Brown, Not White: School Integration and the Chicano Movement in Houston

4. The Community Is Beginning to Rumble

chapter 4 The Community Is Beginning to Rumble “The Mexican-American community is beginning to rumble,” noted Ben Canales, an official with United Organizations Information Center, a community-based group located in the Northside barrio of Houston. This comment was made before a Houston Board of Education committee meeting in October, 1969. It aptly reflected the community’s increased dissatisfaction with the local district’s unwillingness to improve the conditions under which Mexican American children were educated in particular and the growing restlessness among middle- and working-class Chicanos over the neglect of their interests and needs by political leaders at all levels of government in general. Since 1960 Chicanos in Texas, especially the older and more established middle-class individuals who were members of existing organizations such as the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the American G.I. Forum, and the Political Association of Spanish-speaking Organizations (PASSO), had worked to elect liberal politicians, to enact federal legislation aimed at meeting the educational and vocational needs of Mexican American children, and to ensure the passage of important civil rights measures. Despite their involvement in the political process, Mexican Americans continued to be neglected by authorities and agencies at all levels of government.1 Failure to impact significantly the dominant society’s view of Mexican Americans laid the groundwork for the further radicalization and increased political mobilization of the community. The 1966 farmworkers’ strike in the Rio Grande and its brutal suppression by the Texas Rangers and state police as well as the Minimum March of that summer accelerated this process. They radicalized existing organizations and unleashed a series of new ones with notions of ethnic identity, political culture, and social change different from those of the Mexican American Generation. These energized groups mobilized an increasing number of community people and mounted a vigorous campaign against all forms of discrimination in American institutional life, especially public education.2 Canales’s statement refers to the complex process of ideological fermentation, organizational development, and political mobilization occurring in the Chicano community in Houston and throughout the state. early activism and school reform, 1960 – 66 Although Mexican Americans had a rich legacy of activism in the schools in the early 1960s, it was subdued and narrowly focused. Activism in the schools focused on four areas of activities. First, sporadic efforts were made to improve the treatment of the Mexican American children in the schools and the quality of their education. For instance, in the summer of 1961 parents from the Clayton Home area in the Second Ward met to discuss conditions in their local schools. They also set up committees to improve the quality of the school facilities provided for their children. Although no information is available on what happened to these recommendations or what further actions the Clayton Home tenants took, their efforts indicated a deep concern for quality education.3 At times specific incidents of discrimination were challenged or contested . One such incident occurred in early 1960 when the school board engaged in a debate over the need for free lunches. One school board member remarked that “Mexican American children did not need free lunches because they would rather eat ‘pinto beans.’”4 This comment incensed the community and led to the study of and support for a free-lunch program in the Houston Independent School District. LULAC, the American G.I. Forum, and the Civic Action Committee sponsored this study.5 The second major focus of Mexican American activism during this early period occurred at the University of Houston. In 1963 Mexican American students at the University of Houston founded a PASSO chapter on campus to promote awareness of the community’s diverse interests and to endorse candidates who best represented them. Under the leadership of Samuel S. Calderón and Manuel Crespo, the UH-PASO conducted 54 Rumblings and Early School Activism, 1968–70 voter registration drives, informational workshops on the community’s needs, get-the-vote-out campaigns, and analyses of political campaigns. For several years this organization was an important instrument of political awareness and social change on campus.6 Third, and probably most important of all, was LULAC’s Little School of the 400, a specific educational experiment aimed at improving the scholastic achievement of Mexican Americans. This concept was the brainchild of Félix Tijerina, a local member of LULAC. In 1960 Tijerina, who had just...