On February 14, 2018, one of the deadliest school shootings in United States history took place at Stoneman Douglass High School in Parkland Florida. Since then, high school students have led the resurging conversation on gun control. The history of high school student activism in America can be traced to high school students of mostly Mexican American heritage in East Los Angeles. The students, who walked out of school on March 1, 1968, set the stage for policy change within the Los Angeles Unified School District and helped grow the Chicano social identity and political movement.
In this episode of From the Vault, we present Pacifica's March 13, 1968 interview with UCLA student Juan Gomez, who was one of the advisors to the Los Angeles high school students. Interspersed is the original list of 1968 student demands as read by singer and student Nancy Sanchez. We'll also hear comments and other audio from the California State Los Angeles University 50th Anniversary Commemoration of the walkout event held on March 2, 2018.
From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.
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