Brown, Not White: School Integration and the Chicano Movement in HoustonStrikes, boycotts, rallies, negotiations, and litigation marked the efforts of Mexican-origin community members to achieve educational opportunity and oppose discrimination in Houston schools in the early 1970s. These responses were sparked by the effort of the Houston Independent School District to circumvent a court order for desegregation by classifying Mexican American children as "white" and integrating them with African American children—leaving Anglos in segregated schools. Gaining legal recognition for Mexican Americans as a minority group became the only means for fighting this kind of discrimination. The struggle for legal recognition not only reflected an upsurge in organizing within the community but also generated a shift in consciousness and identity. In Brown, Not White Guadalupe San Miguel, Jr., astutely traces the evolution of the community's political activism in education during the Chicano Movement era of the early 1970s. San Miguel also identifies the important implications of this struggle for Mexican Americans and for public education. First, he demonstrates, the political mobilization in Houston underscored the emergence of a new type of grassroots ethnic leadership committed to community empowerment and to inclusiveness of diverse ideological interests within the minority community. Second, it signaled a shift in the activist community's identity from the assimilationist "Mexican American Generation" to the rising Chicano Movement with its "nationalist" ideology. Finally, it introduced Mexican American interests into educational policy making in general and into the national desegregation struggles in particular. This important study will engage those interested in public school policy, as well as scholars of Mexican American history and the history of desegregation in America. |
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Page 21
... schools for their children , local officials did little to discourage white flight and soon began to neglect the ... Elementary largely in response to the growing number of Mexican children in the two predominantly white elementary ...
... schools for their children , local officials did little to discourage white flight and soon began to neglect the ... Elementary largely in response to the growing number of Mexican children in the two predominantly white elementary ...
Page 104
... schools with predominantly black schools.35 On the first day about 3,500 Mexican American students boycotted the schools.36 In the barrio schools of the Northside ( Looscan and Sherman Elementary Schools ) , Denver Harbor ( Scroggins ...
... schools with predominantly black schools.35 On the first day about 3,500 Mexican American students boycotted the schools.36 In the barrio schools of the Northside ( Looscan and Sherman Elementary Schools ) , Denver Harbor ( Scroggins ...
Page 161
... Schools by Grades and Student Enrollment , 1971-72 School Year Schools Paired Grades Covered Black White Enrollment ... Elementary Pairing Plan Revealed , " Houston Post , June 25 , 1971 , n.pag .; " Garver Gives Details for Pairings of 22 ...
... Schools by Grades and Student Enrollment , 1971-72 School Year Schools Paired Grades Covered Black White Enrollment ... Elementary Pairing Plan Revealed , " Houston Post , June 25 , 1971 , n.pag .; " Garver Gives Details for Pairings of 22 ...
Contents
Diversification and Differentiation in the History | 3 |
Providing for the Schooling of Mexican Children | 19 |
Community Activism and Identity in Houston | 35 |
Copyright | |
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action activists activities administration Anglo argued asked attended barrio became began boycott called Castillo Church civil Collection committee continued Council court cultural Davis decision demands desegregation discrimination early efforts Elementary enrollment especially established Ethnicity federal High School HISD HMRC Houston Chronicle huelga schools identity important increased individuals instance institutions integration involved issue late leaders León Leonel Castillo LULAC MAEC MAEC's major MAYO meeting Mexican American Mexican-origin militant minority group movement needs noted officials organization origin pairing pairing plan Papel Chicano parents participation percent political population Press protest public schools racial Ramírez Raza recognition reported response ruling Salazar school board school district segregation Sept September social Spanish struggle Sunbelt teachers Texas tion United University youths