History Of The East L: A Student Walkout

The East L.A student walkouts were the outcome of discrimination from Southern California schools against Mexican-American students to pursue higher education. This impactful walkout occurred in 1968 and was a protest for equal educational opportunities. The walkouts were organized by students who wanted the same educational possibilities as white students. In the 1960’s the East Los Angeles District was not allowing Mexican-American students to take advanced placement classes because the school district did not think these groups of students were capable of succeeding in these advanced courses. These walkouts became known as “blowouts” and were organized by students with the help of their leader, Sal Castro.
The lack of educational resources

The continuous action of student walkouts on March 6 through March 8 in 1968: gained momentum as 2,700 students from Garfield, 500 students from Roosevelt, 15,000 Students from Lincoln, Wilson and Belmont decided to join the Student Walkout movement. The ties between political and militant activist Chicano groups began to formulate their demands through the formation of the Educational Issues Coordinating Committee (EICC) after the board of education decided to listen to the student’s demands of school reformation on March 11 in exchange to halt the progress of student walkouts. According to the “East L.A Blowout: Walking Out for Justice in the Classrooms” students identified thirty-eight demands to the Los Angeles Board of Education. The demands proposed by students were a set of reformations that the students wanted the board of education to consider like new school resources, Chicano school representatives, the freedom to practice their traditional language which in this case meant of allowing Chicano students to speak Spanish in school facilities but unfortunately not all demands were met because the board of education claimed that there wasn’t enough funding for Chicano programs. From another point of view, the government was not the only groups that was against student movements but also middle class Hispanics. Chicanos viewed the movement as insignificant. The implications of the rejection of some of the thirty-eight demands proposed by the EICC, determines the position of the board of education in East L.A. when discussing reformation for Chicano students. Overall, contradiction within internal and external Chicano groups, ranging from social status led to the