Abstract

This study provides a comparative view of the struggles for educational equality undertaken by Mexican American and Puerto Rican activists during the 1960s and 1970s. It documents the various strategies they used to challenge discrimination in public education and to promote reforms aimed at meeting their linguistic, cultural, and academic needs in elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education. Emphasis is placed on comparing their actions against school segregation in the public schools and for increased access to higher education. I argue that these struggles were diverse, multifaceted, and independent of each other. I also argue that the participation of both groups had the effect of expanding, extending, and diversifying the historic struggle for education waged primarily by Mexican American activists in the first half of the 20th century.