This article analyzes the legal classification of Mexican Americans as "other white" as argued in a number of critical court cases that beginning in the 1930s up to the 1970s attempted to desegregate public schools in Texas. Since the Texas constitution declared school segregation as being only for "colored children," Mexican Americans in their fight against "de facto" segregation sought to claim their legal classification as white. My objective is to further analyze these cases as presented in the literature in order to examine what the relationship between Mexican American whiteness as a "legal" category versus their "otherness" as a "social" category says about the vital role of public schools in reproducing, as well as creating, social, political, and economic marginalization. (Contains 7 notes.)