Brown, Not White ― School Integration and the Chicano Movement in Houston

Strikes, boycotts, rallies, negotiations, and litigation marked the efforts of Mexican-origin community members to achieve educational opportunities and oppose discrimination in Houston schools in the early 1970s. The Houston Indendent School District sparked these responses when it circumvented a court order to desergregate by classifying Mexican American children as "white" and integrating them with African American children---leaving Anglosin segregated Schools.

In Brown, Not White Guadalupe San Miguel, Jr., traces the evolution of the community's political activism in education during the Chicano movement era of the early 1970s. The political mobilization in Houston signaled a shift in the activist community's identity from the assimilationists "Mexican American Generation" to the rising Chicano movement. It also introduced Mexican American Interests into educational policy making and the national desegregation struggles. This important study will engage those interested in public school policy as well as scholarsof Mexican American history and the history of desegregation in America.

"Brown, Not White contributes significantly to the history of the Chicano movement and school desegregation in the American West and is a must read forpublic school officials, community activits, and educators interested in seeking educationl equality for all groups, including Mexican Americans."---Western Historical Quarterly

"San Miguel has written a fascinating and important account of the Chicano huelga in Houston, one that illustrates Chicano activism in parts of Texas other than the Rio Grande Valley. Accessible yet sophisticated, this book reads well and functions at numerous levels..."---Journal of Southern History

Guadalupe and Miguel, Jr., who holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University, is a professor of history at the University of Houston.