Integrating Texas Schools: Delgado v. Bastrop ISD
Case Summary
As of 1948, Texas school districts had long excluded Mexican American children, claiming that Mexican Americans could not be taught because they spoke Spanish. LULAC sued and won a major judgment declaring the policy unconstitutional, forcing the school district to agree to integrate its schools.
“Our governments have often used pretenses to mask their discrimination against Latinos” reflected Juan Proano, LULAC Chief Executive Officer. “In Delgado v. Bastrop we pulled the mask off one of them, demonstrating that Texas schools’ exclusionary policies around English speaking were really about discriminating against Mexican Americans plain and simple. From gerrymandering, to ID requirements, to laws that target immigrants, LULAC is still fighting to expose anti-Latino discrimination today.”
During America’s long history of segregation, Texas and other states discriminated against Mexican Americans in a regime known as “Jaime Crow.” Texas school districts generally refused to admit Mexican American students who spoke Spanish rather than English—denying Mexican American children access to the public schools.
Minerva Delgado was a girl in south Texas denied access to the local public school because she could not speak English. LULAC stepped in and took her case, raising a staggering ten thousand dollars—over a hundred thousand dollars’ in today’s money—to cover the costs of representing her.
LULAC swiftly won in a major ruling from the trial court, which held that the exclusion policy was unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. The school district agreed to a Consent Decree under which it would begin to integrate Mexican American children into the public schools on equal terms, and offer ESL instruction for first grade students.
Legal Documents
06/15/1948 Opinion
Further Reading
"Let All of Them Take Heed": Mexican Americans and the Campaign for Educational Equality in Texas, 1910-1981 by Guadalupe San Miguel