This Day in History

March 20, 1969: Mexican-American Students Walkout in Colorado

Time Periods: 1961
Themes: Education, Latinx
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Denver police attack students on the steps of West High School on March 20, 1969. Source: Denver Post

On March 20, 1969, one of the largest student protests in Colorado history was met with police violence when over a hundred Chicano and Chicana students at Denver’s West High School walked out of their classes to protest racism in their school.

The students, along with support from Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales and other members of Denver’s Crusade for Justice, organized the walkout. The students demanded more bilingual classes, Chicano history and literature to be a part of the curriculum, the firing of a faculty member, as well as a call for teachers to stop advising students to join the military while war raged in Vietnam.

Source: Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection

On the morning of March 20, students began leaving classes in small groups. Continue reading at History Colorado.

In La Voz Bilingue, journalist James Mejia notes that the students, of all ages, were met by police armed with gas masks, billy clubs, tear gas canisters, and helicopters.

Here is a lesson on the 1968 walkouts (also called blowouts) in Los Angeles. Find related sources below.

Related Resources
Teaching Activities (Free)

The History All Around Us: Roosevelt High School and the 1968 Eastside Blowouts

Teaching Activity. By Brian C. Gibbs. Rethinking Schools. 6 pages.
A teacher uses the activist history of Theodore Roosevelt High School in East Los Angeles to pose students the question: “What would you be willing to do to create change?”

Pump Up the Blowouts: Reflections on the 40th Anniversary of the Chicano/a School Blowouts (Teaching Activity) | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History
Teaching Activities (Free)

Pump Up the Blowouts: Reflections on the 40th Anniversary of the Chicano/a School Blowouts

Teaching Activity. By Gilda L. Ochoa. Rethinking Schools. 5 pages.
Reflections on teaching students about the 1968 walkouts by Chicano students in California.

Teaching Activities (Free)

“Riots,” Racism, and the Police: Students Explore a Century of Police Conduct and Racial Violence

Teaching Activity. By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca.
Students explore three documents produced in the wake of three major episodes of racial violence (1919, 1967, 2014) to understand the long trajectory of police violence in Black communities.

Walkout (Film) | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History
Films

Walkout

Film. Produced by Moctesuma Esparza. 2006. 111 minutes.
Walkout tells the true story of the Chicano students of East L.A., who in 1968 staged several dramatic walkouts in their high schools to protest academic prejudice and dire school conditions.