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Timeline |
History |
Clarence Taylor's history of the Teachers Union |
Teachers On Trial
Timeline |
Linda Cirino: The People and the Records
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This Timeline traces the political impact of the blacklist
era on New York's schools. Please click on the images to
enlarge photos and documents.
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1916
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Teachers Union (TU) founded; Dr. Henry R. Linville, president.
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1920-1923
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Passed
in 1920, the Lusk Laws require teachers to apply to the state
education commissioner for certifications of their loyalty and
character. They are repealed in 1923 under Governor Alfred E.
Smith.
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1932
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The
Board of Education implements cuts in teacher salaries.
Opposition groups in TU gain strength.
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1935
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TU
membership 2,200. Some 800 members leave the TU to form the
Teachers Guild. Charles J. Hendley elected TU president, and
Bella Dodd becomes legislative representative. With the new
officers in place, TU members in Harlem schools form the
Harlem Committee of the Teachers Union to work to improve
conditions for the children in the schools, as well as to
focus on Negro history and fight discrimination. Lucile Spence
is the chairman.
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1936
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The
Harlem Committee of the Teachers Union joins with parents, and
civic and religious leaders to form the Committee for Better
Schools in Harlem.
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1940-1942
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Rapp-Coudert
hearings in the New York State Senate target subversive
teachers and result in some 50 or more college and public
school teachers losing their jobs through the 1940s. TU
membership declines during the 2 years of the hearings, and
the union was badly weakened.
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1941
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The
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) revokes the TUs charter
and granted a charter to the Teachers Guild.
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1944
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Rose
Russell becomes the TUs legislative representative.
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1948-1950
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A LOOK AHEAD: The Board of Education, after some
resistance to the pressures building on the national level,
begins checking on teacher backgrounds. Superintendent of
Schools William Jansen tells Congress there are at most a few
Communist teachers in the system, but soon launches initial
investigations.
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1948
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Abraham Lederman is elected TU president. TU immediate past
president Samuel Wallach refuses on constitutional grounds to
answer questions before a House subcommittee investigating
alleged Communism in the TU.
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December 1948
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Elementary school
teacher Minnie Gutride commits suicide after being questioned
in her school by two aides from Superintendent Jansen's
office.
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1949
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Superintendent Jansen announces he is investigating 6 teachers
for possible Communist ties. He denies he is launching a witch
hunt.
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July 1,
1949
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The
Feinberg Law goes into effect. It specifies that current
membership in a subversive organization is sufficient cause
for dismissal, while past membership was presumptive proof of
current membership unless a full break with any such
organization could be proven. The Board will make perhaps even
more use of Section 903 of the City Charter, which calls for
dismissal of city employees who assert their Fifth Amendment
rights.
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September 1949
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Jansen
announces the procedures the Board of Education will follow in
implementing the Feinberg Law. The New York Times reports that
25 teacher and public groups spoke against the proposed rule
while 5 spoke in support.
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1950-1952
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A LOOK AHEAD: The Board of Education brings the first
post-Rapp-Coudert cases, and the first dismissals occur. The
Board continues serious internal discussions and development
of the policies it will follow in subsequent actions and
investigations.
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March
1950
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Elementary school teacher Sylvia Schneiderman becomes the
first teacher dismissed as the investigations intensify.
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May
1950
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Superintendent Jansen suspends 8 teachers, including TU
leaders and active members David Friedman, Abraham Lederman,
Celia Lewis Zitron, Isador Rubin, and Alice Citron.
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June 1950
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Despite significant opposition, the Board of Education passes
the Timone Resolution banning the TU from operating in the
schools and declaring the Board would not negotiate with the
TU. Using the resolution, Jansen permitted principals to ban
the union from distributing its materials in teachers letter
boxes.
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July
1951
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Assistant corporation counsel Saul Moskoff is assigned to the
Board of Education from the citys Law Department to handle
the anti-Communist investigations.
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December 1951
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The
Board of Education issues a policy statement reiterating that
present Communist Party membership was sufficient basis for
dismissal, but that past membership might not be, and that
each case would be considered individually.
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1952
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The
first Negro History Week supplement appears in New York
Teacher News. They appeared every year through 1963.
Other special supplements included Puerto Rico Day in 1954;
Jewish Centenerary, also in 1954; 400 Years of
Italian-American History in 1955; and Pan-American Week in
1956.
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January
1952
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Superintendent
Jansen suspends 8 more teachers for refusing to answer
questions about CP membership. They include Dorothy Bloch,
Mildred Flacks, and Samuel Wallach.
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March
1952
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The U.S. Supreme
Court upholds the Feinberg Law in Adler vs. Board of Education
of the City of New York. In addition to Irving Adler, the
others bringing the case include Edith Tiger.
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Summer
1952
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The second Timone
Resolution extends a ban against the use of school buildings
by organizations on the Attorney Generals List to the TU,
even though it wasnt on the list.
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September 1952
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The Senate Internal
Security Subcommittee holds hearings in New York. Several NYC
teachers who invoke the Fifth Amendment are fired, as are some
college teachers. Newspapers report that Bella Dodd, in
addition to her public testimony, named 100 teachers as
Communists in executive session. These sessions go into
October. The Board of Education conducts departmental trials
for the first teachers charged. Senate hearings will continue
into 1953.
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November 1952
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The Board of
Education suspends Irving Adler and 4 other teachers for
insubordination and conduct unbecoming a teacher.
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1953-1958
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A LOOK
AHEAD: Departmental trials take place for more of the teachers
previously charged, against a background of changes in the
rules and regulations governing the procedures. The Board of
Education brings additional teachers up on charges. The TU
helps the affected teachers by helping with legal and living
costs. But by 1953 membership falls to 3,000 from a high of
7,000.
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February 1953
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The TU ends its affiliation with the United Public Workers (UPW),
saying it will now act as an independent teacher organization.
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March
1953
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Jansen says that 81
teachers had been suspended, allowed to resign, or had retired
since the Board began formal investigations in 1950. Another
180 are under investigation, he says.
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June
1953
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Application of the
Feinberg Law is extended to New Yorks colleges and
universities. The Board of Higher Education sets up a special
committee to decide on the use of Section 903 and the Feinberg
Law.
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January
1954
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Moskoff reports
that 149 teachers and other Board employees have been forced
out through dismissal or through resignations and retirements.
He also announces the adoption of new procedures aimed at
subjecting teachers who make false statements about their
Communist ties to public trials and confrontation by their
accusers. The point is to expose CP membership, rather than
permit those charged to refuse to answer, Moskoff says. In
effect, teachers will not only be dismissed, but will also be
publically exposed as CP members.
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January
1955
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The New York City
corporation counsels office weighs in on the ongoing debate
on the proposed resolution requiring teachers to inform. It
tells the Board of Education that it can require teachers to
identify other teachers they know to be in the CP, and that
failure to do so can subject them to charges of
insubordination and to departmental trials. In the same month,
State Commissioner of Education Lewis A. Wilson turns down an
appeal by 11 teachers who had been suspended without pay or
dismissed for refusal to answer questions on CP ties.
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March
1955
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The Board of
Education adopts the resolution requiring teachers called in
for investigation to inform and to sign oaths as to their
truthfulness. Teachers who had previously refused to cooperate
are called back in and questioned again.
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May
1955
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Moskoff reports
that 239 teachers and clerks have been forced out of the
system.
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April
1956
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The U.S. Supreme
Court reverses the citys dismissal of Brooklyn College
professor Harry Slochower for taking the Fifth. In May, the
city announces it will fight the decision.
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August
1956
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Recently appointed
New York State Commissioner of Education James E. Allen issues
a ruling stating that teachers could not be required to
inform. Teachers directly affected include Irving Mauer,
probationary principal Samuel Cohen, and Harry Adler. The city
says it will challenge the ruling. Allen also upheld
dismissals of 2 college faculty members because they didnt
involve informing, and reverses the dismissal of another.
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July
1958
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Saul Moskoff leaves
the Board of Education to return to the Corporation Counsels
office. Abraham Barnett, also an assistant corporation
counsel, moves over from the Law Department to handle the
investigations.
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November 1958
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Since the start of
the investigations in the early 1950s, the Board of Education
reports on November 5 that:
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- 126 teachers admitted past Communist Party membership
but were allowed to keep their jobs.
- 249 teachers resigned or retired after being told to
appear for interviews
- 34 teachers resigned orn retired while being
investigated, but before they were told to report for
interviews.
- 5 teachers were suspended and awaiting departmental
trials after admitting CP membership but refusing to
inform.
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1959-1977
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A LOOK AHEAD: The
investigations will continue through the early 1960s, but
court decisions, administrative rulings, and shifts in the
political climate bring a gradual winding down. The Board of
Education eventually reinstates some 30 teachers and restores
pension rights, though not back pay.
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May
1959
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The New York Court
of Appeals upholds the right of the state education
commissioner to forbid New York to dismiss teachers who refuse
to inform.
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December 1959
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The city reverses on its informant policy,
reinstating 2 teachers who had refused to name names. But it
continues to press charges against 3 others for perjury for
denying CP membership.
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1961
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The United
Federation of Teachers defeats the TU in a collective
bargaining election.
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August
1962
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The Board of
Education passes a measure that in effect reverses the Timone
Resolution denying the TU access to the schools. The decision
in effect reinstates the TU as a teacher representative.
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November 1963
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With the UFT the
recognized bargaining agent for New Yorks teachers, the
Teachers Union votes to disband as of early 1964. The TU
executive board recommends that its members should join the
UFT. In its statement, the TU cites the handicaps the union
had faced due to the investigations and purges.
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1964
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The Teachers Union
formally disbands.
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January
1967
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The Supreme Court
declares the Feinberg Law unconstitutional in the Keyishian
case, brought by 5 professors from Buffalo.
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1968
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Section 903 of the
City Charter, used to dismiss many teachers who had claimed
the privilege against self-incrimination, declared
unconstitutional.
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December 1976
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The Board of Education reinstates 33
teachers.
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October 1977
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The Board of
Education reinstates an additional 10 teachers. The city
reinstates the pensions of 2 teachers, Irving Adler and Harold
Blau, after settling with them on lawsuits they filed.
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College professors (front) Vera Shlakman and Oscar Shaftel and others receive
restitution
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April 1982
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Ten college professors are reinstated and given restitution.
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SOURCES
Clarence Taylor, Reds on the Blackboard,
Communism, Academic Freedom, Civil Rights, and the New York
City Teachers Union; forthcoming book
Celia Lewis Zitron,
The New York City Teachers Union 1916-1964
David Caute, The Great Fear
New York City Municipal Archives
Newspapers, including The New York Times,
New York Herald Tribune,
New York World -Telegram and Sun, New York
Journal-American, New York Post, New York
Daily News, and others
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