Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Spring 2026

Abstract

This thesis studies a series of student uprisings that took place at Hillhouse High School in New Haven, Connecticut, during the 1967-1968 school year. Through contemporary news reports from the mainstream and underground press, correspondences with the mayor, police records, municipal reports, student-created ephemera, and interviews with then-students, a story emerges of a student rebellion which exposed long-festering problems within the school and forced a series of constructive reforms within the district. It is also a story about how, out of a fractured response to the student rebellion, a progressive teachers’ union was made. Finally, it is a story about police occupation of a high school in rebellion; who called the police, why, and how the student movement responded to and was shaped by their intervention. What follows is a granular history, often focusing in on short moments of time — for example, an hour-long staff meeting or a weekend — to understand the where, when, why, and how of the rebellions and their repercussions on the city

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