"If You Want Justice, Organize for Power!" Chicanos, Catholics, and Chicago School Reform

• In Event: Inclusion, Democracy, and the Latinx Educational Experience

Abstract

Synthesizing extensive archival resources, secondary literatures and interviews, this essay enhances our understanding of 20th century school reform in urban immigrant communities, via the early history of a city-wide community-organizing group growing out of Chicago’s largely Mexican-American neighborhoods. An outgrowth of local community-based organizations, in close collaboration with Catholic parishes, and reflecting the shifting urban politics during a major Mexican migration, the United Neighborhood Organization has embodied the promise, approaches and tensions within community-organizing and school reform after the death of Alinsky. Across its full history, UNO engaged in community schools, Local School Councils, charters and other key reform efforts; this essay develops the underlying tensions evident in its foundational history in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Author

• Michael C. Johanek, University of Pennsylvania