This confirmed my suspicion. You cannot see that on a microfilm. It was a wonderful thing to see that in person. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspans q a. Next, we look at the history of the chicano movement. They spoke about a coalition of activists and texas the develop from the 1930s into the 1960s that brought mexicanamericans, africanamericans, labor leaders and others together. His remarks are about 20 minutes. He is a professor of history at Texas UniversityTexas Christian University and he has a forthcoming book entitled dean americans of chicano politics. His just about to released book. This will be published by the university of North Carolina press. [applause] thank you, mario for that wonderful introduction. Thank you for having me here again today. I do not think i have been called out among many things, so it is a real honor. It is especially in honor because the book is not yet out. Like some of my esteemed colleagues they got delayed and it will be available in august. My work deals with each economy movement, is very much relates , and astiethnic study mario said in his opening comments, that is an important part of the field and im glad to be here. This is my cover, my new title and im very excited about it. Give a quick overview of the book, focusing on the mexicanamerican wing of the study but in the largest larger context of america. In 1963, while much of america never sleep wash the march on washington, italy 1000 demonstrators gathered in the allblack neighborhood of east oxen austin, texas. Better and activists of all ,olors from across the state groups of White College students and mexicanamerican activists also joined the procession. The protesters assembled under live oak trees near the park of the capital, listening to leaders. They did so, calling for a passage in federal Civil Rights Act but in an unusual manner. Do not ever separate the africanamerican and mexican in politics. They will not ever separate the white man and the negro again. Do not ever separate the Labor Movement and the negro again. I can talk more about him whenever you would like. Not right now. Intermune yes, and i henry munoz, and activist said the negroes have justice. We do not answer. The mexicanamericans are waiting as well in our nation as well. He gives the speech on the half militantlitical, most of the mexicanamerican organization in the state. I will talk about why in a second. Strange as it may seem, this march was a tip of a much larger iceberg. The getting in the 1930s, africanamerican, mexicanamerican, white, labor activists came together in a broad struggle for democracy in texas. Separate, local organizing efforts from the ghettos, union halls, storefront Campaign Offices gave way to local experiments in row she racial activist. They developed a liberal because the egalitarian movement. They called their movement, the democratic movement. My book tells a story of how these groups of activists separate their groups and they connected their freedom struggles into the electoral arena. It shows how building bridges between cultures became the crucial weapon and destroying jim crow in the state and transforming electoral politics in texas and the nation. Famousk begins with the strike incident audio in 1938, a wellknown tale and im sure many of you are familiar. , becoming organizing his husband, the treating of the mexican question that became foundational when it came to Southern California and shortly thereafter. Historians to pick the strike as a victory, one in which the con chillers peacan shellers. I use this to show how there was an massive uprising in the city, in the africanamerican eastside as well as the mexicanamericans. The alliances with a newly independent faction of activists organizing the naacp and the National Legal conference. I have shown how this alliance put Maury Maverick senior into city, andyor of the also the coalition dont a permanent blow to the states white supremacist power structure. Looking at a familiar moment through a multiracial lens brings a new scope of activism. This multiracial perspective allows for new continuity to become clear. A decade after the strike, the leader of the africanamerican factions, pictured on the left, and activist undertaker on the east side. He carries these experiences of the strike for. In 1948, he formed a Tactical Alliance with the mexicanamerican attorney and both men were elected to serve on local school boards, representing the communities in unprecedented ways. Soon after, the man in the and to begin organizing the loyal american democrats. It had an orthodox name but it purpose as true enough that Political Club and civil rights organization. In 1952, they succeeded in learning a candidate to give a speech. Effectively announcing the presence of the liberal faction, a new force in local and state politics. They begin building relationships with an africanamerican leader who left the post in 1952, but serve as a key organizer for the black Civil Rights Movement in the coming decades. In 1953, the loyal american democrats in the east side precincts elected gonzales to the city council. The story of the breakthrough is also a multiracial one and rooted in the longer tradition of community organizing. 1956, they later in were elected to the county commission. The would emerge as advocate, the voice person antonios many marginalized groups san antonios many marginalized groups, reaching out to anglo labor leaders and liberals, and you could see him here with john f. Kennedy who came to stump for stephenson in 1956. In 1960, he was able to cash in on this work, become in the elite organizer of the campaign in texas. Sutton also did in became the lead organizer of the campaign africanamerican section in the state. Ofy drew on a decade organizing, electoral realization and building coalitions across the color line. When he received the offer to work for kennedy, he demanded he receive a phone call from Bobby Kennedy who in turn promised them complete control over the africanamerican wing of the campaign, promised independence from the conservative and white led party of the state. Sutton broke his way into the party is the first africanamerican to represent the state from that region when he went to the National Convention in 1960 in los angeles. In the end, they both delivered the votes they promise. They narrowly carried the kennedyjohnson ticket and are credited to the unprecedented turnout of black and brown voters and emerged as a Sleeping Giant in national politics. , theymmediately transitioned into a series of permanent organizations. Politicalt became the organization of spanishspeaking individuals. Mexicanamericans in texas were victory,head to the moving into the new administration, pulling their weight around in the democratic partys factional disputes. Remember the context. In the 1960s, texas is still part of the solid south. It is a oneparty state dominated by a racist, conservative them aquatic primary. The elections are the important place for policies get contested. By 1960s, the dixiecrat included the governor, price daniel. As it turned out, as a decade wore on, the Kennedy Administration did not deliver much to africanamericans, and so for the next two years, the organization grappled with its future, how do we continue to advocate, move forward . They split apart over class, ideological, strategic and other tactical conflicts. In 1962, the group nearly endorsed the reelection of price daniel, the incumbent. That caused a walkout of the organizations liberal members, which included many liberal organizers that were part of the organization. A year later, the First Successful chicana revolt that happened in crystal city against the johnson style moderate led by hector garcia, both of the state convention and alliance with the teamsters another Labor Movements are in an texas, they were a force of progress. Most of the story has been interpreted as evidence of the fragmenting of some type of ideological process, that i argued that the multiracial lens shows a split of advancement in efforts of liberal activists who want to the group to build closer ties and expand outward. Na wanted to deepen his relationships with sutton, white. Iberals at the statewide level if it worked in santander, so it texas. Woodward across his labor wing built local alliances across the state and the statewide Democratic Coalition i talked about at the beginning. This reflects this philosophy from the liberal labor wing of the organization. You can see labor cutting the ties with voting power. You can see the advances of san antonio in crystal city. This wing of the group wanted to become that much more liberal, committed to civil rights and prolabor to prosper in the segregation of contacts of texas. By the summer of 1963, this coalition came together and was on the march. Some 300 representatives of these various groups came together and laid out an ambitious agenda for civil rights. Economic justice and real political power. They pledged to support liberal candidates, they made civil rights their top policy issue. They demanded complete and immediate immigration rather than voluntary or gradual forms. They coordinated a series of massive Voter Registration and get out the vote efforts that forever transformed state and urban politics. Unprecedented numbers of mobilizations in africanamerican and mexicanamerican communities. Been awhich had privilege of light workers, was thrown completely into the brown and Civil Rights Movement. The supported demonstrations, they participated. They even demanded that the governor of texas call a special session of the legislature to address civil rights. They got into it as well. I dont have time to go into detail about all of these activities of this coalition and its eventual disintegration but , stay tuned, the book will be out in august, available at a bookstore near you. But suffice to say now that these networks that were established between mexicanamerican activist and their likeminded counterparts across the color line remained robust throughout the decade into the 1970s. These are photos from la mancha. These are united farmworkers procession from the valley and inaustan in 1966 austin this story looks rather 1966. Different through this multiracial lens. The photo on the right shows the states most recognizable militant leader in the black Civil Rights Movement, greeting to, farmworkers when both parties arrived in austin, texas. He had just led a group of africanamerican youth on a march through east texas and was several hundred miles of its own, and tying it to meet mexicanamerican farmers when they arrived on labor day. On the left, another photograph. They all came together to demand this minimum wage increase as well as civil rights and labor rights. The third of this coalition i think helps us to rethink some of the important questions relationships previously in at the current moment. Scholarship, emphasizing cooperation. Africanamericans and mexicanamericans were neither natural allies nor inveterate enemies. They were simply different. They had different leaders, they lived in different neighborhoods, they practiced different religions, sometimes spoke different religions languages, how difficult for practices. All sorts of different lines of difference. They were so disparate, that just getting them together for a meeting represented a monumental task. Where you hold such a meeting . These activists wanted to get when they did get together understood successful coalitions depended on them recognizing differences rather than assuming they did not exist. They agreed to not always agree or even get along. They understood the distinction between the house and the coalition. The house is the phase space, save space, the coalition is where you together to Work Together even though you disagree. The Democratic Coalition of texas in 1960s, each of the groups remained separate. But they still Work Together for a common cause. That is why i have this funnel diagram, which is the best representation, rather than a pyramid. The Coalition Building was an active, contested and contingent process. As one member called it, coalitioning. A process, a messy process, coalitions fell apart and had to be reorganized. Despite these obstacles, there are many examples of coalitions coming together. I am recovering those. In fact, in texas, there were often several competing multiracial coalitions at any given time. The liberal coalition i focus on today, a more conservative coalition, and at times, race leaders who worked with white elites, particularly in the late 60s, a more radical African American coalition. For all of these activists, the use of multiracial coalitions proved critical. For the liberals, it was a key tool in their achievement of civil rights in some semblance of democracy in the state and nation, however in complete the process has been. I want to close by highlighting how the book highlights the historiography of the chicano movement. Im talking more about the previous group, the mexicanamerican generation, rather than strictly the chicano youth movement. But i think this history invites us to think about how the line between these groups is somewhat fuzzier than we commonly assumed. It is not strictly generational, but rather class, ideologies, tactics, strategy, gender, and other differences continually divided both age cohorts. We will talk about that as well. They split apart because of all these reasons. The more militant and more labor driven chicano activists use their independent to then forged new ties across the color lines. In many ways, their politics parallel those of the chicano radicals. They were proudly ethnic. They were unafraid to take to the streets to demonstrate, they were eager to organize the barrios. They were nonwhite minorities. They were willing to build coalitions with africanamericans as well as white labor, political activist. Their stories reveal the dispute over how to approach those questions represented the central debates among the socalled mexicanamerican generation. That age alone did not prefigure these older activists politics. Defection was more militant, less white and more expansive in the vision in the character to share the commonly caricature the commonly describes their activists. Thatt to take us back to and also extend the chronology of this economy backwards and dig about this longer economy, the continuity between the mexicanamerican period. I think this story tells us a great amount about the risk of the chicano movement. What is that risk come from . They were directly involved in the later movement. They handed down the politics to the socalled young turks. They participated themselves as the next wave of people got underway. Thank you for having me, it has been wonderful to share this with you. [applause] i look forward to talking more about this. [applause] interested in American History tv . Visit our website cspan. Org history. You can see our Upcoming Schedule or watch a recent program, american artifex, wrote to the white house, lectures and more. Monday on the communicators, federal Communications Chair tom wheeler and his first interview with cspan since being nominated by president obama and 2013. He talks about issues facing the sec including neutrality, expansion of the subsidized phone program to the internet, regulation of the internet and privacy in the spectrum incentive option that is just beginning. Mr. Wheeler discusses how he views the future of telecom and the internet. He is joined by Technology Reporter for the washington post. Involved,ble to be they were bringing great change to the American Economy and the way people live their lives. That is what we are dealing with at the sec because we are dealing with one of the great revolutions of all time. Our job is to say, ok, how do we deal with the kind of changes that are happening all around us as a result of the new technology . Watch the communicators monday night at 8 00 eastern. Each week, American History america brings you archival films. Beautification is far more than a matter of cosmetics. To me, it describes the whole effort to bring the Natural World and the manmade world into harmony, to bring youthfulness, delight to our whole environment. On march 9, 1965 mrs. Johnson said out the first azalea of the Beautification Program at the triangle between 3rd street in maryland and independence avenue southwest. Of 1965, the committee met above aboard the uss sequoia to a tour of the potomac river. Tours and short trips would become a regular part of the committees activities. This particular trip spotlighted the history and geography of the potomac and its waterfront and analyzed some of the problems connected with the river. The first lady had challenged her committee to find ways of implementing those beautification projects already underway, boosting those that should be underway and being a catalyst for new undertakings. An Action Program was devised for tackling washingtons beautification problems. From the very beginning, mrs. Johnson received mail and support from people all over the country and all eyes were on washington for the inspiration similarmulates cymer projects in cities and towns across the land. The many donations were handled by a supplemental committee. Some of the early gifts included a 100,000 grant from the rockefeller foundation, 10,000 azaleas from mrs. Lasker and 4000 cherry trees from the people of japan. Along with the back of the sent statues and monuments, the delicate japanese cherry trees have always been evocative attractions to washington visitors. Afternoonizzly april in 1966, mrs. Johnson attended the commemorative planting of a cherry tree that hangs point on the east of the potomac. This was the first of 1800 such views trees that would raise the scenic drive of the peninsula. Much has been done but this is only been in beginning. The activities of mrs. Johnson committee were jumping off. They show during a time of complex urban crisis, attractive surroundings can exist, bringing joy and new opportunities to city dwellers. Interested in American History tv . Visit our website cspan. Org history to see our Upcoming Schedule or watch a recent program, american artifacts, wrote to the white house, lectures and series and more. Presidency,n the , and parry africanamerican studies professor at california state university, fullerton talks about the american