Compare And Contrast A Tale Of Two Schools

Unfortunately much of the Latino history has been ignored or not written in conventional textbooks, but the reality is that Latinos experienced similar experiences to the ones of African Americans. According to Richard Delgado, “Recent research by reputable historians shows that Latinos, particularly Mexican Americans in the southwest, were lynched in large numbers during roughly the same period when lynching of blacks ran rampart” (583). Moreover, Latinos have also been heavily discriminated within the educational system through segregation. Latinos along with African American were not allowed to attend school with white children and often had schools assigned to them. The purpose of segregating was to, “isolate Mexican American children and to retard their educational process” (Perea 601). Other methods of academically repressing Latinos included retaining them “in first grade for two or three years, which automatically placed them behind their Anglo peers” (Perea 602). Some of the rationale behind segregating children was that stereotypes were prevalent amid educators. Juan F. Perea sites in his article that show that, “teachers viewed their . . . students as lazy and favored Anglo students in . . . leadership roles . . . [that] were necessary to teach Anglos how to control and lead Mexicans” (Perea 602). The previous clearly demonstrates that the educational system sought hinder Latinos in the educational system for the purpose of maintaining a working

The Chicano Movement aimed to gear towards equality for Latinos as human beings in the United States. As recently as the 1930’s, Latino American’s were not allowed to attend the same schools as Caucasian American students. This caused major outrage nationwide due to Latino Americans not receiving the same rights as their Caucasian American counterparts. One major case that stimulated protest for educational change for Chicano youth was Westminster v. Mendez in 1947. This case was brought upon after the child of Mr. Gonzalo Mendez named Sylvia Mendez

In 1951 schools were separated by skin color, or segregated. The Brown v. Board of Education trial was brought to court because a third-grader, Linda Brown, was not allowed to attend the elementary school that was closest to her house. She wa required to take the bus to school across town instead. In the trial the point that “Education for Negroes is almost nonexistent(13).” This is an example of how there were old problems in the Fourteenth Amendment that needed to be changed. Another issue that was brought up in the trial was that, “Segregation… has a tendency to retard the educational and mental development of negro children…(19).” Without the proper education at segregated

In 1986 75% of Mexican American students would drop out at 8th grade. Some students were not allowed to speak Spanish, some even got hit for it. The schools were trying to Americanize the students and it was taking away their culture. This reminded me of Michie when one students name was Pedor (I think) and the teacher changed it to “Peter”.

Professor. Guadalupe San Miguel Jr., the author of Brown, Not White: School Integration and the Chicano Movement in Houston, is a scholar of history. Born of Mexican parents, Prof. Miguel finds himself passionate about issues of segregation and minority’s rights violation. Prof. Miguel is widely schooled and specialized in Mexican education. He attained his

The court case known as the Brown v. the Board of Education is notorious for the fight against educational segregation. The court case fought to show the people that “separate” cannot be “equal”. Things such as “The Doll Test and the Fourteenth Amendment” both reveal the truths about how exactly “seperate” cannot be “equal”.

Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark case that was decided by the Supreme Court of America in 1954. It is a case that is believed to have brought to an end decades of increasing racial segregation that was experienced in America’s public schools. The landmark decision of this case was resolved from six separate cases that originated from four states. The Supreme Court is believed to have preferred rearguments in the case because of its preference for presentation of briefs. The briefs were to be heard from both sides of the case, with the focus being on five fundamental questions. The questions focused on the attorneys’ opinions about whether Congress viewed segregation in public schools when it ratified the 14th amendment (Benoit, 2013). Changes were then made to the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

By  Luis Rodriguez writes how people from a different community is placed in under structure classes, which is not a class  for A+ students but toward lower income community minorities. He states, “But the school also took in the people from the hills and surrounding communities who somehow made it past junior high. They were mostly Mexican, in the “C” track (what were called the stupid classes), and who made up the rosters of the wood, print and auto shop. Only a few of these students participated in school government, in sports, or in the various clubs.(83) Rodriguez elaborates that Mexican students were placed in a classroom that is considered stupid and undesirable environment to be in. Also According to a study by John Eligon, writes how children, lack of education can cause implication of having a job in society, especially not graduate high school which will increase the unemployment rate. He states, “For some, there was admittedly a lack of motivation to job-hunt. For another, Criminal records got in the way. Kaos said he had been turned away from Walmart, walgreens, Footlocker and other. One in four adults in this neighborhood has not graduated from high school, and the unemployment rate is 33 percent, two and a half times the citywide

The U.S is known for its liberty and equality. However, the Supreme Court once had to decide on the rights for African Americans. Since the abolishment of slavery, one court case before the Supreme Court sided against the African American plaintiff fighting for equal rights. In this case the plaintiff, Homer Plessy was arguing his right to ride in a "white only" train car. Unfortunately, he lost his case in Plessy vs Ferguson. Decades later, another plaintiff, Oliver Brown, also took a case before the Supreme Court. Conversely, in this case, the Supreme Court sided with the plaintiff in Brown vs Board of Education. This decision began the integration of schools. Despite the fact that these two cases took place almost 60 years apart, they both dealt with a similar issue.

Even though forgotten, the stepping stone of Brown Vs. the Board of Education, Mendez Vs. Westminster was the first step to desegregate the United States of America.

An issue they had was that they didn't have their own way of getting an education without being segregated; underpaid teachers taught the Chican@ students, and students had to use used books in order to read what they were being taught. In document 5, found in website thericarddreport.com one can see an image of students in Texas, 1946 in a classroom reading a book with the teacher in the back maybe following along as they read. In the second image there's a building that looks like an hold house, but is where the school is. Schools that Chican@ were taught at weren’t that good: they had little light which made it hard for them to read, they had lack of resources, and bad construction for students to do work in. In a documentary watched in class students weren't allowed to talk in spanish when it came to going to a regular school. For Chican@ students being able to show their culture was a must, but to be educated they had to risk showing their culture. The goal Students wanted was a better education with more freedom to learn without struggling. They wanted to live in an environment

The Mendez v Westminster case of 1946 ultimately attempted to create an education system that strived to promote success for children of Mexican descent by desegregating the public schools in California. Racist individuals dominated society by supporting these segregated schools which lacked a full staff and satisfactory teaching materials, thus inhibiting Latino youth from attaining a noteworthy educational experience. A photograph of Hoover Elementary, a “Mexican” school, found in the Frank Mt. Pleasant Library of Special Collections shows the horrible

The worst three plights that are discussed in Valencia’s Chicano School Failure and Success are language/cultural exclusion, teacher student interaction, and Chicano teaching force. Valencia discusses how “Chicano students have experienced persistent and persuasive language suppression and cultural exclusion” in the public-school system (8). These laws and policies were instated, with one purpose, “to ensure the dominance of the English language and Anglo culture” (Valencia 8). White culture enforced this belief, that being bilingual and bicultural will create a threat to the dominant white English-speaking population. In addition, another adversity Chicano students faced is the “limited use of bilingual education” (Valencia 9).

Mendez recalled asking her parents to not return to school on several occasions because she was afraid of the students. Like Mendez, who had to walk passed the “white school” to the Hispanic school, Jessie had to walk a substantial distance to her school, “With her sisters, Jessie then walked three miles to their country school, one classroom in a wooden bungalow” (Soto 52). Even though both girls had different upbringings, each faced an unjustness. Mendez had money and attended a “white school” but was later kicked out due to her race. Her father, Gonzalo Mendez, was furious; thus, began the court case battle of Mendez v. Westminster. He strongly believed all children deserved an equal education. The young Hispanic students attended an old school with rundown facilities; yet, everyone said it was “separate but equal”. Mendez eventually won the case, and the Caucasian and Hispanic schools were integrated. In my school, I barely learned about these two huge events; I read Esperanza Rising as a child, but a single book was the extent of my education. Today, Sylvia Mendez is fighting for Hispanic history to be added to the curriculum, which I completely support. Teaching students only the glamorous, “white” side of history will result in society with skewed views of other races and cultures.

This inequality and unnecessary act called racism within many school systems can be dated back to 1896 to the Plessy V. Ferguson case which resulted in “separate facilities for education” and an “equal education” (Campbell). This case is what provided us with the term “separate but equal”, this meant that white and black children had to attend separate schools but would supposedly get an equal education. Another case addressing racism in education is the Cumming V. Richmond case in 1899. This case involved three black families who petitioned the court to allow their children to finish their high school education at a white high school, due to the closing of the local black high school which would integrate African Americans and whites under one facility (Campbell). Racial segregation and its unfairness even continued into the 1950’s with the Sweatt V. Painter case involving an African American, Homas Sweatt, who was being denied access to the University of Texas Law School because he was black (Campbell). All of this unfair treatment of separate but equal education continued until 1954 when one of the most popular and familiar cases to all of us occurred, “Brown V. Board of Education”. In this case a young girl from Kansas had to walk 21 blocks to the closet black only school when a