The 1960s Chicano Movement for Educational Reform and the Rise of Student Protest Activism in San Antonio’s West Side

This article examines the major events of the Lanier and Edgewood High School protests in San Antonio’s West Side in the spring of 1968. A young generation of activists became politicized and sought to promote educational reform at their school by organizing and employing walkouts, a peaceful, nonviolent form of protest. Personal recollections by former students indicate that racism had been inherent in the school’s vocational curriculum, which tracked Mexican Americans into low-income trades rather than providing academic training for students pursuing careers in a professional discipline. They further argued that their school system attempted to “Americanize” Mexican Americans and regarded them as culturally and racially inferior. The student demonstrations in San Antonio were part of the beginning of the Chicano student movement in Texas.