Jose
Cisneros |
Cisneros Collection
In 1968, Corpus Christi resident Jose Cisneros
and twenty-five other parents filed a federal
suit against the Corpus Christi Independent
School District arguing that Mexican Americans
were a minority group that was receiving discriminatory
treatment and being illegally segregated in
the school district. The case was so named because
Jose Cisneros appeared first in alphabetical
order on the list of plaintiffs. In 1970, presiding
Judge Woodrow Seal found that the school district
indeed had a dual segregated system.
Coming in the period of history known as the Chicano
Movement, Cisneros et al v. Corpus Christi et al was
a landmark case as the decision recognized Mexican
Americans as an identifiable minority group that was
subjected to discrimination and segregation. As such,
the case added a new group |
into the process of national desegregation. The court ruling resulted in new policies
being implemented in the local school district in
1975. It also had repercussions on desegregation efforts
by Mexican Americans in other locales.
The Cisneros Collection consists of twelve cubic
feet of public documents from the court case including
the court reporter's transcripts of the proceedings,
records of appeals, numerous exhibits, and other items.
The collection was donated to Special Collections
& Archives through the efforts of A&M-Corpus Christi
Education Professor Arturo Medina. The Cisneros Collection
represents a voluminous record of an important legal
event in post World War II Mexican American history.
We invite questions and/or comments and look forward to
hearing from you. Contact Jan Weaver at Jan.Weaver@tamucc.edu.
Webpage revised on
09/11/2007
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