An Interdisciplinary Study of Larry P. v. Riles: The Mutual Tuning of Biographical, Legal, and Institutional Trajectories

• In Event: Biographical Authorship and Contestation of Institutional Construction of Disability at Raced Intersections

Abstract

In 1979, a court ruled in Larry P. v. Riles that San Francisco Unified School District could not use IQ tests to identify Black children as “educable mentally retarded.” This interdisciplinary oral history project relies on court materials and interview insights from Darryl Lester (whose pseudonym became Larry P.), family members, lawyers, and other experts to uncover the biographical, legal, and institutional trajectories surrounding this seminal case. We document the mutual tuning, or how these trajectories are shaped and align with each other, and their consequences for Darryl's education, life experiences, and outcomes. We apply an interdisciplinary frame to the racialization of disability, and call for a historical, contextual, and situated approach to analyze and address this long-standing educational problem.

Authors

• Alfredo J. Artiles, Stanford University

• Michael Hines, Stanford University

• LaToya Baldwin Clark, University of California - Los Angeles

• Ayan Ali, Stanford University

• Gabriela López, Stanford University

• Leora Romney, Independent Scholar