The 1968 Florida Teachers' Strike: Public Sector Unionism and the Fight Against Sunshine State Conservatism...

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Jody Baxter Noll David Goldfield

The 1968 Florida Teachers' Strike

Public Sector Unionism and the Fight Against Sunshine State Conservatism

Jody Baxter Noll, David Goldfield

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Hardback

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English

Louisiana State University Press
31 March 2025

History of the Americas; Trade unions; Industrial arbitration & negotiation; Local history

Series: Making the Modern South

In early 1968, more than 27,000 teachers across Florida mailed their resignation letters, initiating the country's first statewide teachers' strike. The striking teachers fought for and won a monumental victory, improving education in the state and gaining collective bargaining rights for all public sector employees. Even as the influence of industrial labor unions decreased across the country, the Florida teachers' strike and the spirit of teacher militancy that swept the nation during the late 1960s and 1970s demonstrate that a vibrant labor movement remained. Jody Baxter Noll's study challenges the prevailing view of these decades as a period of decline for the American labor movement by turning the spotlight on teachers and public sector unionism.

In his examination of the 1968 strike and its aftermath, Noll illuminates the vital role of teachers in shaping political and social policy in the United States. As a predominantly women-led workforce, teachers challenged notions of feminine passivity in their mobilization efforts and used their union to fight for gender equality. The strike also provides insight into how interracial unionism could be a potent weapon for labor movements, even in the Deep South.

In exploring the political and social factors that prompted the teachers' strike, Noll considers Florida's instrumental role in forming modern conservatism. Led by Republican governor Claude Kirk, the first Republican governor elected in the Deep South since Reconstruction, Florida helped to create a blueprint for Republicans to build a New Right powerhouse throughout the country. Though Florida has remained on the periphery of much scholarship on the ascendancy of the New Right, Noll demonstrates that the state more accurately reflects the nation's political attitudes than much of the rest of the South because of its economic, racial, social, and political diversity.

By: Jody Baxter Noll
Series edited by: David Goldfield
Imprint: Louisiana State University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 16mm
Weight: 499g
ISBN: 9780807183007
ISBN 10: 0807183008
Series: Making the Modern South
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 31 March 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Jody Baxter Noll is a lecturer in history at Georgia State University.

Reviews for The 1968 Florida Teachers' Strike: Public Sector Unionism and the Fight Against Sunshine State Conservatism

""Jody Baxter Noll's study of the 1968 Florida teachers' strike, the first such strike in American history, is timely, engaging, and significant. . . . [this book] offers fascinating insights into the changing lives of teachers, racial tensions inside and outside the classroom, and the rising tide of conservatism.""--Gary R. Mormino, author of the award-winning Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams: A Social History of Modern Florida