Mexican American Civil Rights Leaders and Discrimination in South Texas Schools

Authors

Martha May Tevis, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2012

Abstract

When the College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin was named for Dr. George I. Sánchez (1906–1972) in 1995, many Mexican Americans did not recognize his name, especially young people. However, long before 1995 he had been called “Padre de la Raza” (Father of La Raza) by Dr. Hector Garcia, founder of the American G.I. Forum. 1 In 1984 a retrospective honoring him at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law cited him as the single most influential individual in securing equal rights through law for Mexican Americans. His fight for equal rights began in his native New Mexico in the 1930s and continued in Texas through the 1940s until his death in 1972. When George I. Sánchez wrote his master’s thesis in Educational Psychology in the early 1930s on the use of IQ tests with Spanish-speaking children, he produced a document that would result in his reputation as an expert witness in most cases of discrimination concerning Mexican American children in Texas public schools. His influence on and mentoring of Mexican American attorneys and examples of his strategic advice to them are the subject of this paper.

Comments

Copyright © 2012 Society of Philosophy and History of Education

Recommended Citation

Tevis, M. M. (2012). Mexican American Civil Rights Leaders and Discrimination in South Texas Schools. Journal of Philosophy & History of Education, 62(1), 95-105.

First Page

95

Last Page

105

Publication Title

Journal of Philosophy & History of Education