Lesson 3

Lesson Title:
Overview:

Search for Aztlan

By: Elvira Alonso
The Chicano Civil Rights Movement
LA Walkouts
When Mexican American students continued to face mistreatment and a lack of
representation within the East LA School District, they took to nonviolent forms of
protest to improve their situation in March 1968.
11.2.3: Trace the effect of the Americanization movement.
11.10.2: Examine and analyze the key events, policies, and court cases in the
evolution of civil rights, including Dred Scott v. Sandford, Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown
v. Board of Education, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, and
California Proposition 209.

Standards:

11.10.3: Describe the collaboration on legal strategy between African American and
white civil rights lawyers to end racial segregation in higher education.

11.10.5: Discuss the diffusion of the civil rights movement of African Americans
from the churches of the rural South and the urban North, including the resistance
to racial desegregation in Little Rock and Birmingham, and how the advances
influenced the agendas, strategies, and effectiveness of the quests of American
Indians, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans for civil rights and equal
opportunities.
Students will understand the motivations and outcomes for LA school walkouts of
Objectives:
1968
To understand how stereotyping can lead to gut reactions and mistreatment. The
importance of self-advocacy through the use of the legal system. To understand
Rationale:
that change happens over time and with constant attention. It is important to
represent the societal diversity within the educational system in order to create a
better context for decision making in a democratic society.
UMAS
Demands
Blowouts
Vocab:
Watts Riots
LA 13
Brown Berets
We will watch part of the PBS documentary, Chicano!, the section titled Chicano!
Activities:
Taking Back the Schools. Students will fill out the attached worksheet (originally
created by J. Maple of NYU) as they watch.
Video: Chicano! Taking Back the Schools
Materials:
Video projector with speakers
Worksheets
Assessments: Worksheet and class discussion/review
When needed will provide students with a transcript or notes of the video. Will
Modifications: also provide assistive technology for students who require it (ex. Chromebook for
writing with a digital copy of worksheet).
65 minutes; will require a full 50 minute period class and part of next class to
Time:
review/discuss
Teacher
Reflection:

Name:
Date:
Period:
Chicano! Taking Back the Schools
Instructions: As you watch the movie, answer the following questions.
1. How many Mexican Americans lived in East LA in 1968? Was that neighborhood integrated with the rest of the
city?

2. How many Chicanos graduated high school? Why so few?

3. What happened to Harry Gamboa as a monolingual Spanish speaker in elementary school?

4. What message did the schools send to Chicano students about their futures?

5. What was the first step in the students activism?

6. What did the students call for?

7. What did the school board do when presented with the survey results and student demands?

8. What message was sent to students about being Mexican and speaking Spanish?

9. What happened in 1946 in Santa Ana, California?

10. What is UMAS?

11. According to Sal Castro, whom did the schools blame for Mexican American student failings?

12. What was Sals activism shaped by?

13. How many schools were affected by the walkouts by the end of the week?

14. Did everyone in the community support the blowouts? Why or why not?

15. What role did the Brown Berets play in the walkouts?

16. What effect did the Watts Riot in 1965 have on the police?

17. Why did the principal tell the police they couldnt arrest the student who broke the lock on the gate at Garfield?

18. How did the police react to the protests?

19. Did Bobby Kennedy support the students?

20. How were parents involved in the movement?

21. What does this movement show about mass involvement?

22. What happened in June 1968?

23. Who acted as attorneys for the LA 13?

24. What is meant by the quote form an ACLU member who said, The demonstration is the poor mans printing
press?

25. How and why was the FBI involved in the Chicano movement?

26. What did the cops and FBI agents who infiltrated the Brown Berets and the activists do?

27. How did the arrests of the LA 13 change the focus of the movement?

28. What happened after Sal Castro got fired?

29. Were the walkouts only in East LA?

30. What was the outcome of the legal battle for the LA 13?