The Mexican American Civil Rights Institute (MACRI) recently opened their latest travelling exhibit: “Cisneros v. Corpus Christi ISD: The Long Fight to End School Segregation.” It will be at MACRI until November 26, 2025.
Although the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education court case desegregated schools in the United States, schools found a loophole to continue segregation. Legally, Mexican Americans were considered white. This allowed school districts to put Mexican American and African American students in separate facilities from their white peers. The lawsuit claimed that the white schools had better resources, facilities, and activities.
The Cisneros v. Corpus Christi ISD court case revolves around a group of about two dozen parents —17 Mexican American and six African American — who sued Corpus Christi ISD in 1968 for not integrating their children. It is marked as one of the first times that a coalition of African American and Mexican American parents came together for a civil rights cause…