Reposted from @zinneducationproject On Feb. 19, 1968, over 27,000 teachers and administrators from the Florida Education Association (FEA) handed in their resignation letters and walked out. It was the first statewide teachers strike in the United States. The Florida Teachers’ Strike of 1968 occurred in response to Governor Claude Kirk’s refusal to meet Florida Education Association (FEA) demands on salary and school budget increases, and the overall failure of Florida legislators to fund public education. The strike lasted until March 8, when the State Board of Education and FEA came to an agreement on increasing funds for public education. Many teachers went back to work after the strike ended but thousands were also refused rehire due to their involvement in the strike. Learn more about the strike in “For the students: the 1968 Florida teacher strike” (undergraduate thesis by Jody Noll) and “‘We Are Not Hired Help’: The 1968 Florida Statewide Teacher and the Formation of Modern Florida” by Jody Noll. Florida Historical Quarterly 95, no. 3 (2017): 356-382. In his 2017 article, Noll describes how the strike was a continuation of Florida’s Black Civil Rights Movement and how African-American “leaders within Florida’s civil rights movement viewed the teachers’ strike as a means to address the disparities between white and African-American schools.” The strike occurred after Florida’s teachers unions merged as an integrated FEA in 1966. With the unions united, Black and white teachers found common ground in the labor struggle. This is one of many people's history stories in Florida history that could be labeled too "controversial" to teach — in Florida and other states. What's the "danger" of these stories? That young people learn from the past how to shape a more just future. In solidarity, The New Press has partnered with the Zinn Education Project to send books to teachers and teacher educators in Florida (as well as Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas). Learn more at https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/free-books-florida-texas-virginia [linked in bio] https://www.instagram.com/p/Co3k8RutJIN/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=













