Author Night at Hubbell Library: Jesse Chanin

Building Power, Breaking Power

In this history of the United Teachers of New Orleans, Chanin reveals the union's political, social, and community impact, as well as the damaging effects of the charter school movement on educators.

From 1965 to 2005, the United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO) defied the South's conservative anti-union efforts to become the largest local in Louisiana. Jesse Chanin argues that UTNO accomplished and maintained its strength through strong community support, addressing a Black middle-class political agenda, internal democracy, and drawing on the legacy and tactics of the civil rights movement by combining struggles for racial and economic justice, all under Black leadership and with a majority women and Black membership. However, the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina provided the state government and local charter school advocates with the opportunity to remake the school system and dismantle the union. Authorities fired 7,500 educators, marking the largest dismissal of Black teaching staff since Brown v. Board of Education. 

Chanin highlights the significant staying power and political, social, and community impact of UTNO, as well as the damaging effects of the charter school movement on educators.

Jesse Chanin is a postdoctoral fellow at Tulane University's Coalition for Compassionate Schools, where she facilitates youth participatory action research.

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