EAST LOS ANGELES – It must have seemed like the world was on fire to many teenagers 40 years ago as the Vietnam War raged on. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were both gunned down in 1968, and students around the globe became political and civil rights activists.
The turbulent 1968 also saw an explosive evolution of the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, ignited by the high school walkouts in East Los Angeles.
Borne out of necessity, students from five East L.A. high schools walked out of classes to protest racial inequity in Mexican-American education in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
An estimated crowd of 2,000 to 3,000, including many of the original protesters and organizers, gathered at Lincoln High School in the Lincoln Heights community in East L.A. on Saturday to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the “Chicano Blowouts.”
Armando Vazquez-Ramos, a Cal State Long Beach Chicano/Latino studies professor and Lincoln High graduate, led a contingency of about 20 CSULB students in the 1.5-mile reenactment march to Hazard Park in nearby Boyle Heights. Vazquez-Ramos, who was in his first year as a CSULB student, was among the 1968 demonstrators at Lincoln.
“The energy is amazing,” Vazquez-Ramos said. “We felt we accomplished something in 1968, but with a more than 45 percent dropout rate at Lincoln and other schools in L.A., we still have a long way to go.”
That sentiment was supported by Mónica García, president of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, who led Saturday’s march chanting, “What do we want? Education. When do we want it? Now. Chicano power.”
At Hazard Park, García said, “I applaud these student-activists and the community for its commitment to civil rights. It’s about the young people wanting and demanding change in their education.”
Then-Lincoln High teacher Sal Castro, a Chicano activist, spearheaded the boycott after frustrated attempts to have the all-white LAUSD improve the quality of education in East L.A. schools, which were predominately Mexican-American.
In 1968, more than 1,000 Lincoln High students poured out of classrooms and onto the streets, responding to Castro’s and college student organizers’ cries, “Blowout!”
Students from Roosevelt, Garfield, Wilson and Belmont high schools later joined them in their protest.
The activist Brown Berets also joined to provide security, anticipating that the LAPD might become hostile with the high school youth. The first day of the demonstration was peaceful, but deteriorated on the second day when police attacked students from Roosevelt and Belmont.
In the ensuing days, more than 20,000 students from 15 other area high schools joined the civil disobedience by walking out.
A coalition of students presented a list of demands to the school board, including more Mexican-American history classes, bilingual education, increased numbers of Mexican-American school counselors and ending corporal punishment in public schools, according to Vazquez-Ramos.
Vazquez-Ramos said, “The arrogance and lack of respect from the school board was such that they completely ignored the demands.”
When the board finally conceded to some of the demands, students returned to classes, but soon after, Castro and 12 other protestors were charged with disturbing the peace. While the original charges were misdemeanors, the “East L.A. Thirteen” were tried for felony conspiracy to disrupt the schools.
Castro’s arrest with the 12 students was followed by a protracted takeover of the LAUSD meeting room by community members, who insisted Castro be returned to the classroom. Castro was allowed to return to teaching at Lincoln and eventually all 13 were found not guilty on constitutional grounds.
Castro is currently the coordinator for Chicano Youth Leadership Conferences, Inc. in Los Angeles
California State Sen. Gloria Romero, whose 24th District includes East L.A., presented Castro with a Senate resolution honoring the importance and impact of the walkouts.
Another original demand by 1968 protesters was that tracking Mexican-American students into trade schools be stopped. Vazquez-Ramos said he became “almost a hell of a mechanic” because he was being encouraged to go into auto mechanics rather than attend college.
Vazquez-Ramos was in the inaugural class of Educational Opportunity Program students. EOP celebrated its 40th anniversary at CSULB last November.
Wendy Limón, a junior Chicano/Latino studies and criminal justice major, said she came to represent the university and the campus La Raza student organization.
“There’s still much change needed to ensure that Latinas/os, blacks, Asians and other minority high school students have access to higher education,” Limón said.
A memorial plaque will be placed on a boulder at Hazard Park to commemorate the 1968 walkouts.
