In 1968, the students of Edgewood High School in San Antonio staged a pivotal act of protest that helped focus the public debate about chronic racial educational inequity in the United States.
Approximately 400 students, the vast majority of whom were Mexican American, walked out of their classrooms to demand better-funded schools, improved conditions, certified teachers and advanced college preparatory classes.
They marched to the Edgewood Independent School District’s administrative office, voicing grievances that highlighted deep systemic inequities: insufficient textbooks and classroom supplies, deteriorating facilities, and school policies that penalized speaking Spanish on campus.
At the time, 90 percent of the district’s students were of Mexican origin, and their schools reflected the consequences of poverty and discrimination within Texas’s property-tax-based funding system.
The 1968 walkout became a catalyst for a legal and political movement. Just weeks later, on July 10, 1968, Edgewood parent Demetrio Rodríguez, along with seven other parents, filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of poor Texas schoolchildren. Their argument was that the state’s reliance on local property taxes to fund public education created a system that perpetuated inequality. Wealthy districts, with high property values, could afford modern schools and well-paid teachers, while low-income, predominantly Mexican American districts like Edgewood struggled to meet even basic educational needs.
The case, Rodríguez v. San Antonio Independent School District, made its way to federal court. In 1971, a federal district court ruled in favor of the Edgewood parents, declaring Texas’s school finance system unconstitutional because it discriminated against students in low-wealth districts. The case eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973. In a 5–4 decision, however, the high court ruled against the Edgewood families, stating that education was not a fundamental right under the U.S. Constitution and that the unequal funding system did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Although the U.S. Supreme Court closed the federal path, the fight continued at the state level. Decades later, in 1989, the Texas Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in Edgewood ISD v. Kirby, ruling that the state’s school finance system violated the Texas Constitution’s guarantee of an “efficient” system of public education. This state-level victory stemmed directly from the activism and legal groundwork laid by the 1968 student walkout and the Rodríguez case.
A new documentary film titled “The Walkout,” created by the Know Your Neighbor initiative of the H. E. Butt Foundation, revisits the historic 1968 student walkout. The film features interviews with former students like Manuel Garza, Diana Herrera, Herlinda Sifuentes, and Rosendo Gutierrez, as well as scholars including Dr. David Montejano, providing both personal recollections and historical context within the broader Chicano movement in Texas.
The film “The Walkout” will premiere on August 2, 2025, at the Edgewood Performing Arts Center, the Edgewood Fine Arts Theatre.
Guests:
Katie Best-Richmond is the producer of the documentary and program manager for HE Butt Foundation’s Know Your Neighbor program.
Al Kaufman is a civil rights attorney and law professor specializing in education, voting, and employment rights, particularly those of Latinos. He has a long and distinguished career advocating for these rights, including a significant tenure with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
Manuel Garza, was a walkout participant, is in the documentary, and has been a lifelong activist.
The Source" is a live call-in program airing Mondays through Thursdays from 12-1 p.m. Leave a message before the program at (210) 615-8982. During the live show, call 833-877-8255, email thesource@tpr.org.
This episode will be recorded on Thursday, July 31, 2025.
