Historian Daniel Perlstein examines Bayard Rustin’s controversial role in the 1968 New York City school crisis, when Rustin sided with the United Federation of Teachers against Black activists calling for community control in Ocean Hill–Brownsville. Arguing that integration and labor–civil rights coalitions were essential to lasting political power, Rustin maintained that separatist approaches would weaken the broader struggle for economic and racial justice.
The Power of Absence: The 1964 New York City School Boycott
Bayard Rustin helped lead a massive, peaceful school boycott in New York City, as more than 464,000 students stayed home to protest racial imbalance and unequal conditions in Black and Puerto Rican schools. Marked by orderly picketing, a major march in Brooklyn, and the creation of “Freedom Schools,” the action demonstrated the disciplined power of coalition politics to demand integrated, quality education.
