"Student Power" 1968 Roosevelt High School Walkout
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media/Parents of Roosevelt.jpg
2023-05-18T13:16:13-07:00
Roosevelt High School Walkouts
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In 1968, Roosevelt High School became one of five centers for Chicanx demonstration. Students and community members came together to protest an unjust, racist education. In an analysis of protestors’ signs and testimonies from the day, it is clear that those involved understood that this movement for equality and representation in the school system was integral in the broader movement for Chicanx liberation.
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2023-06-14T15:23:38-07:00
As thousands of students staged a walkout at five high schools across East L.A. to demand better educational opportunities, the firing of racist faculty, and a more inclusive curriculum, among others, the entire nation watched. Among these five schools were Wilson, Garfield, Lincoln, Belmont, and finally Roosevelt High School, the primary focus of this page. These high schools served an area with a predominantly Chicanx population and also had high dropout rates compared to national averages. With large classroom sizes and poorly funded facilities, Chicanx students were placed in a system that granted them little opportunity for higher education. Many of these same frustrations were shared at Camp Hess Kramer, a Jewish camp that held leadership programs for Chicanx students of East L.A. schools, and many of these students would practice social activism and create the foundation for the demonstrations that occurred in 1968 (Sahagún). One of these participants was Sal Castro, a teacher who worked at Lincoln High School. Castro was an instrumental figure in the demonstration, as he helped students first take their concerns to the school board, and then when those were ignored, helped organize a walkout (Mejía-Rentas).
The walkouts at Roosevelt occurred on March 6, 1968, however they were preceded by other walkouts at Wilson and Garfield High Schools just days before (Mejía-Rentas). This provided the school’s administrations some time to prepare, restricting students’ access to the outside and calling the police. Members of the Brown Beret, a prominent militant Chicanx group, came to defend students against police intimidation. Overall, the walkout demonstrations endured for several days, despite significant resistance from police and school administration. The Los Angeles Board of Education met with community members and students in the days following the demonstration, and refused all of their requests, citing that there was no room in the budget (Mejía-Rentas). While no immediate changes were made to the structure of the school system, many have maintained that this event was largely significant in the fight for Mexican American liberties in the country. It represented the determination and willingness on the part of Chicanx activists to directly clash with authorities to fight for what they believed in. It was also a demonstration of the power that the community held, mobilizing thousands in just a few short days.
In reviewing images from the 1968 demonstration at Roosevelt High School, what stuck out to me the most were protestors’ signs, most especially those that portrayed messages of solidarity. While many of them feature criticisms of the school district and educational demands, there were also a striking number of them that referenced other fights in the Chicanx political movement. Written on many of the signs was the phrase, ‘Boycott Grapes’ or ‘Boycott Lettuce’. These phrases come from the fight to establish protections and rights for farm workers, a movement pushed forth by Chicano activists such as Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. Additionally, signs reference demands related to the corrupt justice system and police brutality. As discussed in the other sections of this piece, police brutality is an enduring issue against minority groups. Excessive use of force is a recurring pattern that highlights the inequality ingrained within the system. In one sign, a student comments on the school to prison pipeline. This has to do with the lack of opportunities afforded to Chicano students both within and after high school. Within high school, drop out rights for Chicanx students were around 50%. This limited opportunities for higher education along with teachers and administrators who did not properly support Chicanx students either. Excessive policing and this lack of access added to the school to prison pipeline, also a topic covered by protestors' signs. In the absence of opportunities for higher education, young Chicano men were less likely to be able to avoid the draft in the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was a significant source of mobilization during this era. This led to higher rates of induction to the armed forces and thus the number of resulting deaths from the war for Chicano-Americans was also drastically higher than national average. Protest signs referencing the Vietnam War can also be seen.
The content of the protest signs analyzed in this exploration is indicative of the nature of solidarity within the Chicano liberation movement during the sixties and beyond. An analysis of the signs reveals the multiple layers and various demands that extend beyond just reform in the school districts. This suggests a deep understanding of the relationships between all of these systems of oppression; involving the farm workers movement, police brutality, the military industry.
Works Cited
Mejías-Rentas, Antonio. “How 1968 East L.A. Student Walkouts Ignited the Chicano Movement.” History.Com, www.history.com/news/east-los-angeles-chicano-student-walkouts-1968. Accessed 30 May 2023.
Sahagún, Louis. “East L.A., 1968: ‘walkout!’ the Day High School Students Helped Ignite the Chicano Power Movement.” Los Angeles Times, 1 Mar. 2018, www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-1968-east-la-walkouts-20180301 htmlstory.html#:~:text=It%20was%20just%20past%20noon%20on%20a%20sunny,teachers%20who%20were%20poorly%20trained%2C%20indifferent%20or%20racist. -
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2023-05-18T13:16:12-07:00
East LA Blowouts of 1968
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The East LA Blowouts were a series of walkouts conducted in 1968 across multiple high school and demonstrated by Chicano/a students who were backed by the Brown Berets in order to create awareness towards the discrimination and racism they were receiving by their teachers and admin. While at first the blowouts initiated many arrests and created a lot of controversy, the legacy and impact were crucial not only for future generations of Chicano/a students but also for other students of color as it allowed students to freely feel comfortable in schools regardless of their ethnicity and culture.
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2023-06-07T23:05:41-07:00
Los Angeles has long been home to many generations of Chicanos/as dating back as early as the 1950s. According to britannica.com, 75% of the student population in East LA were Latino, estimating to be at around 130,000 students during the 50s and 60s. Unfortunately, schools in this area consisted with teachers who did not meet the standards of educational excellence and poor classroom planning, often leading to overcrowding. Furthermore, these schools did not encourage academic excellence towards its students and created a dangerous space where these students who wanted to succeed couldn't due to the racist remarks brought by teachers, administrators, and their White classmates. This would eventually lead disgruntled Chicano/a students wanting to rebel against LAUSD and attempt to create a change in their educational experience, not only for them but for future generations of Chicano/a students.
Because of the unfair educational treatment brought by their teachers in public schools, Chicano/a students decided to revolt together in order to create awareness about their educational experience in these schools with ambitious goals to be taken seriously as students rather than as "savages" or "animals" like what society thought them to be. So beginning March 1,1968, over 15,000 Chicano/a students, faculty, and community members from LAUSD decided to walk out from 7 different high schools with them being: Belmont, Garfield, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Wilson, and Venice High Schools. The reasons for these walkouts were due to the treatment these students were getting in schools which included being recommend to take vocational courses rather than pursuing college and taking advanced academic courses, the humiliation Chicano/a students would receive from teachers if they spoke Spanish which consisted of being spanked with a wooden paddle in front of the class, and also the racism they were getting from society as they were reaching a breaking point. Other reasons for the walkouts happening were also to create awareness about the 60% high school dropout rate for Chicano/a students and the lack of representation in school curriculum and faculty with a small percentage of teachers and administrators being Chicano/a.
Backed by the Brown Berets and Mexican-American social studies teacher Sal Castro who was teaching at Lincoln High School, the walkouts lasted from March 1-8 and students were determined to meet some of their demands with LAUSD which consisted of hiring more Chicanos/as as teachers and administrators in these schools, including bilingual education and the inclusion of Mexican-American culture and history in the school curriculum. All three parties drew inspiration from the Watts Riots of 1965 in Los Angeles which was a racial conflict between a majority White filled LAPD and Black residents. Knowing the importance of culture and understanding the unfair educational treatment Chicano/a students were receiving compared to their White classmates, Sal Castro knew it was important to make a call to action and sponsor the walkout because without a teacher backing the complaints from students then it's possible that these walkouts could have gone nowhere. The Brown Berets were a social-justice organization founded by Chicano youth during the late 1960s. Drawing inspiration from the Black Panther movement around the same time of its inception, Chicano/a students knew it was important for them to represent their community in the same way members of the Black Panther party were doing. In similar fashion to the Black Panther party, the Brown Berets focused on social justice issues, the lack of resources towards the Latino community such as healthcare inequality, and also police brutality-- eventually being labeled as "radical" by the US Government and LAPD just like their sister organization.
While the immediate outcomes were negative and resulted in the arrests of the 13 organizers of the walkouts, including Sal Castro for "disturbing the peace", the lasting effects and legacy proved otherwise. The movement influenced Chicano/a organizations and clubs across college campuses and to this day, the East LA Walkouts of 1968 is still considered as the largest student protest in student history and this is proof that when the community comes together, change can happen. Sal Castro was later reinstated by the school after being fired for his involvement and arrest and this is more proof that unity within the community is important because it was the parents that pushed for his reinstatement. Although the entire list of demands the students presented were not met, the change in educational treatment was significant and can be still seen today with more Latino/a students attending universities. In conclusion, the East LA walkouts demonstrated resilience, unity, and change--without this dedication, who knows how the school system would look today.
Although Chicano/a students were protesting, they were not protesting for the fun of it but rather to create changes to the educational system. Some goals that these students had were to include Chicano/a Studies courses in the K-12 curriculum, to hire more Chicano/a teachers, and to stop the discrimination and racism they were receiving from their teachers.