2006 - Brown Over "Other White": Mexican Americans' Legal Arguments and Litigation Strategy in School Desegregation Lawsuits

Attribution: Wilson, Steven H.
Researchers: Steven H. Wilson
University Affiliation: N/A
Email:
Research Question:
Why and with what results did Mexican American lawyers use arguments and strategies that did not draw on the constitutional substance of Brown?
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Law and History Review
Journal Entry: Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 145-194
Year: 2006
Findings:
  • Reviews the legal arguments and litigation strategies used by Mexican American lawyers in school desegregation lawsuits.
  • Mexicans were legally classified as whites and litigation involved defending their whiteness in cases of discrimination.
  • Mexican children were segregated based on language.
  • Lawyers argued that it was a violation of due process instead of a violation of equal protection.
  • Mexican-American lawyers did not utilize the Brown decision.
  • Wilson argues that this was a dead end strategy. In the Cisneros v. Corpus Christi case the defense finally appealed to Brown and Mexicans were found to be an identifiable ethnic minority that had been denied equal protection.
Keywords: Brown vs Board of EducationDesegregationHispanicsLatinosRegions: NationalMethodologies: QualitativeResearch Designs: Policy AnalysisAnalysis Methods: Policy Analysis Sampling Frame:National
Sampling Types: NonrandomAnalysis Units: DocumentData Types: Qualitative-Longitudinal
Data Description:
  • Qualitative analysis of key school desegregation cases and judicial decisions.
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:
Archives: K-12 Integration, Desegregation, and Segregation Abstracts