Carving out a legal narrative from Galarza to Soria: Accounting for the complexities of history, race, and place in educational research

Abstract

In this article, the authors reflect on the methodological tools they used to recover hidden perspectives within two desegregation cases, Karla Galarza v. The Board of Education of Washington D.C., 1947 and Debbie and Doreen Soria, et al. v. Oxnard School Board of Trustees, 1974. Placing these two narratives in conversation and excavating the stories behind their creation, they add depth and dimension to our understanding of the long struggle for educational equality. They renew calls for educational researchers to consider the utility of a critical historical lens to more fully account for the complexities of race across time and place.

Keywords:

• School segregation
• Mexican American
• Washington, D.C.
• Ernesto Galarza
• civil rights

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank our colleagues Drs. Maria Ledesma, Laurence J. Parker, and Ryan E. Santos, as well as doctoral students Marisol Sánchez Castillo, Cindy R. Escobedo, Mariana E. Ramírez, and Bryant Partida for their constructive feedback on this article. We also extend our appreciation to Josh Manlove and Dr. Jim Scheurich for their efforts in moving this manuscript through to publication.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For the purposes of this article, we use the terms Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and Chicana/o interchangeably in reference to women and men of Mexican origin or descent residing in the United States, regardless of citizenship status and with respect to how different generations self-identify in the historical record. Similarly, we refer to Blacks and African Americans interchangeably and as consistent with the historical record.

2 The named Orange County school districts included Westminster, Garden Grove, Santa Ana City Schools, and El Modena.

3 The 1950 U.S. Census Bureau details these changes, explaining that the analysts believed the 1930 census word “Mexican” led to an underestimation of the population. The 1940 census labeled Mexicans under the “Spanish mother tongue” population. In 1950, in an effort to garner a more accurate estimation, Mexicans were categorized as “White Persons of Spanish Surname.” U.S. Bureau of the Census. U.S. Census of Population: 1950. Vol. IV, Special Reports, Part 3, Chapter C, Persons of Spanish Surname (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1953), Section 3C, 5-6.

4 The petition of Marguerite Daisy Carr is formatted as a class-action legal filing, but addressed to the school board; see also “Communications Received by the Board,” April 16, 1947, typewritten noted, “For Reference to the Superintendent,” acknowledgement of Dr. Galarza’s letter and handwritten notes, “Ransom—makes opening remarks…Supt. Will consider these questions and petitions, etc.,” Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives, Washington D.C.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tara J. Yosso

Tara J. Yosso is a Professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Riverside, and is the Inaugural Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Institute for Emancipatory Education in the Connie L. Lurie College of Education at San José State University. Her research examines access to educational opportunities for Students of Color at critical transition points in their schooling trajectories (e.g. high school to community college, baccalaureate to doctorate). She seeks to understand the ways People of Color utilize community cultural wealth to survive and resist racism and other forms of subordination. Her extensively cited publications recover counternarratives of race, schooling, inequality, and the law.

David G. García

David G. García earned his Ph.D. in U.S. history and is associate professor in the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies. His research and teaching analyze Chicana/o teatro (theater) as public revisionist history, the pedagogy of Hollywood’s urban school genre, and Chicana/o educational histories. His award winning book, Strategies of Segregation: Race, Residence, and the Struggle for Educational Equality (University of California Press, 2018) examines designs for racially separate and unequal schooling for Mexican American and African American students in Oxnard, California.