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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Contents
3 | |
19 | |
35 | |
rumblings and early school activism 196870 | 51 |
Rain of Fury | 97 |
All Hell Broke Loose | 119 |
Simple Justice | 133 |
Continuing the Struggle | 147 |
The Most Racist Plan Yet | 159 |
A Racist Bunch of Anglos | 174 |
Conclusion Reflections on Identity School Reform | 194 |
Notes | 211 |
Index | 275 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abraham Ramírez action activists activities African American Anglo argued barrio Barrios Unidos Ben Reyes boycott Cano Chicano movement civil rights community’s Council 60 cultural Davis decision Denver Harbor desegregation discrimination El Segundo barrio elementary schools enrollment established ethnic federal García Garver Gregory Salazar Collection High School HISD HMRC Houston Chronicle Houston Post huelga schools Ibid identity immigrants increased Independent School District instance integration plan interview by author Kreneck León Leonel Castillo López LULAC MAEC leaders MAEC members MAEC’s Magnolia Park MALDEF MAYO Mexi Mexican Ameri Mexican American community Mexican American parents Mexican American students Mexican children Mexican-origin children Mexican-origin community Mexican-origin individuals middle-class militant Northside ofthe organization pairing plan Papel Chicano percent picket political protest public schools racial rally Raza school board members school officials segregation senior high Sept social Spanish Sunbelt superintendent teachers Texas tion University of Houston youths