the 1960s and beyond, and they contain both similarities and differences from the discussion of Harlem schooling in chapter 6. Many of them center on strong relationships with teachers.
This website explores the creation of residential discrimination and segregation through “redlining,” which helped make Harlem’s demographic transition in the 1930s and beyond. Readers can view the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation redlining maps for Harlem and other neighborhoods across the United States.
Home Owners Loan Corporation map of Manhattan, 1938. Credit: Mapping Inequality.
This website explores how the federal government perpetuated racial and spatial inequalities through public and private redevelopment. It maps urban renewal in the 1950s and 1960s, depicting changes to Harlem during this period as residents were displaced by redevelopment.
Discussion Questions
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In what ways did the visions of teacher activism expressed by the Teachers Union and the Teachers Guild differ? How do the relationships of teachers to students, parents, or communities in the chapter compare to those remembered by Deborah Lucas Davis and Barbara Wilson-Brooks in these oral history exhibits. To access the exhibits, select “Learning the Landscape: Deborah Lucas-Davis on Growing Up in Harlem” and “Barbara Wilson-Brooks’ Harlem Community.”
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Considering the history of the two unions discussed in chapter 6, what do you think the purpose of a teachers union should be? Explore the current missions of New York City’s United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and the UFT’s social justice caucus, Movement Of Rank and File Educators. How does each compare to the Teachers Union or the Teachers Guild?