Reds at the Blackboard: Communism, Civil Rights, and the New York City Teachers Union

by Clarence Taylor

The New York City Teachers Union shares a deep history with the American left, having participated in some of its most explosive battles. Established in 1916, the union maintained an early, unofficial partnership with the American Communist Party, winning key union positions and advocating a number of Party goals. Clarence Taylor recounts this pivotal relationship and the backlash it created, as the union threw its support behind controversial policies and rights movements. Taylor's research reaffirms the party's close ties with the union—yet it also makes clear that the organization was anything but a puppet of Communist power.

Reds at the Blackboard showcases the rise of a unique type of unionism that would later dominate the organizational efforts behind civil rights, academic freedom, and the empowerment of blacks and Latinos. Through its affiliation with the Communist Party, the union pioneered what would later become social movement unionism, solidifying ties with labor groups, black and Latino parents, and civil rights organizations to acquire greater school and community resources. It also militantly fought to improve working conditions for teachers while championing broader social concerns. For the first time, Taylor reveals the union's early growth and the somewhat illegal attempts by the Board of Education to eradicate the group. He describes how the infamous Red Squad and other undercover agents worked with the board to bring down the union and how the union and its opponents wrestled with charges of anti-Semitism.

Genres: Education, Labor, History, Nonfiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published November 12, 2010

Reviews

[Andy Weiss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting book based on extensive archival research. I especially appreciate Taylor’s treatment of civil rights issues and black teachers, topics that have been largely overlooked in other treatments of the teachers union. While Taylor spends some time addressing the existing literature on communism and anti communism I think the book could have benefited from a more systematic examination of the topic and where the battle over the teachers union and education fits in. I especially hoped for a deeper treatment of the tension between the very real pressure the party put on its members to follow the party line and put party goals first and the genuine interests of many party members to work for real social change in their schools and communities, individually and through the union. Taylor presents the claims of ex-communists that the party did not truly care about the issues the TU claimed to be fighting for, it merely used those issues as a way to draw people into the party to advance its revolutionary aims. Taylor seems to reject the ex-communist claim by repeatedly pointing to the fact that there was no evidence that communist teachers ever brought their ideologies into the classroom and or sought to indoctrinate their students. And wile that is an extremely important point to make and puts the Board of Ed’s investigation into the larger context of the Cold War witch hunts, it doesn’t further our understanding of the dynamics at play within the TU. It also doesn’t address fully the basic question of whether a teacher’s political beliefs and activities can be totally separated from their role as teacher or which political beliefs it’s ok to have and which not. Would Taylor say that an active member of the KKK is fit to be a teacher as long as there’s no evidence of classroom indoctrination? In addition to my wanting a deeper analysis of some of these issues, I was continually frustrated by the terrible copy editing and the often haphazard footnotes. Much of the time I could not tell which archival collection sources were drawn from because Taylor doesn’t include a reference in his footnotes.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best written thing I've read and I only wouldn't recommend because I think you'd have to be really interested in the nitty gritty, and willing to slog through a hundred names of people you never heard of and may never heard of again, just to get through it. Plus there's a lot of typos and the author isn't the greatest at putting it all together...

But it's a history I had never heard of before and, as a NYC union teacher, means a lot to me. Fascinating that the Local 2, the TU (Teacher's Union) preceded the current UFT (United Federation of Teachers) and was so radical. The main things I learned were about how the TU:
1) was dominated by communist party members, divided along lines of those who wanted to follow the Comintern (soviet) line and those who wanted an independent American communist movement,
2) advocated a social justice version of unionism much like today's UTLA (United Teachers Los Angeles) as opposed to simply improving teacher's working conditions,
3) fought for their union to be associated with the CIO as for teaching to be recognized as industrial labor as opposed to 'professional' labor as their opponents and modern reps advocate.

Even researching the union afterward, I found that today's modern AFT (American Federation of Teachers) cites Local 2 in their short website's history page, but basically accuses them of having been disruptive - while denying communist influence and calling it simple 'redbaiting'. But the story in this book is far more interesting to me. It seems that there WERE major communist trends of power within the American labor movement from the 1930s onward and the crime of crushing it wasn't that people were accused of being communists who weren't (though certainly it happened) but rather that there was a vibrant communist movement that should be regarded with admiration! It posed a threat to power and it's a shame that the anti-communist hysteria of the 50s work in crushing it.

[wdbo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating history of the conflict between social justice unionism and professional unionism in education. A must read for NEA and AFT members.