Mapping History: East LA walkouts & media coverage
Protests lead by Mexican-American students in their endeavor to pursue greater education
Students of several East LA High Schools organized a series of walkouts to protest the unfair treatment of Mexican-American students. Mexican-American students received a much lower standard of education, lack of opportunities, and less access to academic/afterschool programs. Students recognized that the education system was equipped against them to promote drop-outs and 'passivity' (as Sal Castro speaks about in the video below). These issues lead to the organization of the East LA walkouts of 1968, an event which would become one of the biggest landmarks in Chicano civil rights history.
Chicano publication 'La Raza' covered these walkouts and the violent police response. They use pictures of the protesting students with powerful signs, such as "We demand schools that teach" and "justcia".
La Raza: Vol. 1, No 2 (1968); Archive: UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center
This map shows the location of the schools mentioned: Garfield, Roosevelt, Belmont, and Lincoln High School. Chicano students from these high schools made the great effort to organize and plan to make sure their walkouts would occur at the same times. This powerful act of organization and protest, La Raza describes as a reversal of the 'passive' stereotype of Mexican-Americans and proof that Chicanos would fight for their rights.
Garfield, Roosevelt, Belmont, and Lincoln High School Location Map
