ipl-logo

How Did The East La Walkouts Impact The Civil Rights Movement

1153 Words5 Pages

Marking the last year of the Civil Rights Movement were the the East LA Walkouts of 1968; the 1950s and 1960s were times of social unrest. Thousands of high school students of Hispanic descent walked out of class in March of 1968 in protest of the discrimination they faced on a day-to-day basis, not only at school, but in society as well. This event in particular was so impacting and crucial to the development of society from that point forward. Along with the fact that they brought educational and social equality for Mexican Americans, the walkouts increased the diversity of language spoken in schools as well as the amount of inspiration brought to student protests today. It is for this reason that the East LA walkouts be kept in the newer …show more content…

Mexican Americans were often seen as second-class citizens incapable of holding high level occupations. There was nothing the students could do, however, due to the fact that schools failed to provide the necessary education to allow them to attend college. As sought after of a position as a doctor or lawyer was, it was almost guaranteed that, without the necessary education, students would find it impossible to reach a status of that level. For example, in his epic poem, “I am Joaquin”, Mexican American poet and political activist Rodolfo Gonzales recalls the discrimination they faced saying, “My culture has been raped./ I lengthen the line at the welfare door/ And fill the jails with crime” (Gonzalez, 231-233). Gonzales captured the societal expectations of Mexican Americans prior to the East LA walkouts. This justifies that Mexican Americans at that time were not seen as equals by American citizens. After the walkouts, however, Chicanos were finally given equal rights and equal opportunities in the world they live in. The high school dropout rate for Hispanics decreased dramatically, from 60 percent in 1968 to 10 percent in 2016, according to a Los Angeles School Report. Because of the amelioration of their education, more students were able to graduate high school and hold steady jobs, and the way society perceived Chicanos …show more content…

In recent months, the nation has faced a myriad of ubiquitous shootings, the most well-known of which being the Parkland school incident. No longer feeling comfortable in their learning environment, many students, inspired by the East LA walkouts of 1968, held walkouts of their own to protest gun violence. For example, student organizers from Belmont High School in Los Angeles “...were advocating for a national assault weapons ban, universal background checks, and an end to random searches in LAUSD schools, among other things” (Wick) last month after the Parkland shootings. This was just as similar to the Chicano demands of 1968 as it revealed that characteristics of the East LA walkouts were still present. Moreover, Bobby Verdugo, a student organizer from the 1968 walkout, explained that “Chicano history was not separate from American history, it was a part of American history” (Arango). This exemplifies the significance of the East LA walkouts in the utmost way in the sense that they were not meant to change the way Chicano students expressed their voice. They were, however, meant to change the way that every student expressed

Show More
Related
741 Words | 3 Pages

In order to write this book, the author clearly uses different manuscripts and papers that helped him to explain and show the situation of this social movement. He also uses and gets information from people that were living those situations, for instance in Chapter one, he mentions a note from Journalist Ruiz Ibañez: “Contrary to the common belief that those groups are composed of “punks” and hoodlums….”1. Related to him, he is an American historian and sociology that obtained his sociology and political science degrees in the University of Texas at Austin and Yale University, as well. Currently, he is a professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley and he is president of the Center for Latino Policy Research. He wrote not only Quixote’s Soldiers but also, Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836-1986.

Read More
834 Words | 4 Pages

In these protests, students would stand outside of their school with picket signs protesting the racist actions within their schools, as well as calling for freedom of speech and the hiring of Mexican American teachers. These protests by students were one of the first major protests by Mexican Americans against racism and helped greatly to ignite the Chicano Movement. (Muñoz) Rodolfo Gonzales addresses the importance of these youthful students and their actions in his speech with the words “…we need actions such as the ‘blowouts,’ because the youth are not afraid of anything. Because the youth are ready to move. The whole party will be based on the actions of the youth, and the support of the old.”

Read More
804 Words | 4 Pages

Appeals? Cullen uses logically appeals to present reasons why media or bullying cannot be blamed for the killers’ actions. He reasons that they were not bullied; they themselves were the bullies! (Cullen 258). He deduces that Harris and Klebold’s psychological states caused their actions.

Read More
835 Words | 4 Pages

LBJ and the Mexican Americans: 1968 1968 is known for being one of the controversial and impactful year for the American society. The Great Society, LBJ referred to his plan on what he wanted the United States to transform into, and for many Mexican-Americans it was starting to feel that way. Julie Leininger Pycior’s LBJ and the Mexican American’s: The Paradox of Power looks at LBJ’s presidency and his interaction with the Mexican American community. Johnson’s Great Society had potential to deliver great justice to Mexican Americans and to many other minority groups.

Read More
386 Words | 2 Pages

Justin Becker Chapter 9 Response 10/01/2015 The Student Sit-Ins were different from their predecessors in the early desegregation movement in many ways. The first major difference is the fact that they used a more proactive approach in their efforts. They did not wait for a single specific event to occur, rather they decided to “strike first.” Another major difference was that they preferred to avoid the legal route of court rooms and litigations.

Read More
1246 Words | 5 Pages

When Rosa Park decided to not let her seat to a white in a public bus, she started what was later known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama, during the boycott Afro-American deiced to walk instead of using the public transportation. Almost 60% of the money earned by the bus company came from Afro-Americans, Park stated that she was “tired of giving in” and later became known as an international icon of resistance to racial segregation. The Greensboro sit-ins was an even more remarkable event when four student decided to sit on a ‘whites only’ counter at the local Woolworth drug store, they remained there, without service, until the store closed, for the following six day more student followed them in this non-violent strategy in different business stores until Woolworth closed its door, later on the students founded the SNCC. In May 1961, “Freedom writer” with the racially integrated Congress of Racial Equality boarded buses and braved attacks by southern white mobs for daring to desegregate interstate transportation, many white people helped in the proses, there were cases in which white stand and received the attacks of the mobs so the blacks could continue their travel .Most of the pacifist strategies started by Martin Luther King, in August of 1963 the March in Washington in which he followed with more than over 200,000 American gave his famous speech demanding for civil and economic right for Afro-Americans.

Read More
264 Words | 2 Pages

The interracial relation issue between whatever two ethnicities have never disappeared during any period of time. However, some of them are just covered up by severer problems. For example, no one is trying to focus on the relationship between Asian American and African American during the industrialization period. It was too tiny to became an influential topic which need to be discussed with everyone in this nation until the post-period of the Civil Rights Movement. The most significant event which can be represent this interracial misperception is Las Angeles Riots in 1992.

Read More
995 Words | 4 Pages

The integration of classrooms symbolized a subtle yet impactful approach, using visual representation to highlight the injustice of segregation and the importance of educational equality. On the other hand, the organized demonstration outside the Democratic National Convention represented a more direct and forceful tactic, demonstrating the movement's demand for inclusion and political representation in a public and confrontational manner. Overall, these two strategies exemplify the diversity of approaches employed by civil rights movements to convey their message during this period, with each one effectively conveying the urgency of their grievances and the need for societal and political transformation.

Read More
884 Words | 4 Pages

Chicano activist had such an issue with the assimialationist approach Mexican Americans took toward life in the U.S because it was forced upon them. When Mexican Americans were trying to assimilate into the United States, they were expected to drop all forms of culture. One of the main problems with how Mexican Americans were trying to be comfortable with was the language barrier. When moving into the country families and parents speaking only spanish, the English language was an intimidating thing. One thing that Rodriguez talks about in the book is that as a kid English was very hard to understand, and it made him very shy and reserved because it was something so unfamiliar to him.

Read More
125 Words | 1 Pages

Even immigrant children were now allowed to receive schooling, even though this would be the greatest challenge. However, with higher educated teachers, they overcame this challenge and the results were striking. There were more skilled laborers and literate Americans

Read More
1274 Words | 6 Pages

The Greensboro Sit-ins had a huge impact on the civil rights movement. At this time period even though some changes had been made for equality between the races segregation was still common in the south during the 1960’s . One movement in 1960’s that brought attention to how unfair segregation was specifically towards African-Americans is the Greensboro Sit-ins. This movement was inspired by four young college African-American men who decided that segregation was horrible to their race. The four young men names were David Richmond, Franklin McCain,Ezell Blair Jr,and Joseph Mcneil that started the whole sit-in movement.

Read More
1244 Words | 5 Pages

The Chicano students were forced to take classes in dogmatic training, but their white peers got to take classes to prepare them for college. They were training the Chicanos to have labor jobs instead of educating them to have what they considered “important” jobs. In an interview with Sal Castro in 2011, he stated, “Despite many years of effort by Mexican Americans to change these schools, including legal struggles, the basic nature of these schools continued into the 1960s. These schools were characterized by high dropout rates, a heavily vocational curriculum and a marginalized academic one, low reading scores, few academic counselors, overcrowded conditions, and worst of all, low expectations of the Chicano students by a mostly Anglo or white faculty.” These students often dropped out of high school due to people having low expectations of them so they started to believe that and had low expectations for themselves.

Read More
556 Words | 3 Pages

Karen Umemoto’s study of the various student organizations formed by Asian Americans in the 1960’s titled "On Strike!" San Francisco State College Strike, 1968-69: The Role of Asian American Students, deals with the various college organizations formed for the purpose of ensuring quality educational attainment opportunities for the group in the period the Civil Rights Movement. The period saw students take to the streets and challenge educational institutions and boards when they were denied equal opportunity in education and also called for studies of their own groups as part of the curriculum. A very important mandate of these various groups was to work in counter hegemonic sites in terms of their willingness to “develop ideas running counter to prevailing paradigms.” (Umemoto 1989, p.7)

Read More
609 Words | 3 Pages

Latinos are making drastic changes to the Latino threat narrative and making a difference in education and politics. The empowerment of the Latino population is derived from education; continued education for all generations is the key to success for Latinos. Latinos will strive and change standards for their population in the United

Read More
585 Words | 3 Pages

To many people “I am Joaquin” is more than just an epic poem, it is the anthem of the Chicano movement which embodies our peoples struggles and culture. What made the work become the Chicano Movements anthem is the fact that it is a piece that seems to evaluate the Chicanos and their history from the good to the bad. It also seems to emphasize the Chicanos search and struggle for identity starting from the beginning of the Spanish conquest to our modern times. Basically this poem has become such an iconic work because it attempts and succeeds in encompassing as much Chicano history into it and makes no bias choice as it has both positive historical moments and negative, but they all tie back to Chicanos and their history. One of the main aspect that makes “I am Joaquin” an interesting piece of work and an icon for the Chicano movement is how the work seems to

Read More

More about How Did The East La Walkouts Impact The Civil Rights Movement

Open Document