79R19916 MW-D

By:  Alonzo                                                       H.R. No. 2226



R E S O L U T I O N
	WHEREAS, The Crystal City student walkout, during the winter 
of 1969-1970, stands as one of the most successful Chicano boycotts 
in the history of the Southwest; and
	WHEREAS, Beginning in the spring of 1969, Chicano students at 
Crystal City High School began to present school authorities and 
the school board with a series of demands intended to redress a long 
history of discriminatory practices against Chicano students; on 
December 9, 1969, after the school board had repeatedly resisted 
dealing with the majority of the students' grievances, a number of 
Chicano students at the high school began a well-organized boycott 
of their classes; led by Severita Lara, Mario Treviño, and Diana 
Serna, the boycott grew daily and even spread to the junior high and 
elementary schools; by the time the schools closed for the 
Christmas holidays, between one-half and two-thirds of all the 
students in the city's public schools were boycotting their 
classes; and
	WHEREAS, The student walkout in Crystal City served as a 
galvanizing force in organizing the Chicano residents of that town 
and the surrounding area; the influence of the boycott became 
manifest not only in the fairer treatment that Chicano students 
received in the schools of Crystal City but in the dramatic new 
political power that Chicano citizens came to exercise in certain 
communities of South Texas; now, therefore, be it
	RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 79th Texas 
Legislature hereby commemorate the 36th anniversary of the Crystal 
City student walkout and commend all who work to create a more just 
and inclusive society in the Lone Star State.