Maestas vs. George H.

Shone
Francisco Maestas et al. vs. George H. Shone et al. was one of the
Francisco Maestas et al. v.
original lawsuits against educational segregation.[1] Filed in the
Colorado district court, 12th district, in 1912 by Francisco Maestas George H. Shone et al.
against the Alamosa School District Superintendent and Board of Court Alamosa Case No. 6
Education in 1913, the case precedes Del Rio ISD v. Salvatierra by Decided April 17, 1914
sixteen years, Alvarez v. Lemon Grove by seventeen years and
Mendez v. Westminster by thirty-three years.

Though quickly forgotten afterwards, it is the first victory against educational segregation.[2]

Contents
Background
District court decision
Further reading
See also
References
External links

Background
Francisco Maestas, his wife Margaret, and their children Miguel and Josie, lived at 117 Ross Avenue in
Alamosa, Colorado.[3] Maestas worked as a foreman for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad.[1] This
required the younger Maestas to cross active railroad tracks, to attend the "Mexican Preparatory School",
located at Ninth Street and Ross Avenue,[4] something his railroad worker father thought was dangerous.[1]
In September 1913, Maestas tried to enroll his son at the school closer to his home, the North Side School,
located at Bell Avenue and Main Street.[5][1][6] The request was refused and he was told that ten-year-old
Miguel had to attend the "Mexican School."[7]

In 1909, the Alamosa district built the Mexican Preparatory School (aka Mexican School) to serve the large
number of Mexican American families that had moved to the Alamosa and the San Luis Valley because of
work on the railroad.[7] In 1912, the school district mandated that all Mexican American children attend the
school to prepare them to join the high school as English speakers. Many of the families were "Hispanos",
descended of families that had lived in the area from the time of the initial Spanish settlements.[8] They were
United States citizens, and could speak English.[9]

The school district divided the city's children as "Mexican" and "American", in spite of their language
ability. Because of this, Maestas and other members of the Mexican-American community filed a
discrimination lawsuit, aided by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver and the Sociedad Protectiva de
Trabajadores Unidos (SPMDTU).[2] To protest the disparate treatment, Mexican-American parents pulled
their children out of school.[9]
District court decision
District Court judge Charles C. Holbrook presided over the case. In March 1914 a ruling of unlawful race
prejudice was delivered. Holbrook ordered the school board and superintendent "to admit the children to the
public school most convenient to their homes". Holbrook further ruled that "in the opinion of the court... the
only way to destroy this feeling of discontent and bitterness which has recently grown up, is to allow all
children so prepared, to attend the school nearest them."[9]

Further reading
"A case has been filed ..." (https://www.sangreheritage.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Alamo
sa-Independent-Journal-Feb.-9-1912.pdf) (PDF). Alamosa Independent. February 9, 1912.
Retrieved February 29, 2020.
Donato, Ruben; Guzmán, Gonzalo; Hanson, Jarrod (January 14, 2019). Murillo, Enrique G
(ed.). Francisco Maestas et al. v. George H. Shone et al: Mexican American Resistance to
School Segregation in the Hispano Homeland, 1912–1914 (https://books.google.com/books?id
=TvODDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA123). Critical Readings on Latinos and Education. Routledge.
p. 123. doi:10.4324/9780429021206-9 (https://doi.org/10.4324%2F9780429021206-9).
ISBN 9780429021206.
Senator Julie Gonzales; Senator Robert Rodriguez; Representative Donald Valdez. "Maestas
Desegregation Case" (http://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sjr20-016). Colorado General Assembly.
Retrieved April 8, 2020. "SJR20-016"

See also
Del Rio ISD v. Salvatierra
Clark v. Board of School Directors
Lemon Grove Incident
Mendez v. Westminster

References
1. Lobato, Sylvia (May 12, 2018). "School lawsuit from 1914 remembered" (https://www.alamosa
news.com/article/school-lawsuit-from-1914-remembered). Alamosa News. News Media
Corporation. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
2. Donato, Ruben; Guzmán, Gonzalo; Hanson, Jarrod (2017). "Francisco Maestas et al. v.
George H. Shone et al: Mexican American Resistance to School Segregation in the Hispano
Homeland, 1912–1914". Journal of Latinos and Education. 16 (1): 3–17.
doi:10.1080/15348431.2016.1179190 (https://doi.org/10.1080%2F15348431.2016.1179190).
3. 1910 United States Census
4. Now the site of Zapata Park
5. Now the site of Trinidad State Junior College
6. "Alamosa and Conejos County Directory, 1913-1914" (https://www.sangreheritage.org/wp-cont
ent/uploads/2019/08/McKinneys-Directory-notation-re-Meixcan-School.pdf) (PDF). McKinney's
Directory. Retrieved February 29, 2020. "Notation regarding Mexican Preparatory School"
7. Meltzer, Sylvia (February 24, 2020). "Mexican Americans in southern Colorado fought one of
the nation's early school desegregation battles" (https://chalkbeat.org/posts/co/2020/02/24/ma
estas-case-mexican-americans-fight-early-school-desegregation-battle). Chalkbeat. News
Media Corporation. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
 8. Nostrand, Richard L. (1996). The Hispano Homeland (https://books.google.com/books?id=zlvE
lL6-WK4C&pg=PA135&lpg=PA135). University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-2889-5.
"Hispano Homeland"
9. "Landmark desegregation case on education commemorated during Cinco de Mayo" (https://al
amosanews.com/article/landmark-desegregation-case-on-education-commemorated-during-ci
nco-de-mayo). Alamosa News. News Media Corporation. May 10, 2019. Retrieved April 8,
2020.

External links
"Colorado A.G. addresses Democratic Maestas dinner" (https://alamosanews.com/article/color
ado-ag-addresses-democratic-maestas-dinner). Alamosa News. News Media Corporation. July
31, 2019. Retrieved August 3, 2019.
"Map of 117 Ross Ave, Alamosa, CO 81101" (https://goo.gl/maps/Y2LfMH9xuvfgAHtr7).
Google Maps.
"The Maestas Case" (https://www.sangreheritage.org/historic-peoples-and-places). Sangre de
Cristo National Heritage Area. Retrieved April 18, 2020.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Maestas_vs._George_H._Shone&oldid=955041804"

This page was last edited on 5 May 2020, at 16:55 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.