Lincoln High School

Photo Credit: Ale C.

A mural on one of the main buildings at Abraham Lincoln High School that depicts Chicano history.  

Photo Credit: Ale C.

The plaza in front of the school that has recently been renamed Castro Courts at the request of the students.

Photo Credit: Ale C.

A display within the high school commemorating Cesar Chavez and the high schools political involvement/legacy.

Abraham Lincoln High School is located at 3501 N. Broadway Ave. in Los Angeles Califronia in the area known as Lincoln Heights. This high school was opened in 1878, however the present school was officially fully constructed in the 1940s. This site was chosen because there was so much history that the school had been a part of and so many generations of Mexican-Americans have received their education at that school.  On March 1, 1968, the students participated in the East LA walkouts or "blowouts" the largest and lengthiest in the history of California.  Over 10,000 students decided to take a stance and walkout of their schools, which resulted in thousands of students leaving their classrooms to join the protest for quality. Five East Los Angeles high schools coordinated to walkout on the same day at the same time during classes. Lincoln High school was one of the five East Los Angeles high schools that participated in the walkouts. The reason was the mistreatment at their schools and repression of their culture.  This lead to a riot and police involvement included violence on behalf of the law when the students were not acting in a violent matter.

One of the teachers that were a big part of the movement was Sal Castro. He was a teacher at Lincoln high school and was promoting the equality of Chicano students in the school system as well as encouraging students to achieve higher education. This was of high importance since about one third of the student body was Chicano. Sal Castro was supported by the Educational Issues Coordinating Committee (EDICC), which helped organize the students and other people in the community to help empower the Chicano people. Because Sal Castro was involved in the EDICC, he was displaced from teaching out of fear that he was influencing the students to rebel against the school. Regardless the students organized the walkouts as a form to seek equality. At the same time the students were protesting to get Castro’s teaching position back at Lincoln High School, which he did.

The current school, although there isn’t the same level of activism, still strives to teach the students not only the history of the school but the history of their community. The school is now divided into different schools that focus on different areas of teaching topics. Such schools include: Humanities school of Arts and Media, Math, Science, and Technology Magnet, & Victory Over Ignorance through Culture and Education amongst others. This gives the students the opportunity to belong to a community and feel that they belong. The Victory Over Ignorance through Culture and Education, the students focus more on culture, activism and Chicano Studies. Although Los Angeles Unified School District does not provide a structured curriculum for Chicano Studies, the teachers try their best to come up with their own curriculum to teach students the history of Chicanos, in their school and community.

There are also physical reminders of what happened on campus. One is the mural at the top of the school auditorium, which was painted by M.E.Ch.A at the time and demonstrates the history of the Chicano people. Although it is hard to distinguish what exactly is on the mural, it is a daily reminder of what had happened in the school. Additionally in 2011, the students gathered a petition to rename the entrance of the school Castro Courts, in honor of Sal Castro.

Submitted by: Ale C., Monica C., Fabian S.  

Sources

Bernal, Dolores Delgado (1998) Grassroots Leadership Reconceptualized: Chicana Oral Histories and the 1968 East Los Angeles School Blowouts. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies , Vol. 19, No. 2, Varieties of Women's Oral History (1998), pp. 113-142

 López, Ian F. Haney (Nov., 2001). Protest, Repression, and Race: Legal Violence and the Chicano Movement, 205-244 University of Pennsylvania Law Review

Vol. 150, No. 1

 Rosen, (1973). The development of the Chicano movement in Los Angeles from 1967 to 1969. Aztlan, 4(1), 155.