How a 1968 Student Protest Fueled a Chicano Rights Movement | Retro Report — Transcript

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1. 0:00foreign
2. 0:00[Music]
3. 0:03if we had to take to the streets and
4. 0:07claim our rights to equality in our
5. 0:09schools then so be it immediately
6. 0:14[Music]
7. 0:23I went to Garfield High School my first
8. 0:26semester was
9. 0:281967. the schools on the east side were
10. 0:32known as the Mexican schools if we spoke
11. 0:36Spanish there was corporal punishment
12. 0:39and the lesson there was we want you to
13. 0:43assimilate
14. 0:45the teacher didn't really understand who
15. 0:48we were you know they would make fun of
16. 0:49our names when they would do a roll call
17. 0:52most of us were just kind of going
18. 0:54through like a herd and if we dropped
19. 0:57out they didn't care Mexican Americans
20. 0:59are one of the highest Dropout rates in
21. 1:02the city of Los Angeles we were not
22. 1:04considered to be intelligent enough to
23. 1:06be able to go to college the education
24. 1:09that we all got
25. 1:10was aimed at turning us into workers
26. 1:14manual labor Tradesmen
27. 1:16girls were told oh you know we don't
28. 1:19want to waste our time on you
29. 1:22you know you're just going to get
30. 1:23pregnant
31. 1:24a group of high school students recent
32. 1:27graduates and activists came together to
33. 1:29advocate for better schools they were
34. 1:32encouraged by Sal Castro one of the few
35. 1:34teachers who was critical of how schools
36. 1:36treated Mexican-American students most
37. 1:39teachers approach the Mexican is with a
38. 1:41negative attitude and that you have
39. 1:42nothing to give to me I am going to make
40. 1:44you an Anglo come hell or high water
41. 1:47Sal Castro was a teacher at Lincoln High
42. 1:50School and he wanted his students to
43. 1:52know that it was great to be a Mexican
44. 1:55that our culture and history was
45. 1:57important that we had huge contributions
46. 1:59that we had made and so I got that from
47. 2:02him we deserve a good education we
48. 2:04deserve something that is positive
49. 2:06because we are citizens of this country
50. 2:08the Civil Rights Australia was all black
51. 2:11and white you know and we were left out
52. 2:14on the picture and so we had to
53. 2:16establish our identity and we did it by
54. 2:18calling ourselves Chicanos being Chicano
55. 2:22was a self-identity that meant we were
56. 2:25here for change
57. 2:27and we want it
58. 2:29we drew up a list of our demands and our
59. 2:32grievances to take them to the Board of
60. 2:34Education
61. 2:35[Music]
62. 2:39we left it with them and waited and
63. 2:43waited
64. 2:44and nothing was done and then Sal just
65. 2:47told it like it was
66. 2:49he convinced us nothing's going to
67. 2:51happen until it hits the Press we needed
68. 2:54to become activists take it to a
69. 2:56different level we want to be heard we
70. 2:59want our voice to be heard
71. 3:01what was going on in the world in terms
72. 3:03of protest against the Vietnam War and
73. 3:06the African-American civil rights
74. 3:08struggle all of these things were
75. 3:10surrounding us and so it was a very
76. 3:13simple step to say
77. 3:14we need to strike
78. 3:17and as high school kids it sounded a lot
79. 3:19cooler to say to blow out
80. 3:21so we need to blow out
81. 3:24we need to walk out
82. 3:28we parked the car and ran right up the
83. 3:31main gate into Lincoln High School the
84. 3:33main building and started yelling walk
85. 3:35at 10 o'clock yeah
86. 3:38and banging on the lockers
87. 3:4110 seconds 20 seconds 30 seconds and
88. 3:47nothing was happening
89. 3:48it seemed like an eternity and we didn't
90. 3:51know if anything was going to happen
91. 3:55but then the door started opening
92. 3:58and hundreds and ultimately over a
93. 4:02thousand kids streamed out of Lincoln
94. 4:05High School around the same time other
95. 4:08schools began to walk out I ran across
96. 4:11the street saw a street comb jumped on
97. 4:14top of the car and started yelling walk
98. 4:17out walk out through the cone
99. 4:23it was exhilarating it was an
100. 4:27extraordinary empowering moment to see
101. 4:31our community stand up as the protests
102. 4:34spread at some schools students were met
103. 4:37by the police
104. 4:41[Music]
105. 4:46there's a famous photograph of their
106. 4:49backs as they were approaching
107. 4:52I was on the other side
108. 4:54the police with batons rushed in and
109. 4:59bloodied kids
110. 5:01beat them up
111. 5:04kids trying to climb fences to escape
112. 5:06and being pulled down and then
113. 5:08bludgeoned
114. 5:11[Music]
115. 5:16pink Mita coron says she was arrested
116. 5:18and dragged out of the School
117. 5:19principal's office
118. 5:22with little Airway that I had because
119. 5:24they had the Baton
120. 5:27I said as they dragged us
121. 5:31look at what they're doing to us
122. 5:34look at what they're doing to us over
123. 5:37and over again
124. 5:40quickly spread throughout the community
125. 5:42that this was going on that the police
126. 5:43were brutalizing us
127. 5:46and the next day the clergy was there
128. 5:49and the union leaders were there
129. 5:51and our parents were there and they
130. 5:54joined us
131. 5:56the parents were the ones who should
132. 5:58have been at the helm not us
133. 6:01why isn't he there is sitting down and
134. 6:03with us he's our principal for our
135. 6:05school and he's not even there sitting
136. 6:07down you know as a 15 year old was I
137. 6:09prepared for that no
138. 6:11but we're not getting an education we're
139. 6:14not getting Justice
140. 6:16the walkouts lasted for more than a week
141. 6:19growing to about 15 000 students
142. 6:22I'm tired of talking I mean talking is
143. 6:25not getting us anyway we want some
144. 6:26action sir I mean really no we're going
145. 6:28to be United we're going to fight for
146. 6:29what we're going to get that's it
147. 6:31the students were persuaded to go back
148. 6:34to school and eventually the board
149. 6:36agreed to a few of their demands
150. 6:38including more bilingual teachers and
151. 6:40administrators
152. 6:42but nearly three months later there's
153. 6:44knock on the door bang bang bang so I
154. 6:47went to the front door opened the front
155. 6:48door and all these cops man they rush
156. 6:52into my apartment threw me on the ground
157. 6:55and they told me that I was under arrest
158. 6:58I asked for what they wouldn't tell me
159. 7:01the next thing I knew I was in handcuffs
160. 7:03being thrown into the back of a car
161. 7:0913 of the walkout organizers including
162. 7:12Sal Castro were charged with conspiracy
163. 7:14to disrupt the schools and faced decades
164. 7:17in prison
165. 7:18I remember when they were indicted and
166. 7:21being in shock we never had the concept
167. 7:24that we were breaking the law asking for
168. 7:27better schools asking to have College
169. 7:30counselors that promoted us asking for
170. 7:33Less corporal punishment how is that
171. 7:35breaking the law what happened is that
172. 7:38the LAPD sent undercover police to
173. 7:43infiltrate Inspire on organizations the
174. 7:46Black Liberation movement the Chicano
175. 7:48movement
176. 7:49while they were awaiting trial Castro
177. 7:52was removed from his teaching job
178. 7:56leading to more protests at the school
179. 7:58board we decided to occupy the school
180. 8:01board
181. 8:02and we were there for weeks
182. 8:05eventually there was a motion to
183. 8:07reinstate South Castro I was there and
184. 8:10Sal was there everybody spoke in favor
185. 8:12of reinstating him
186. 8:14we have come once again to ask you to do
187. 8:17what is the best thing to do to bring
188. 8:19sarcastro back to his classroom
189. 8:23and I still remember this glorious
190. 8:25moment where the school board votes to
191. 8:27reinstate him
192. 8:30the brown Berets pick them up on their
193. 8:33shoulders and carried him out of the
194. 8:34school board
195. 8:37amazing image that I have in my memory I
196. 8:40just hope that now we can get down to
197. 8:42the real issue one of those issues the
198. 8:44real issue is the education of the
199. 8:46Mexican kid
200. 8:47Castro returned to teaching and the most
201. 8:49serious charges against the la-13 were
202. 8:52later dismissed as a violation of the
203. 8:55First Amendment it was one of the first
204. 8:57important moments in a New Movement for
205. 8:59Chicano rights this is the first time
206. 9:02the young Chicanos took to the streets
207. 9:04to demand equality and justice and we
208. 9:07made history
209. 9:08there were walkouts in Denver Colorado
210. 9:11Albuquerque and Texas so the walkouts
211. 9:15helped to generate growing National
212. 9:18Chicano power movement
213. 9:21that included the struggle for the land
214. 9:24the struggle against the war to struggle
215. 9:27against police brutality the struggle
216. 9:29for political power
217. 9:31in the years since the walkouts Mexican
218. 9:34Americans have made broad gains in
219. 9:36political representation school dropout
220. 9:39rates are down and more Chicano students
221. 9:41are going to college
222. 9:43there are now Senators movie stars
223. 9:46billionaires
224. 9:48entrepreneurs Engineers doctors
225. 9:51Vicki Castro became elected to the
226. 9:54school board and became chairperson
227. 9:56my whole K-12 I never signed and went in
228. 9:59Authority that looked like my parents or
229. 10:02myself that has completely changed
230. 10:05but many of the walkout organizers say
231. 10:08the inequality and stereotypes they
232. 10:10confronted are still relevant 55 years
233. 10:13later
234. 10:14School Board started reforms that are
235. 10:17still continuing to this day they're not
236. 10:19done there's still a disparity
237. 10:22in education for Mexican-American
238. 10:24students and other students of color
239. 10:27there is still
240. 10:29a huge underrepresentation in college
241. 10:31there's still a lot of inequality
242. 10:34but there is also a tremendous change
243. 10:37and that started when those students
244. 10:40stood up and walked out of school in
245. 10:421968.
246. 10:44[Music]
247. 10:58foreign
248. 11:02[Music]