[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 74 (Tuesday, May 2, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1458-S1459]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    FRANCISCO MAESTAS v. GEORGE H. SHONE AND THE BOARD OF EDUCATION

  Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize an important 
part of Colorado history and of our Nation's history, the case of 
Francisco Maestas et al. v. George H. Shone et al. (1914)--
``Maestas''--one of the Nation's oldest school desegregation cases.
  In 1848, at the end of the Mexican-American War, the Treaty of 
Guadalupe Hidalgo ceded most of present-day Colorado from Mexico to the 
United States. The resulting influx of Mexican settlers brought major 
economic, industrial, political, linguistic, and cultural challenges to 
the region, including questions regarding public education.

[[Page S1459]]

  In the early 1910s, railroad foreman Francisco Maestas and other 
Mexican American parents sought to place their children into the public 
school on the ``White side'' of town in Alamosa, CO. After the school 
district repeatedly denied to enroll their children, Maestas and other 
parents formed the ``Spanish-American Union'' and brought together 180 
parents on a petition to challenge Alamosa's school segregation. Their 
petition was denied, as was their attempt to seek assistance from the 
Colorado State superintendent. Following these denials, the community 
staged a boycott for 3 months to protest these injustices, to no avail.
  Colorado's Constitution has long prohibited public schools from 
classifying and distinguishing school children based on color and race, 
but as the Maestas case demonstrates, school districts sometimes fell 
short of ensuring equity before the law. Faced with these repeated 
denials, the community continued to organize with the help of the 
Society for the Mutual Protection of Workers--SPMDTU--one of America's 
oldest mutual aid societies, and Father E.J. Montel, a Catholic priest, 
who helped them raise funds to hire legal representation and file a 
lawsuit against the Alamosa Board of Education.
  The school district contended that since it viewed Mexican American 
students as part ``of the Caucasian race,'' it was not discriminating 
based on race but rather addressing its Spanish-speaking students' 
needs. However, the school district was disproven of its assertion when 
students answered questions in English while on the stand.
  In March of 1914, the district court ruled in favor of Francisco 
Maestas, stating that ``the only way to destroy this feeling of 
discontent and bitterness which has recently grown up, is to allow all 
children so prepared, to attend the school nearest them''--an early and 
important step toward desegregation and a victory for Colorado's 
Mexican American community.
  In recent years, bipartisan leaders in Colorado have worked to ensure 
this landmark case gets the recognition it deserves. After the Colorado 
Legislature and the State board of education recognized the case as a 
significant Colorado court decision, it is now taught as part of the 
revised social studies curriculum for all Colorado high school 
students. Now, schoolchildren across Colorado will learn about 
Colorado's early steps toward ensuring equity in education for students 
from all backgrounds.

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