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.
1969 Pamphlet on Bayard Rustin’s Support for Labor Rights and Racial Integration in NYC Schools
In his pamphlet Conflict or Coalition?: The Civil Rights Struggle and the Trade Union Movement Today, Bayard Rustin championed the United Federation of Teachers' efforts to advance racial integration and labor rights, portraying teacher unions as vital links connecting education reform with broader civil rights progress.
