Inquiry Question
- Why was developing a distinct identity so important for the Chicano Movement?
Chicano Movement - Background
Discrimination against Mexican-Americans
- Mexican Americans and other Latinos faced discrimination throughout the United States in the 20th century, particularly in the southwest and west.
- Schools and public facilities were segregated
- Comparable to Jim Crow
- Violence
- Police Brutality
- Deportation of** **immigrants
- Mexican Repatriation (1930s) and Operation “Wetback” (1950s)
- Schools and public facilities were segregated
- “Chicano” was originally used as a slanderous term for Mexican-Americans.
- “Chicano” was appropriated by certain Mexican-Americans in the 1960s and became a term of ethnic and racial pride.
Mendez v. Westminster, 1947
- Gonzalo Mendez challenged the segregation of his children in Southern California public schools
- Mendez won and the Ninth Federal District Court of Appeals upheld the decision.
- California Governor Earl Warren then signed bills that ended Mexican-American segregation in public schools
**Hernandez v. Texas, 1954 **
- Argued before the Supreme Court shortly after Brown v. Board
- Hernandez had been convicted by an all white jury.
- Mexican-Americans were not allowed to serve on juries.
- Led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Chicanos’ equal rights under the law are protected by the 14th amendment.
United Farm Workers
- Formed in 1966 when Filipino and Mexican-American farm workers’ unions merged
- Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta were the main leaders of the union.
- Technically this was NOT a Chicano rights organization – it was a labor union.
- The UFW led a strike against grape growers, which lasted 5 years.
- An international grape boycott was instrumental in winning better wages and working conditions for agricultural workers, many of whom were Mexican-Americans.
The Rise of the Environmentalist Movement
- The First Clean Air Act
- 1967
- The first federal emissions standards and the first list of endangered species - Bald Eagle
- 1967
The Road to Environmental Change
Santa Barbara oil spill: January 1969
- Over 11 days the Union Oil well in Santa Barbara, California spilled more than 200,000 gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean
- That June, oil and chemicals floating on the surface of the Cuyahoga River in Ohio burst into flames.
- **Earth Day: **April 22, 1970 * Organized by Gaylord Nelson ( Democratic senator and former governor of Wisconsin ) and Denis Hayes ( Former student body president at Stanford ) * Originally known as Environmental Teach in * 2,000 events scattered around the country, attended by an estimated 20 million Americans
Impact of Earth Day
- Congress authorized the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency
- Passage of Environmental bills
- Clean Air Act of 1970
- Clean Water Act of 1972
- The Endangered Species Act of 1973
- Many colleges established Environmental Studies Programs