The longest teacher's strike in American history took place in New York City in the fall of 1968.

What had happened was the Board of Education created an experiment in community control of schools.

The plan for community control was get people on the local school board that represented these kids and would represent us.

There were three demonstration districts, and one of these was in a majority black

neighborhood in Brooklyn called Ocean Hill Brownsville.

When the local board in Ocean Hill Brownsville tried to transfer out 19 teachers who they

said were interfering with the experiment?

They never intended for this pilot program to have any meaning.

The teachers union pulled all of its members out of the district in

protest. When Ocean O'Ne Brownsville wouldn't take these union teachers back, I can't force those

teachers to go back there because otherwise the city will burn down. The union went on strike

citywide. First for two days, then for two weeks. Every time the mayor reached an agreement with

the union, that agreement fell apart. So when the union went on strike a third time, they escalated their demand.

Now they said they would shut down every school in the city until the city agreed to shut down

the experiment in Ocean Hill Brownsville for good.

So on the first day of strike number three, October 14th, 1968, the leaders of Ocean Hill

Brownsville decided to show the city that they were not going to go away quietly.

So we met in front of City Hall, never thinking that these many people from all over the city would convene with us.

Father John Powis is a white Catholic priest who sat on the Ocean Hill Brownsville Governing Board.

But there were literally thousands and thousands of people all in front of City Hall.

Among those thousands and thousands of people, there were representatives of black organizations

across the ideological spectrum that almost never agreed on anything, from the NACP to the Black

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