foreign [Music] if we had to take to the streets and claim our rights to equality in our schools then so be it immediately [Music] I went to Garfield High School my first semester was 1967. the schools on the east side were known as the Mexican schools if we spoke Spanish there was corporal punishment and the lesson there was we want you to assimilate the teacher didn't really understand who we were you know they would make fun of our names when they would do a roll call most of us were just kind of going through like a herd and if we dropped out they didn't care Mexican Americans are one of the highest Dropout rates in the city of Los Angeles we were not considered to be intelligent enough to be able to go to college the education that we all got was aimed at turning us into workers manual labor Tradesmen girls were told oh you know we don't want to waste our time on you you know you're just going to get pregnant a group of high school students recent graduates and activists came together to advocate for better schools they were encouraged by Sal Castro one of the few teachers who was critical of how schools treated Mexican-American students most teachers approach the Mexican is with a negative attitude and that you have nothing to give to me I am going to make you an Anglo come hell or high water Sal Castro was a teacher at Lincoln High School and he wanted his students to know that it was great to be a Mexican that our culture and history was important that we had huge contributions that we had made and so I got that from him we deserve a good education we deserve something that is positive because we are citizens of this country the Civil Rights Australia was all black and white you know and we were left out on the picture and so we had to establish our identity and we did it by calling ourselves Chicanos being Chicano was a self-identity that meant we were here for change and we want it we drew up a list of our demands and our grievances to take them to the Board of Education [Music] we left it with them and waited and waited and nothing was done and then Sal just told it like it was he convinced us nothing's going to happen until it hits the Press we needed to become activists take it to a different level we want to be heard we want our voice to be heard what was going on in the world in terms of protest against the Vietnam War and the African-American civil rights struggle all of these things were surrounding us and so it was a very simple step to say we need to strike and as high school kids it sounded a lot cooler to say to blow out so we need to blow out we need to walk out we parked the car and ran right up the main gate into Lincoln High School the main building and started yelling walk at 10 o'clock yeah and banging on the lockers 10 seconds 20 seconds 30 seconds and nothing was happening it seemed like an eternity and we didn't know if anything was going to happen but then the door started opening and hundreds and ultimately over a thousand kids streamed out of Lincoln High School around the same time other schools began to walk out I ran across the street saw a street comb jumped on top of the car and started yelling walk out walk out through the cone it was exhilarating it was an extraordinary empowering moment to see our community stand up as the protests spread at some schools students were met by the police [Music] there's a famous photograph of their backs as they were approaching I was on the other side the police with batons rushed in and bloodied kids beat them up kids trying to climb fences to escape and being pulled down and then bludgeoned [Music] pink Mita coron says she was arrested and dragged out of the School principal's office with little Airway that I had because they had the Baton I said as they dragged us look at what they're doing to us look at what they're doing to us over and over again quickly spread throughout the community that this was going on that the police were brutalizing us and the next day the clergy was there and the union leaders were there and our parents were there and they joined us the parents were the ones who should have been at the helm not us why isn't he there is sitting down and with us he's our principal for our school and he's not even there sitting down you know as a 15 year old was I prepared for that no but we're not getting an education we're not getting Justice the walkouts lasted for more than a week growing to about 15 000 students I'm tired of talking I mean talking is not getting us anyway we want some action sir I mean really no we're going to be United we're going to fight for what we're going to get that's it the students were persuaded to go back to school and eventually the board agreed to a few of their demands including more bilingual teachers and administrators but nearly three months later there's knock on the door bang bang bang so I went to the front door opened the front door and all these cops man they rush into my apartment threw me on the ground and they told me that I was under arrest I asked for what they wouldn't tell me the next thing I knew I was in handcuffs being thrown into the back of a car 13 of the walkout organizers including Sal Castro were charged with conspiracy to disrupt the schools and faced decades in prison I remember when they were indicted and being in shock we never had the concept that we were breaking the law asking for better schools asking to have College counselors that promoted us asking for Less corporal punishment how is that breaking the law what happened is that the LAPD sent undercover police to infiltrate Inspire on organizations the Black Liberation movement the Chicano movement while they were awaiting trial Castro was removed from his teaching job leading to more protests at the school board we decided to occupy the school board and we were there for weeks eventually there was a motion to reinstate South Castro I was there and Sal was there everybody spoke in favor of reinstating him we have come once again to ask you to do what is the best thing to do to bring sarcastro back to his classroom and I still remember this glorious moment where the school board votes to reinstate him the brown Berets pick them up on their shoulders and carried him out of the school board amazing image that I have in my memory I just hope that now we can get down to the real issue one of those issues the real issue is the education of the Mexican kid Castro returned to teaching and the most serious charges against the la-13 were later dismissed as a violation of the First Amendment it was one of the first important moments in a New Movement for Chicano rights this is the first time the young Chicanos took to the streets to demand equality and justice and we made history there were walkouts in Denver Colorado Albuquerque and Texas so the walkouts helped to generate growing National Chicano power movement that included the struggle for the land the struggle against the war to struggle against police brutality the struggle for political power in the years since the walkouts Mexican Americans have made broad gains in political representation school dropout rates are down and more Chicano students are going to college there are now Senators movie stars billionaires entrepreneurs Engineers doctors Vicki Castro became elected to the school board and became chairperson my whole K-12 I never signed and went in Authority that looked like my parents or myself that has completely changed but many of the walkout organizers say the inequality and stereotypes they confronted are still relevant 55 years later School Board started reforms that are still continuing to this day they're not done there's still a disparity in education for Mexican-American students and other students of color there is still a huge underrepresentation in college there's still a lot of inequality but there is also a tremendous change and that started when those students stood up and walked out of school in 1968. [Music] foreign [Music]