The 1968 Chicano Student Walkouts

The 1968 Chicano Student Walkouts. . , On Friday, March 1, 1968, the students of Woodrow Wilson High School, in a spontaneous and unprecedented act of civil disobedience, walked out of their classrooms to protest the school's systemic discrimination against its Mexican American students. The protesters, many of whom identified themselves politically as Chicanas and Chicanos, demanded immediate changes to a curriculum that they believed funneled students into industrial shop and home economic classes instead of college preparatory courses. This “tracking system” was a form of academic racial profiling that resulted in educational failure as more than half of Wilson's Mexican American students dropped out of school. , , Within one week, 15,000 Mexican American students from Garfield, Roosevelt, Lincoln, Belmont, and other high schools across Los Angeles, joined the protest against social and educational injustice. In time, student defiance led to important school reforms, but these victories were not without consequences - many students were unjustly beaten and arrested by police officers, while others were suspended or expelled from school. , Today, we understand the significance of the “Walkouts” as a seminal moment in the history of the Chicano Civil Rights Movement and we honor the courageous students who fought for everyone's right to a quality education. We also acknowledge that our communities, El Sereno and East Los Angeles, still face formidable obstacles to providing our children, many of whom identify themselves as Dreamers, the educational, technological, and artistic skills needed to succeed in this new century - the struggle, la causa, continues. , , Donated by City Councilmember Jose Huizar, the El Sereno Historical Society, InnerCity Struggle, and the Wilson Mules Alumni Association, March 1, 2018.