In the early 1970s, thousands of Mexican-origin students, parents, and community members participated in legal and political actions against the Houston public schools. Their actions were sparked by the school district's effort in 1970 to circumvent a desegregation court order by classifying Mexican American children as "white," integrating them with African American children, and leaving the majority Anglo children unaffected by the court order. The Mexican-origin activist community's struggle culminated in 1972, when the courts and schools recognized Mexican Americans as a distinct ethnic minority group and were thus forced to include Mexican American interests in the formulation and implementation of school policies. This book explores the history of the struggle and its intersection with the Chicano Movement and other social forces during the protest era. It documents the diverse responses of Mexican-origin activists to educational discrimination in the early 1970s and explores the role that the ideology and practice of "Chicanismo" had on Mexican-origin grassroots activism in Houston. The book's general thesis is that the activists' diverse responses reflected a shift in community identity from one based on the assimilationist ideology and politics of the "Mexican American generation" to one based on Chicano ethnic identity and the politics of struggle. (Contains references in extensive chapter notes and an index.) (SV)