Separate But Equal? A Case Study of Romo v. Laird and Mexican American Education

Laura K. Muñoz

Reprinted from the OAH Magazine of History
15 (Winter 2001). ISSN 0882-228X
Copyright (c) 2001, Organization of American Historians

The scope of this case focuses on the "separate but equal" doctrine. Romo challenged the district because the Eighth Street School did not employ state certified teachers. Therefore, he and many Mexican American parents in the community charged, their children were not receiving an equal education under the law. Students from the nearby teacher's college, Tempe Normal School (now Arizona State University), taught the classes with the oversight of "critic teachers" who were college faculty. In the ensuing court case, Adolpho Romo v. William E. Laird, et al., Judge Joseph S. Jenckes of the Maricopa County Superior Court ruled in Romo's favor. Judge Jenckes enforced a 1913 Arizona Civil Code that required school districts to provide all school children with the same education, including equally qualified teachers. The judge found that "the defendants [had] failed in their duty to the plaintiff in not providing teachers of as high a standard of ability and qualifications to teach the children of plaintiff in the said Eighth Street School..." (4). Because the judge ordered the school district to admit the Romo children to the Tenth Street School, the case had the actual effect of limited integration, although it did not set legal precedent for desegregation. Employing certified teachers, the school board continued to segregate Mexican children at the Eighth Street School until the 1950s.

Teachers can use this lesson plan to meet a variety of time frames. If limited to discussion, the primary documents work efficiently for one class period, although two to three class periods would allow time for in-depth interpretation and group activities. The oral history exercise requires the students to do three to five hours of work outside of class and would work nicely if integrated into a larger section on segregation and civil rights.

1. To become acquainted with the history of Mexican American segregation and desegregation in U.S. public schools.

2. To understand the concept of "separate but equal" and its applications to Mexican American education.

3. To gain familiarity with historical methods through the use of primary documents and oral history.

4. To personalize history through participation in the collection of oral history.

5. To develop interpersonal and social skills.

6. To gain exposure to methods of historical preservation.

Students should possess general knowledge of the history of segregation and desegregation of peoples of color in the United States, including Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education. Students must understand the different types and purposes of segregation experienced in the United States, from American Indian reservations and boarding schools to Japanese American internment camps to the segregation of public and private spaces. Students should also review the definitions of race, nationality, and citizenship (including entitlements). Further, students should be reintroduced to the citizenship rights promised U.S. Mexican residents in the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, covered as part of the Mexican-American War. This background will provide students the basis to distill the multiple factors involved in the segregation of Mexican Americans in education and other arenas.

These activities are based on the following primary documents, included with this lesson plan.

A. The case's Findings of Fact and Order

B. The Judgement

C. Excerpts from the meeting minutes of the Tempe School District No. 3 Board of Trustees (9 October 1925, 21 October 1925)

D. The Attorney General's ruling on the segregation of Mexican children (5)

Copies of these primary documents may also be found at the Chicano Research Collection at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. An oral history interview sheet is also included.

A. Interpretation and Explanation. After students read the primary documents, divide the class into two to four small groups. Identify each group as the plaintiff or defendant. Have each group list and explain the factors that support its position, using arguments from the documents. Once students have established the facts of the case, have them review the judge's decision, the school board's solution, and the attorney general's comment. In small group discussions or with the entire class, have students develop a list of alternative solutions for integrating the Tempe schools. Ask them to consider the potential outcomes of their solutions if implemented in their own school or town.

B. Collecting History. To better contextualize desegregation and events such as Romo v. Laird, students can conduct short oral histories in their community. After discussing the case in class, students can interview parents, relatives, friends, or school employees about school desegregation. Some of these folks may have experienced segregation or may have family histories to share about that time period. Students should use the oral history questionnaire provided here in order to maintain consistency in their interview sample. Once the questionnaires are complete, students can create a desegregation archive that can be donated to the school or city library. They could develop a local desegregation history timeline from the interviewee responses. Students may also choose to organize poster presentations including quotations and photographs of the interviewees. These can be used in a school or library exhibit on desegregation in their town.

A. Define the term "Mexican American." What characteristics are associated with this term? How did Tempe Elementary School District No. 3 and the attorney general define Mexican Americans? How does the court order identify the ethnic background of the Romo children? Is there a difference in these definitions? Why or why not?

B. How does Judge Jenckes distinguish between "race" and "nationality?" Did he consider the Mexican American children to be white? What does "ethnicity" mean?

C. Contrast and compare the segregation of Mexican American school children and African American school children. How does language or phenotype factor into the segregation of these students? What happened to children of both black and Mexican heritage? Did any of these issues apply to the segregation of Native American and Asian children?

D. Mr. Romo challenged the qualifications of the teachers at the Eighth Street School. Do you think "student teachers" are as qualified as "certified teachers?" Should teacher credentials have been included in the "separate but equal" doctrine?

E. What if the teachers at the Eighth Street School had been certified? Would this mean the school district had met the "separate but equal" standard? How do you think Judge Jenckes would have ruled?

A. Introduce the students to Chicana/o history by having them evaluate two Internet sites on Mexican Americans in Arizona. Archivists at the Chicano Research Collection at Arizona State University have created a web site retrospective of The Chicana/Chicano Experience in Arizona at <http://www.asu.edu/lib/archives/website/>. Public historian Scott Solliday, who studies the experiences of Hispanic pioneers in Arizona, offers the Mexico Arizona Biographical Survey at <http://www.mexicoarizona.com>.

B. Ask the students to identify public places in their town that may have been previously segregated. This information may come from the oral history interviews or from local newspaper articles written between 1900 and 1980. Using a city map, students can color code desegregated establishments and institutions. This especially illustrates change over time in the history and development of a community.

C. In conjunction with photography or journalism classes, assign pairs of students from each class to conduct the oral history interviews together. Photography students could earn credit for portraits of the interviewees. Journalism students could write profiles for the school newspaper. The history students could conduct the interviews and transcribe their notes in preparation for donation to a library.

D. Assign a mock trial where students debate the Romo case and select roles including the judge, the lawyers, the plaintiffs, the defendants, the Romo children, the Mexican American community, the Board of Trustees, and other Tempe citizens.

E. Have students review local or state newspapers for articles on desegregation cases that affected education in your town. Students can identify articles through library holdings or on the Internet.

F. Instruct students to find and read a book that deals with educational segregation. Students could present short book reviews to the class.

1. Adolpho Romo v. William E. Laird, et al., No. 21617, Maricopa County Superior Court (1925).

2. Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896).

3. "State School Survey," Arizona Teacher and Home Journal 13 (February 1925): 10. In this 1925 survey, whites comprised 87.2 percent of the state; African Americans, 2.4 percent; Native Americans, 9.8 percent; and all others, including Chinese and Japanese, 0.6 percent. The census considered Mexicans "foreign-born whites" and included their population data in the "white" category.

4. Romo v. Laird, 3.

5. George W. Harver, "Segregation of School Children. Mexican Children Not Embraced in Segregation Law," Biennial Report of the Attorney General of Arizona, 1915-1916, 65.

Laura K. Muñoz is a Ford Foundation Pre-doctoral Fellow at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. Her research explores the experiences of early twentieth-century Mexican American educators and the children they taught at "Mexican schools" in the Southwest.