Community Control (Newsreel #24)

This film documents one of the most important struggles for education in the sixties. In 1968, under intensive community pressure from Black and Latino communities, the State of New York chose three New York City school districts to become part of an experiment in community-run education. In Ocean Hill-Brownsville, the community board requested the reassignment of several teachers perceived as racists. The request brought the wrath of the United Federation of Teachers, city and state bureaucracies, and ultimately a citywide teacher’s strike.