UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Language Education, Race, and the Remaking of American Citizenship in Los Angeles, 1900- 1968 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5zd66224 Author Gutfreund, Zevi Publication Date 2013 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Language Education, Race, and the Remaking of American Citizenship in Los Angeles, 1900-1968 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the Requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Zevi Moses Gutfreund 2013 © Copyright by Zevi Moses Gutfreund 2013 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Language Education, Race, and the Remaking of American Citizenship in Los Angeles, 1900-1968 by Zevi Moses Gutfreund Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles, 2013 Professor Stephen Aron, Chair This dissertation uses language instruction in Los Angeles as a lens through which to explore assimilation, immigration, and what it means to be an American. It draws from sources such as curricular materials, court records, correspondence, blue book exams, and student newspapers in the city of angels’ Anglo, Mexican, and Japanese American communities. They launched language experiments that attracted national attention from 1900 to 1968, the year of the federal Bilingual Education Act and the “Chicano Blowouts” in East Los Angeles. While many scholars have pointed to those events as crucial moments in the origins of the modern “culture wars,” they came from a long history of language projects in Los Angeles. In studying that history, this work attempts to answer three questions. How did public schools design language instruction to Americanize foreign-born students before World War II? How did those ii students respond to Americanization curriculum? Finally, after the war, how did immigrant communities use bilingual education to reshape debates about desegregation and citizenship? These questions were not often addressed in direct discussions between Anglo, Mexican, and Japanese Angelenos. However, telling the stories of colorful characters from each community suggests that language learning played a central role in local and national debates about immigration and education. The dissertation begins in the Progressive Era, when teachers, students, and community members argued about the idea of public schools as Americanization factories that produced assimilated citizens ready for the work force. After Congress imposed “national origins” quotas in the Immigration Act of 1924, many advocates of foreign-born children challenged the notion that education was a nation-building project and insisted that schools should celebrate their students’ native cultures as well. Until the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Los Angeles school district and community-run heritage schools stressed language learning in their definitions of citizenship education. This debate shifted during and after World War II, as the national interest in Americanization gave way to new ideas about racial integration. In 1947, a court ruling that stopped a school district in Orange County from segregating Spanish-speaking students on account of language became a precedent for the landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education. That case was heard in Los Angeles, where judges, officials, and reformers began to think about integrated schools along with another new concept, bilingual education. Since 1960, Angelenos have proposed a range of programs that created controversy leading up to, and after, the Bilingual Education Act and the East L.A. Blowouts of 1968. Taken together, the language projects of the city school district, immigrant educators, and student protestors reflect the coexistence of segregation and inclusive citizenship in Los Angeles schools. iii The dissertation of Zevi Moses Gutfreund is approved. Patricia Gándara Kelly Lytle Hernández Stephen Aron, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2013 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments vi Vita x Introduction The Racial Politics of Language in Los Angeles 1 Chapter 1 Progressives Professionalize Language Instruction: Los Angeles Launches Multiple Language Experiments, 1900-1930 16 Chapter 2 Selective Citizenship: Americanization and International Allegiances in Interwar Los Angeles 45 Chapter 3 Wartime Projects Promote Patriotism and Protest: Riots and Internment Turn Language Education from Assimilation to a Civil Rights Agenda, 1941-1945 83 Chapter 4 The Rise of School Desegregation and Bilingual Education: Civil Rights Rhetoric Links Language and Integration, 1945-1952 137 Chapter 5 Language Learning as Political Protest: Mobilizing for Bilingual Education in East Los Angeles, 1960-1967 190 Chapter 6 The Blowouts and the Bilingual Education Act: Language Learning Policy and the Walkouts of 1968 230 Epilogue Bilingual Education After the Blowouts: English-Only Politics and the Rise of Language Immersion, 1971-2011 281 Bibliography 298 v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS One of the many rewards in writing about the history of education was that it allowed me to tell the fascinating stories of teachers. Teachers who I never met happen to be the most colorful characters in my dissertation, but this project would not have been possible without a long list of teachers who have enriched my life. My Second Grade teacher, Mrs. Hilda Burness, recognized my interest in history when she encouraged me to write a letter to the publisher about an error in a biography of George Washington. At Harvard, William Gienapp persuaded me to major in history with his brilliant lectures about the Civil War and baseball in American society. For the last seven years, I have been fortunate to learn from a master teacher, Stephen Aron. He patiently answered my countless questions, encouraged me to think about why my project was original and significant, and always left me more eager to return to my research and writing. Steve’s interest in “convergence” at the Autry inspired my own approach to this dissertation, which is better off because of his suggestion to include each ethnic group in every chapter. He made graduate school a rewarding experience for me, and I aspire to the example he has set as a teacher, as a writer, and as a public historian. I have benefited from other model teachers at UCLA as well. Patricia Gándara is not only an expert in the field of language education, she is actively participating in the uphill battle to protect what remains of bilingual education in the United States today. Her work at the UCLA Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles is worthy of a history of its own, and I have always appreciated her enthusiasm for my study of the topic’s more extended history. Kelly Lytle Hernández is a bold researcher and an entertaining lecturer, and I am fortunate to have worked with her as a student and as a Teaching Fellow. My interest in bilingual education came vi from a research paper in her seminar, and her comments have pushed me to find more sources and tell more stories in this project. Other UCLA professors who did not sit on my dissertation committee have also been generous with their time, their experience, and their interest in my career. Many thanks to Eric Avila, Caroline Ford, Toby Higbie, David Myers, Jan Reiff, Joan Waugh, and Craig Yirush. Many people helped me through the twists and turns of dissertation research. Some of them may not have expected to hear from a graduate student. In particular, I want to thank Mr. Joseph Zanki, Sr., a retired teacher from Roosevelt High School. Mr. Zanki invited me into his home, where I read old student newspapers and yearbooks at his dining room table. I visited so many times that I got to know many members of the Zanki family, all of whom made me feel welcome. Thanks also to Olga Stara at San Fernando High School and Pamela Bailey at Jefferson High School, both of whom shared primary sources from their campus libraries. Many librarians and archivists at academic and public institutions were just as helpful in the research process. I am grateful for the guidance I received from the staffs of the Japanese American National Museum; Department of Special Collections, UCLA; Chicano Studies Research Center, UCLA; Grand Avenue Library & Book Depository, University of Southern California; Honnold/ Mudd Library, Claremont College; Department of Special Collections, Stanford University; and Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. I should also acknowledge Sal Castro, whose autobiography Blowout! was very helpful. Mr. Castro passed away as this dissertation was completed. This work was supported by the generous fellowships and grants that I received from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, the UCLA Department of History, UCLA Graduate Division, and UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. I also thank Hadley Porter and Eboni Shaw for guiding me through every step of the Ph.D. process. vii A myriad of scholars offered comments on individual chapters or suggested primary sources. I am indebted to Thomas Andrews, Laura Barraclough, Geraldo Cadava, Jon Christensen, Lawrence Culver, William Deverell, John Mack Faragher, Steven Hackel, Todd Holmes, David Igler, Sarah Keyes, Jessica Kim, David Labaree, Robert (Roy) Ritchie, Virginia Scharff, Josh Sides, Rachel St. John, Eric Steiger, Alan Taylor, Louis Warren, Mark Wild, and Richard White. Rosina Lozano and Natalia Mehlman Petrzela graciously shared their recent research about