Ernesto Chacon and Jesus Salas
Photo by HNG
Special testament article focusing on events that led to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee peaceful sit-ins at the Chancellor's Office on August 27, 1970, commemorating the 40th Anniversary in 2010.
By Jesus Salas And Ernesto Chacon
September 17, 2010
Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Many are aware that in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown vs Board of Education outlawed the "separate but equal" legal doctrine in the nation's public school system. Less is known of the resistance by post-secondary institutions to admit and provide quality education for students of color.
Nearly 10 years after Brown, the University of Alabama continued to reject African-American students. On June 11, 1963, Governor George Wallace stood in front of the university's Foster Auditorium and symbolically blocked the entrance to two black students, keeping his inaugural promise that segregation in his state would remain "today, tomorrow and forever."
The courts had not been able to ensure equal protection of the laws for all. Clearly, for many in the 1960s, "direct action" was seen as the only alternative.
Although the anti-Vietnam war protests initially overshadowed minority demands for access to higher education, the civil unrest of the 1960s and the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King. Other groups joined together to demand increased basic rights in voting, housing, employment opportunity and collective bargaining.
In Milwaukee, disturbances broke out on July 30, 1967. The Wisconsin National Guard was called in to quell them. On August 28, the first of 200 consecutive days of demonstrations for open housing began. In 1966, migrant farm workers protested their working and living conditions by marching 80 miles from Wautoma to Madison.
That fall, Obreros Unidos, a farm workers union made up of Texas and Northern Mexico workers, was formed, and work stoppages continued through 1968. In the fall of 1969, Obreros Unidos organizers and supporters began the process of reshaping United Migrant Opportunity Services (UMOS) as an advocate for education, equal employment opportunities and training programs. Along with other community-based organizations, among them the Spanish Center, Latin American Union for Civil Rights (LAUCR) and they formed the Council for Latino Education (CEP).
It was in this environment that so many of us learned and grew both individually and as organizers as part of a larger movement. The Obreros Unidos organizers adopted King's and Cesar Chavez's peaceful, nonviolent tactics.
They followed Chavez's tenets of developing sustainable communities, including Mutualista forms of organizing whole families rather than male heads of household, the traditionally organized group for unions at the time. Poverty primarily involved women and children, and in the migrant fields, they made up the majority of the workforce.
Yet organizers kept returning to education as a right that must be made available to all on equal terms, as Chief Justice Warren recognized in 1954.
For these reasons, on Saturday in the Union Ballroom at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), we will commemorate the 40th anniversary of the peaceful sit-ins that took place at UWM's Chapman Hall on August 1970. The sit-ins led to the creation of the Spanish Speaking Outreach Institute, later in 1996 was renamed the Roberto Hernández Center.
The community celebrates the fact that 40 years ago, there were only a handful of Latino students (14) and no Latino faculty at UWM, now there are over 1,400 enrolled Latino students per semester and over 30 Latino faculty.
The peaceful sit-ins also proved to be a catalyst for the enhancement of expanded educational services for community- based organizations that continue to this day. Appropriately proceeds from the banquet will be used to provide scholarships for Latino students.
Note: Now retired, Ernesto Chacon was Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle's Milwaukee office deputy director, and Jesus Salas was an instructor at Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) and a University of Wisconsin regent. The article was also printed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel JSOline.
Related article:
Milwaukee Latino Community To Celebrate 40th Anniversary, Making Higher Education Accessible http://bit.ly/bafD6L
Connected by MOTOBLUR™ on T-Mobile
Photo by HNG
Special testament article focusing on events that led to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee peaceful sit-ins at the Chancellor's Office on August 27, 1970, commemorating the 40th Anniversary in 2010.
By Jesus Salas And Ernesto Chacon
September 17, 2010
Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Many are aware that in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown vs Board of Education outlawed the "separate but equal" legal doctrine in the nation's public school system. Less is known of the resistance by post-secondary institutions to admit and provide quality education for students of color.
Nearly 10 years after Brown, the University of Alabama continued to reject African-American students. On June 11, 1963, Governor George Wallace stood in front of the university's Foster Auditorium and symbolically blocked the entrance to two black students, keeping his inaugural promise that segregation in his state would remain "today, tomorrow and forever."
The courts had not been able to ensure equal protection of the laws for all. Clearly, for many in the 1960s, "direct action" was seen as the only alternative.
Although the anti-Vietnam war protests initially overshadowed minority demands for access to higher education, the civil unrest of the 1960s and the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King. Other groups joined together to demand increased basic rights in voting, housing, employment opportunity and collective bargaining.
In Milwaukee, disturbances broke out on July 30, 1967. The Wisconsin National Guard was called in to quell them. On August 28, the first of 200 consecutive days of demonstrations for open housing began. In 1966, migrant farm workers protested their working and living conditions by marching 80 miles from Wautoma to Madison.
That fall, Obreros Unidos, a farm workers union made up of Texas and Northern Mexico workers, was formed, and work stoppages continued through 1968. In the fall of 1969, Obreros Unidos organizers and supporters began the process of reshaping United Migrant Opportunity Services (UMOS) as an advocate for education, equal employment opportunities and training programs. Along with other community-based organizations, among them the Spanish Center, Latin American Union for Civil Rights (LAUCR) and they formed the Council for Latino Education (CEP).
It was in this environment that so many of us learned and grew both individually and as organizers as part of a larger movement. The Obreros Unidos organizers adopted King's and Cesar Chavez's peaceful, nonviolent tactics.
They followed Chavez's tenets of developing sustainable communities, including Mutualista forms of organizing whole families rather than male heads of household, the traditionally organized group for unions at the time. Poverty primarily involved women and children, and in the migrant fields, they made up the majority of the workforce.
Yet organizers kept returning to education as a right that must be made available to all on equal terms, as Chief Justice Warren recognized in 1954.
For these reasons, on Saturday in the Union Ballroom at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), we will commemorate the 40th anniversary of the peaceful sit-ins that took place at UWM's Chapman Hall on August 1970. The sit-ins led to the creation of the Spanish Speaking Outreach Institute, later in 1996 was renamed the Roberto Hernández Center.
The community celebrates the fact that 40 years ago, there were only a handful of Latino students (14) and no Latino faculty at UWM, now there are over 1,400 enrolled Latino students per semester and over 30 Latino faculty.
The peaceful sit-ins also proved to be a catalyst for the enhancement of expanded educational services for community- based organizations that continue to this day. Appropriately proceeds from the banquet will be used to provide scholarships for Latino students.
Note: Now retired, Ernesto Chacon was Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle's Milwaukee office deputy director, and Jesus Salas was an instructor at Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) and a University of Wisconsin regent. The article was also printed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel JSOline.
Related article:
Milwaukee Latino Community To Celebrate 40th Anniversary, Making Higher Education Accessible http://bit.ly/bafD6L
Connected by MOTOBLUR™ on T-Mobile
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