“Teacher Power! The Story of the 1968 Florida Teachers’ Strike” – Jody Noll
The George A. Smathers Library cordially invites you to a presentation on Wednesday, January 21st, 2026 from 3:00-4:30 p.m. in Smathers Library Room 100, featuring Jody Noll.
In his examination of the 1968 strike and its aftermath, Jody Baxter Noll (Georgia State University) illuminates the vital role of teachers in shaping political and social policy in the United States. 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. 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. 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.
Jody Baxter Noll is a lecturer in history at Georgia State University.