Strike!: Twenty Days in 1970 When Minneapolis Teachers Broke the Law

by William D. Green

The complex and dramatic history of an illegal teachers’ strike that forever altered labor relations and Minnesota politics
  When viewed from our turbulent times, the Minneapolis of fifty years ago might seem serene, but Minneapolis schoolteachers of the day remember it quite differently. It was, author William D. Green said of their recollections, as if they’d been through war. This book recreates twenty days in April 1970 when a then-illegal strike by Minneapolis’s public school teachers marked a singular moment of cultural upheaval—and forever changed the city’s politics, labor law, educational climate, and the right to collective bargaining. Since the inception of public education in Minnesota, teachers were expected to pursue their vocation out of civic spirit, with low wages, no benefits, and no job security. Strike! describes the history and circumstances leading to the teachers’ extraordinary action, which pitted the progressive and conservative teachers’ unions against each other—and both against the all-powerful school district, a hostile governor and state legislature, and a draconian Minnesota law. Capturing the intense emotions and heated rivalries of the strike, Green profiles the many actors involved, the personal and professional stakes, and the issues of politics, law, and the business of education.  Informed by interviews, firsthand accounts, news reports, and written records, Strike! brings to life a pivotal moment not just for Minneapolis’s teachers but for the city itself, whose government, school system, and culture would, in a complex but inexorable way, change course for good.

224 pages, Paperback

Expected publication June 23, 2026

About the author

William D. Green was the M. Anita Gaye Hawthorne Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies and Professor of History at Augsburg University until 2022. Devoting his career to writing about race and Minnesota, he has published four books—A Peculiar Imbalance: The Fall and Rise of Racial Equality in Early Minnesota, Degrees of Freedom: The Origins of Civil Rights in Minnesota, The Children of Lincoln: White Paternalism and the Limits on Black Opportunity, and Nellie Francis: Fighting for Racial Justice and Women’s Equality in Minnesota.

Degrees of Freedom and The Children of Lincoln won the Hognander-Minnesota Book Awards in 2016 and 2020, respectively. He holds an MA, a PhD, and a JD from the University of Minnesota, and a B.A. in History from Gustavus Adolphus College. He served as Superintendent of Minneapolis Schools and vice president of the executive council of the Minnesota Historical Society. He has published articles, op-ed pieces, and book chapters on history, law, and education, and has spoken widely at such places as the Ramsey County Bar Association; Friends of the Ramsey County Library; Unity Unitarian Universalist Church in St. Paul, and William Mitchell Law School. He has also lectured at Peabody College-Vanderbilt University, St. John’s University, and Lincoln College-Oxford University. While serving as Superintendent of Minneapolis Public Schools, he studied school reform at Harvard University.