Institutional Desegregation, Social Movement Pressures, and the Chicano Movement

This chapter explores the social pressures that Mexican American communities in Texas placed on the Texas Legislature to enforce the Civil Rights Act of 1964. When Lyndon Johnson ascended to the presidency, the Texas Legislature was forced to confront its legacy of segregation and gradually begin dismantling the state’s de jure segregation laws. The governor’s office and the Texas Legislature tried to proceed gradually, and municipalities preferred to institute voluntary desegregation plans. Mexican Americans and African Americans wanted to immediately end segregation and employment discrimination. During this period, Mexican American youth and PASSO (the Political Association of Spanish-Speaking Organizations), headed