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Teaching Tolerance Latino Civil Rights Timeline,
1903 to 2006
A Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center
1900s
1903 In Oxnard, Calif., more than 1,200 Mexican and Japanese farm
workers organize the first farm worker union, the Japanese-Mexican
Labor Association (JMLA). Later, it will be the first union to win a
strike against the California agricultural industry, which already has
become a powerful force.
1904 The U.S. establishes the first border patrol as a way to keep
Asian laborers from entering the country by way of Mexico.
1905 Labor organizer Lucy Gonzales Parsons, from San Antonio, Texas,
helps found the Wobblies, the Industrial Workers of the World.
1910s 1910 The Mexican Revolution forces Mexicans to cross the border
into the United States, in search of safety and employment.
1911 The first large convention of Mexicans to organize against social
injustice, El Primer Congreso Mexicanista, meets in Laredo, Texas.
1912 New Mexico enters the union as an officially bilingual state,
authorizing funds for voting in both Spanish and English, as well as
for bilingual education. Article XII of the state constitution also
prohibits segregation for children of "Spanish descent." At
the state's constitutional convention six years earlier, Mexican
American delegates mandated Spanish and English be used for all state
business.
1914 The Colorado militia attacks striking coal miners in what becomes
known as the Ludlow Massacre. More than 50 people are killed, mostly
Mexican Americans, including 11 children and three women.
1917 Factories in war-related industries need more workers, as
Americans leave for war. Latinos from the Southwest begin moving north
in large numbers for the first time. They find ready employment as
machinists, mechanics, furniture finishers, upholsterers, printing
press workers, meat packers and steel mill workers.
1917 The U.S. Congress passes the Jones Act, granting citizenship to
Puerto Ricans under U.S. military rule since the end of the
Spanish-American War.
1920s
1921 San Antonio's Orden Hijos de América (Order of the Sons of
America) organizes Latino workers to raise awareness of civil rights
issues and fight for fair wages, education and housing.
1921 The Immigration Act of 1921 restricts the entry of southern and
eastern Europeans. Agricultural businesses successfully oppose efforts
to limit the immigration of Mexicans.
1927 In Los Angeles, the Confederación de Uniones Obreras Mexicanas
(Federation of Mexican Workers Union-CUOM) becomes the first
large-scale effort to organize and consolidate Mexican workers.
1928 Octaviano Larrazolo of New Mexico becomes the first Latino U.S.
Senator.
1929 Several Latino service organizations merge to form the League of
United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). The group organizes against
discrimination and segregation and promotes education among Latinos.
It's the largest and longest-lasting Latino civil rights group in the
country.
1930s
1931 The country's first labor strike incited by a cultural conflict
happens in Ybor City (Tampa), Fla., when the owners of cigar factories
attempt to get rid of the lectores, people who read aloud from books
and magazines as a way to help cigar rollers pass the time. The owners
accuse the lectores of radicalizing the workers and replace them with
radios. The workers walk out.
1932 Benjamin Nathan Cardozo, a Sephardic Jew, becomes the first
Latino named to the U.S. Supreme Court.
1933 Latino unions in California lead the El Monte Strike, possibly
the largest agricultural strike at that point in history, to protest
the declining wage rate for strawberry pickers. By May 1933, wages
dropped to nine cents an hour. In July, growers agreed to a settlement
including a wage increase to 20 cents an hour, or $1.50 for a
nine-hour day of work.
1938 On December 4, El Congreso del Pueblo de Habla Española (The
Spanish-Speaking Peoples Congress) holds its first conference in Los
Angeles. Founded by Luisa Moreno and led by Josefina Fierro de Bright,
it's the first national effort to bring together Latino workers from
different ethnic backgrounds: Cubans and Spaniards from Florida,
Puerto Ricans from New York, Mexicans and Mexican Americans from the
Southwest.
1939 Novelist John Steinbeck publishes The Grapes of Wrath, calling
attention to the plight of migrant workers in the California
grape-growing industry.
1940s
1941 The U.S. government forms the Fair Employment Practices Committee
to handle cases of employment discrimination. Latino workers file more
than one-third of all complaints from the Southwest.
1942 The Bracero Program begins, allowing Mexican citizens to work
temporarily in the United States. U.S. growers support the program as
a source or low-cost labor. The program welcomes millions of Mexican
workers into the U.S. until it ends in 1964. 1942 Hundreds of
thousands of Latinos serve in the armed forces during World War II.
1943 Los Angeles erupts in the Zoot Suit Riots,
the worst race riots in the city to date. For 10 nights, American
sailors cruise Mexican American neighborhoods in search of
"zoot-suiters" -- hip, young Mexican teens dressed in baggy
pants and long-tailed coats. The military men drag kids -- some as
young as 12 years old -- out of movie theaters and cafes, tearing
their clothes off and viciously beating them.
1944 Senator Dennis Chávez of New Mexico introduces the first Fair
Employment Practices Bill, which prohibits discrimination because of
race, creed or national origin. The bill fails, but is an important
predecessor for the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
1945 Latino veterans return home with a new feeling of unity.
Together, they seek equal rights in the country they defended. They
use their G.I. benefits for personal advancement, college educations
and buying homes. In 1948, they will organize the American G.I. Forum
in Texas to combat discrimination and improve the status of Latinos;
branches eventually form in 23 states.
1945 Mexican-American parents sue several California school districts,
challenging the segregation of Latino students in separate schools.
The California Supreme Court rules in the parents' favor in Mendez v.
Westminster, arguing segregation violates children's constitutional
rights. The case is an important precedent for Brown v. Board of
Education in 1954.
1950s
1953 During "Operation Wetback" from 1953 and 1958, the U.S.
Immigration Service arrests and deports more than 3.8 million Latin
Americans. Many U.S. citizens are deported unfairly, including
political activist Luisa Moreno and other community leaders.
1954 Hernandez v. Texas is the first post-WWII Latino civil rights
case heard and decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Hernandez
decision strikes down discrimination based on class and ethnic
distinctions.
1960s
1962 Air flights between the U.S. and Cuba are suspended following the
Cuban Missile Crisis. Prior to the Crisis, more than 200,000 of Cuba's
wealthiest and most affluent professionals fled the country fearing
reprisals from Fidel Castro's communist regime. Many believed Castro
would be overthrown and they would soon be able to return to Cuba.
1963 Miami's Coral Way Elementary School offers the nation's first
bilingual education program in public schools, thanks to a grant from
the Ford Foundation. 1965 Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta found the
United Farm Workers association, in Delano, Calif., which becomes the
largest and most important farm worker union in the nation. Huerta
becomes the first woman to lead such a union. Under their leadership,
the UFW joins a strike started by Filipino grape pickers in Delano.
The Grape Boycott becomes one of the most significant social justice
movements for farm workers in the United States.
1965 Luis Valdez founds the world-famous El Teatro Campesino, the
first farm worker theatre, in Delano, Calif. Actors entertain and
educate farm workers about their rights.
1966 Congress passes the Cuban American Adjustment Act allowing Cubans
who lived in America for at least one year to become permanent
residents. No other immigrant group has been offered this privilege
before, or since.
1968 Latino high school students in Los Angeles stage citywide
walkouts protesting unequal treatment by the school district. Prior to
the walkouts, Latino students were routinely punished for speaking
Spanish on school property, not allowed to use the bathroom during
lunch, and actively discouraged from going to college. Walkout
participants are subjected to police brutality and public ridicule; 13
are arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and conspiracy. However,
the walkouts eventually result in school reform and an increased
college enrollment among Latino youth.
1968 The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund opens its
doors, becoming the first legal fund to pursue protection of the civil
rights of Mexican Americans.
1969 Faced with slum housing, inadequate schools and rising
unemployment, Puerto Rican youth in Chicago form the Young Lords
Organization, inspired in part by the writings of Martin Luther King,
Jr., and Malcolm X. An outgrowth of the Young Lords street gang, the
YLO becomes a vibrant community organization, creating free breakfast
programs for kids and community health clinics. Modeled after the
Black Panthers, the YLO uses direct action and political education to
bring public attention to issues affecting their community. The group
later spreads to New York City.
1970s
Throughout the 1970s Progressive organizations based in Mexican,
Filipino, Arab and other immigrant communities begin organizing
documented and undocumented workers. Together, they work for
legalization and union rights against INS raids and immigration law
enforcement brutality.
1970 The U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare issues a
memorandum saying students cannot be denied access to educational
programs because of an inability to speak English.
1974 In the case Lau v. Nichols, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirms the
1970 memorandum, ruling students' access to, or participation in, an
educational program cannot be denied because of their inability to
speak or understand English. The lawsuit began as a class action by
Chinese-speaking students against the school district in San
Francisco, although the decision benefited other immigrant groups, as
well.
1974 Congress passes the Equal Educational Opportunity Act of 1974 to
make bilingual education more widely available in public schools.
1974 The first major Latino voter registration organization, the
Southwest Voter Registration Education Project begins, registering
more than two million Latino voters in the first 20 years.
1975 After non-English speakers testify about the discrimination they
face at the polls, Congress votes to expand the U.S. Voting Rights Act
to require language assistance at polling stations. Native Americans,
Asian Americans, Alaska Natives and Latinos benefit most from this
provision. The original Act, passed in 1965, applied only to blacks
and Puerto Ricans. The Voting Rights Act leads to the increasing
political representation of Latinos in U.S. politics.
1980s
1985 National religious organizations provide support for the first
"National Consultation on Immigrant Rights." Immediately the
group calls for a National Day of Action for Justice for Immigrants
and Refugees, "to call attention to issues and to dramatize the
positive role of immigrants in shaping U.S. society." More than
20 cities participate in the event.
1986 On November 6, Congress approves the Immigration Reform and
Control Act (IRCA), providing legalization for certain undocumented
workers, including agricultural workers. The Act also sets employer
sanctions in place, making it illegal for employers to hire
undocumented workers.
1988 President Ronald Reagan appoints Dr. Lauro Cavazos as Secretary
of Education. He becomes the first Latino appointed to a presidential
cabinet.
1989 Miami's Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban
American, becomes the first Latino woman elected to the U.S. House of
Representatives.
1990s
1990 The California Delegation Against Hate Violence documents the
increasing human rights abuses by INS agents and private citizens
against migrants in the San Diego-Tijuana border area.
1992 The Los Angeles Police Department cracks down on Latino
immigrants during the "Los Angeles rebellion," after the
"not guilty" verdict in the Rodney King police brutality
case.
1994-1995 The fight over California's Proposition 187 brings the
debate over immigration --particularly undocumented immigration -- to
the front pages of the national press. The ballot initiative
galvanizes students across the state, who mount a widespread campaign
in opposition. Voters approve the measure preventing undocumented
immigrants from obtaining public services like education and health
care. 1997 A U.S. District Court judge overturns California's Prop
187, ruling it unconstitutional. 1999 After sixty years of U.S. Navy
exercise-bombings on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, civil rights
leaders in both Puerto Rican and African American communities respond
with a non-violent protest galvanizing the island's 9,300 residents.
Triggered by the accidental death of a Puerto Rican naval base
employee during live ammunition exercises, Puerto Ricans unite in
outrage, protesting the proximity of the exercises to civilians, years
of environmental destruction and resulting health problems. The Navy
failed to honor historical agreements to treat the island and its
people respectfully. The protests culminate in lawsuits and the arrest
of more than 180 protesters, with some serving unnecessarily harsh
sentences. The Navy promises to stop bombing the island by 2003.
1999 The Immigration Law Enforcement Monitoring Project coordinates
nationwide activities on Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.
Public displays of crosses, representing those who died crossing the
border, capture public and media attention.
2000s
2001 Following the terrorist attacks of 9.11, Arab Americans and
others of Middle Eastern descent experience a backlash in the United
States, as hate crimes, harassment and police profiling sharply
increase. Based in rising fears over "border security," the
stigma spreads to other immigrant groups. Some politicians call for
building a wall between the United States and Mexico. During the next
five years, Latino immigrants face a surge in discrimination and bias.
2003 Latinos are pronounced the nation's largest minority group ---
surpassing African Americans --- after new Census figures show the
U.S. Latino population at 37.1 million. The number is expected to
triple by the year 2050.
2004 The Minuteman Project begins to organize anti-immigrant activists
at the U.S./Mexico border. The group considers itself a citizen's
border patrol, but several known white supremacists are members.
During the next two years, the Minuteman Project gains widespread
press coverage. Immigrant rights supporters conduct counter-rallies in
public opposition to the Minuteman Project's tactics and beliefs.
2005 Just as key provisions of the Voting Rights Act are about to
expire, English-only conservatives oppose its renewal because of the
expense of bilingual ballots. In August 2006, President George W. Bush
will reauthorize the Act. The reauthorized Act will be named the
"Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King, and Cesar
Chavez Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of
2006."
2006 Immigrants -- mostly Latinos -- and their allies launch massive
demonstrations in cities and towns across the country in support of
immigrant rights and to protest the growing resentment toward
undocumented workers.
2006 High school students, mostly but not
exclusively Latino, stage walkouts in Los Angeles, Houston and other
cities, boycotting schools and businesses in support of immigrant
rights and equality. Schools issue suspensions and truancy reports to
students who participate, and several students are arrested.
2006 On May 1, hundreds of thousands of Latino immigrants and others
participate in the Day Without Immigrants, boycotting work, school and
shopping, to symbolize the important contributions immigrants make to
the American economy.
2006 The U.S. Congress debates legislation that would criminalize
undocumented immigrants. Immigrant rights organizations support
alternative legislation offering a pathway to citizenship. The
legislation stalls, and Congress decides instead to hold hearings
across the country during the summer and fall of 2006, to gain public
input on how to handle the immigration issue. About Us | Contact Us
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by Sal Valadez salvaladez85@gmail
Representative for Diversity & Outreach
Midwest Region Organizing Committee
Laborers' International Union of North America
LiUNA! Midwest Region
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“The past is dead but it can be brought
back to life by knowing.”
The
New Mexican writer matured through experience during the years he lived on
this earth.
