Title: Latino Social Movements | Encyclopedia.com
Headings: Latino Social Movements
Latino Social Movements
Latino Social Movements
LULAC, MENDEZ, AND THE STRUGGLE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS
SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS
MEXICAN AMERICANS AND UNIONS
THE CHICANO MOVEMENT
WOMEN AND THE MOVIMIENTO
MARGINALIZED MOVEMENTS
LATINO MOVEMENTS IN THE 1990S AND BEYOND
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Content: LULAC might be best understood as the Chicano/Latino version of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), an interracial organization that African-American scholar, writer, and activist W.E.B. Du Bois helped form in 1905 (Jonas 2004). The NAACP challenged segregation through legal means, largely eschewing civil disobedience and nonviolent direct action. It also did not critique nor call for the abolition of capitalism, nor did it openly question U.S. foreign policy before and after World War II, though some black scholars and activists claimed these policies were racist and imperialist (Von Eschen 1997). The NAACP also included many middle-class individuals who favored segregation’s demise but rejected calls for more radical social change. These positions generally mirrored LULAC’s political orientation. LULAC actively resisted segregation through the courts, playing a key role in the landmark 1946 Mendez v. Westminster School District decision that ruled that California’s segregated public school system was unconstitutional. NAACP lead counsel Thurgood Marshall later cited Mendez as a precedent when and he and his fellow colleagues argued the Brown v. Board of Education case before the United States Supreme Court in 1954 (Johnson 2005; Robbie 2002). The Mendez case thus helped reshape the entire nation. SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS
Mexicans were called “greasers,” “cholos,” “bloodthirsty savages,” and other demeaning epithets for decades after the U.S.-Mexico War.