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
Diversification and Differentiation in the History of the MexicanOrigin Community in Houston | 3 |
Providing for the Schooling of Mexican Children | 19 |
Community Activism and Identity in Houston | 35 |
The Community Is Beginning to Rumble | 53 |
Pawns Puppets and Scapegoats | 74 |
Rain of Fury | 97 |
All Hell Broke Loose | 119 |
Simple Justice | 133 |
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action activists activities administration Anglo argued asked attended barrio became began boycott called Castillo CHAPTER 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 leaders León Leonel Castillo LULAC MAEC MAEC's major MAYO meeting Mexican American Mexican-origin militant movement needs noted officials organization origin pairing pairing plan Papel Chicano parents participation percent political population position 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