Building Power, Breaking Power: The United Teachers of New Orleans, 1965-2008

by Jesse Chanin

Overview

From 1965 to 2005, the United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO) defied the South’s conservative anti-union efforts to become the largest local in Louisiana. Jesse Chanin argues that UTNO accomplished and maintained its strength through strong community support, addressing a Black middle-class political agenda, internal democracy, and drawing on the legacy and tactics of the civil rights movement by combining struggles for racial and economic justice, all under Black leadership and with a majority women and Black membership. However, the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina provided the state government and local charter school advocates with the opportunity to remake the school system and dismantle the union. Authorities fired 7,500 educators, marking the largest dismissal of Black teaching staff since Brown v. Board of Education.

Chanin highlights the significant staying power and political, social, and community impact of UTNO, as well as the damaging effects of the charter school movement on educators.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469678221
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	04/16/2024
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Jesse Chanin is a postdoctoral fellow at Tulane University’s Coalition for Compassionate Schools, where she facilitates youth participatory action research.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Meticulously researched, this book places Black teachers and their fight for equality at the forefront of a political narrative that has long marginalized them. Moreover, it offers crucial insights into the ongoing debates surrounding public education, teachers' unions, civil rights, and neoliberal reform, making it an essential read for those seeking a comprehensive understanding of these interconnected issues.”—William P. Jones, University of Minnesota

“A riveting history and insightful analysis, this work exposes the racism and conservative school reform tactics that were used to dismantle a formidable economic, political, and socially impactful Black-led teachers' union following a natural disaster. This work is poised to make a compelling and substantive argument to critical education reform debates.”—Rebecca Kolins Givan, Rutgers University

Editorial Reviews

An excellent history of the people who made the [education] system work, anchored its communities, and never failed to advocate for its students. Building Power, Breaking Power . . .  makes important contributions to the fields of labor history, education history, Southern history, African American history, and urban histories of neoliberalism.”—The Metropole

“Building Power, Breaking Power makes notable contributions to the historiographies of teachers’ union in the United States, Black teachers and the civil rights movement, and the post-1965 urban South. . . . Given that historians of American teachers’ unions have focused on regions where white educators dominated the profession, this is a valuable corrective.”—Historical Studies in Education

From the Publisher