The Chicago Teacher's Union, politics, and the city's schools, 1937--1970

This doctoral dissertation examines the role of Chicago public schoolteachers and their union, the Chicago Teachers' Union (CTU), in shaping the policies and practices of public education in Chicago from 1937 to 1970. From the union's formation in 1937 until the 1960s, the CTU was the largest teachers' union in the country in the second largest school system. The CTU used political action, public relations campaigns, and community alliances, to raise member's salaries and benefits, increase school finance, influence school curriculum and campaign for greater equality for women within the Chicago public education system.;This study examines teachers' unions and public education from the "bottom-up." Using a variety of manuscript collections, local and national newspapers and oral interviews with schoolteachers and administrators, this dissertation permits a greater understanding of how teachers' unions helped to shape one of the largest public education systems in the nation. Taking into consideration the larger political context, such as World War II, the McCarthy era, and the civil rights movements of the 1960s, this study analyzes how internal disputes within the CTU over race and gender, and external disputes between the union and political pressure groups, constrained the actions of the CTU. Ultimately, with the union unable to achieve many of its demands, public schoolteachers successively campaigned for collective bargaining rights in the mid 1960s to solve their problems.