This research guide provides information related to the Edcouch-Elsa Walkouts. The purpose is to offer students historical context though access to primary source materials housed at UTRGV Special Collections & Archives as well as highlighting relevant secondary (books) and external (websites) resources.
The 1968 walkout was organized over several days by Mexican and Mexican-American Edcouch-Elsa High School students seeking a better education and demanding an end to discrimination and racial injustice from their teachers and administrators. It culminated in a walkout protest of nearly 200 participants on the morning of November 14, 1968, after the School Board failed to meet the students' list of demands presented the previous day. In the days following the walkout, many participants faced reprisal from school officials, including expulsion and suspension. The Edcouch-Elsa Walkout became a defining moment in Rio Grande Valley education and history as well as the broader Chicano Civil Rights Movement.
Edcouch-Elsa High School Walkout 50th Anniversary Collection. BD0007. University Library, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, TX. Digital photographs documenting the 50th-anniversary celebration of the Edcouch-Elsa Walkouts, which took place in November 1968. The images primarily cover the march from the Edcouch-Elsa administrative buildings to the auditorium. The march was organized and led by original participants of the student walkouts.
RGV Primary Source Guides: Edcouch-Elsa Walkouts of 1968. Each RGV Primary Source Guide provides lesson plans and local primary sources focused on the history of the Rio Grande Valley. These are designed to meet the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) aimed at local history at the 4th and 7th grade levels. Each lesson plan outlines the TEKS addressed along with the appropriate lessons on these topics.
Mapping Civil Rights in the RGV. The purpose of this online exhibit is to highlight formative events in the 20th-century history of civil rights in the lower Rio Grande Valley region of deep south Texas. It is not intended to be a comprehensive review and includes coverage for Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, and Willacy counties.
Walkouts, Series 17. Reference Files, ELIBR-0062. Education - Edcouch-Elsa Box 4, Series 17. University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Special Collections & Archives, Edinburg Campus. Reference files contain photocopies of newspaper articles, telegrams from civil-rights groups, and more recent scholarly articles dealing with the 1968 Edcouch-Elsa student walkouts, where Mexican-American students left class to protest unequal education and treatment.
Edcouch-Elsa, 1966-2014, Container: 53, Box: 2, Folder: 20. Frances Isbell Collection, ELIBR-0053. University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Special Collections and Archives, Edinburg Campus.
1968 Edcouch-Elsa Walkout [Historical Marker], 2016, Container: 79, Box: 7, Folder: 22. Hidalgo County Historical Commission Collection, ELIBR-0079. University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Special Collections and Archives, Edinburg Campus.
Rio Bravo: A Journal of the Borderlands. An interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed publication of the Mexican American Studies Center at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. The journal publishes scholarly and creative works about Mexican descent communities in both South Texas and nationally. The journal promotes debate, dialogue, awareness, and insight into the U.S.-Mexico border experience.
"The School Cultures in the Lower Rio Bravo Valley," by Patrick D. Lynch (1997)
The research guides compiled by UTRGV staff and students are intended to assist patrons who are embarking upon new research endeavors. Our goal is to expand their knowledge of the types of resources available on a given topic, including books, archival materials, and websites. In so doing, our compilers have taken care to include collections, digital items, and resources that may be accessed not only through UTRGV but also via other institutions, repositories, and websites.
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Walking out: The success of the Edcouch-Elsa student walkout of 1968 through the media by
This study demonstrates how the success of the Edcouch-Elsa walkout of 1968 was brought upon not only by its organization, non-violent tactics, land mark victory in federal court, and support from several of Mexican American organizations. What also aided the student movement in Edcouch-Elsa was the media attention and how it influence the Rio Grande Valley community not only to question the tactics being used towards Mexican American students in the local educational institutions, but also created public discourse over the issues of race, equality, and students' rights. Using various academic books of the subject, newspaper clippings of the time period, and video sources of the walkout, this study details what transpired during and after the student walkout and how the media portrayed the events.
The 1968 Edcouch-Elsa High School walkout: Chicano student activism in a south Texas community by
This study attempts to develop a comprehensive analysis
of the 1968 Edcouch-Elsa High School Walkout. It also seeks
to understand the relationship between the Mexican-American
community and the local school system. Using qualitative and
quantitative sources, it seeks to interpret the educational
history of Edcouch-Elsa, Texas, during the late 1960s. My
hope is that this work will provide useful information
concerning this history while fostering interest in the
common experiences of Mexican Americans in the Edcouch-Elsa
school district during the 1960s and the Chicano student
movement in Texas.
“We want better education.”: The Chicano student movement for educational reform in south Texas, 1968–1970 by
This work offers an in-depth and comparative analysis of four case studies of Chicano/Mexican American student-led "walkouts" or protests that took place in south Texas from 1968-1970. The walkouts occurred at public schools located in the predominantly Hispanic, rural communities of San Antonio's Westside, Edcouch-Elsa, Kingsville, and Crystal City. Student political activism in these communities culminated in direct action protest to redress educational inequalities and discriminatory treatment affecting Mexican-origin students. The investigation centers on the relationship of Chicano students and their parents toward the school system, and reveals how school officials viewed educational deficiencies faced by ethnic Mexican students. The protests enabled Mexican Americans to gain considerable political control and influence in the decision-making process of the public schools in south Texas by the 1970s.
(article) The Impact of Brown on the Brown of South Texas: A Micropolitical Perspective on the Education of Mexican Americans in a South Texas Community by 
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