The Other Civil Rights Movement

I watched a movie tonight on HBO. What originally interested me in this movie was the fact that Michael Pena starred in it. Since his excellent role in Crash, I knew he would be an actor to look out for in more starring roles in the future. The movie I watched tonight was called Walkout. It is the story of a teacher (Pena) mentoring Chicano high school students protesting injustices in the East L.A. public schools in 1968 which led to a series of walkouts. To say the least, the movie was excellent. The first 5 minutes of the film brought up some great points about history.

The 1968 classroom headed by Sal Castro (Pena) questioned where Chicano history was in the textbooks. Almost 40 years later, one must still wonder where it is. Rarely do you read about the Chicano civil rights movement in history texts, the same movement that spread across the country and help raise Chicano college enrollment from 2% to 25% over the few years following the High School walkouts and also helped stop the injustices and help make Chicano schools more equal. Edward James Olmos did this story great justice with his direction and production of this movie allowing millions to see and experience a Civil Rights movement that many never knew existed. I implore anyone who is interested in history, civil rights, and more importantly, human rights, to watch this movie.