PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Donato, Rubén
AU  - Hanson, Jarrod
TI  - Legally White, Socially “Mexican”: The Politics of De Jure and De Facto School Segregation in the American Southwest
AID  - 10.17763/haer.82.2.a562315u72355106
DP  - 2012 Jun 01
TA  - Harvard Educational Review
PG  - 202--225
VI  - 82
IP  - 2
4099  - http://harvardeducationalreview.org/content/82/2/202.short
4100  - http://harvardeducationalreview.org/content/82/2/202.full
SO  - herp2012 Jun 01; 82
AB  - The history of Mexican American school segregation is complex, often misunderstood, and currently unresolved. The literature suggests that Mexican Americans experienced de facto segregation because it was local custom and never sanctioned at the state level in the American Southwest. However, the same literature suggests that Mexican Americans experienced de jure segregation because school officials implemented various policies that had the intended effect of segregating Mexican Americans. Rubén Donato and Jarrod S. Hanson argue in this article that although Mexican Americans were legally categorized as “White,” the American public did not recognize the category and treated Mexican Americans as socially “colored” in their schools and communities. Second, although there were no state statutes that sanctioned the segregation of Mexican Americans, it was a widespread trend in the American Southwest. Finally, policies and practices historically implemented by school officials and boards of education should retroactively be considered de jure segregation.