MACRI Talk Tardeada - George I. Sánchez: Mexican American Civil Rights Trailblazer

Join us for a MACRI Talk Tardeada with Dr. Carlos K. Blanton about his book GEORGE I. SÁNCHEZ: THE LONG FIGHT FOR MEXICAN AMERICAN INTEGRATION.

NOTE: We have limited in-person seating at the MACRI Visitor Center, so if you wish to attend in person, please reserve a seat on our website and select the “IN-PERSON ticket” option.

Live streaming is available for all!  Our FREE virtual event will stream live on Facebook at https://bit.ly/FB-MACRI & YouTube at https://bit.ly/YT-MACRI at 2PM Central Time. Just click on your preferred site to join the presentation at 2PM CT!

ABOUT THE BOOK:

George I. Sánchez was a reformer, activist, and intellectual, and one of the most influential members of the “Mexican American Generation” (1930–1960). A professor of education at the University of Texas from the beginning of World War II until the early 1970s, Sánchez was an outspoken proponent of integration and assimilation. He spent his life combating racial prejudice while working with such organizations as the ACLU and LULAC in the fight to improve educational and political opportunities for Mexican Americans. Yet his fervor was not always appreciated by those for whom he advocated, and some of his more unpopular stands made him a polarizing figure within the Latino community.  Carlos Blanton has published the first biography of this complex man of notable contradictions. The author honors Sánchez’s efforts, hitherto mostly unrecognized, in the struggle for equal opportunity, while not shying away from his subject’s personal faults and foibles. The result is a long-overdue portrait of a towering figure in mid-twentieth-century America and the all-important cause to which he dedicated his life: Mexican American integration.

🌟 This program is underwritten by AARP Texas! Gracias! 🌟

MACRI’s programs are funded in part by the City of San Antonio Department of Arts & Culture, Bexar County, the Mellon Foundation, the John L. Santikos Charitable Foundation Fund of the San Antonio Area Foundation, Wells Fargo, and individual donors like you!

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Dr. Carlos Kevin Blanton is a Professor of History at Texas A&M University. His authored books are The Strange Career of Bilingual Education in Texas, 1836–1981 (TAMU, 2004) and George I. Sánchez: The Long Fight for Mexican American Integration (Yale, 2014) and he has recently edited A Promising Problem: The New Chicana/o History (Texas, 2016). Blanton’s work has been honored with the Coral Horton Tullis Award for best book in Texas history (2005), the Bolton Cutter Award for best article in Borderlands history (2010) and the National Association of Chicana-Chicano Studies best book award (2016). He has also published in the Journal of Southern History, the Pacific Historical Review, the Western Historical Quarterly, the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, the Teachers College Record, and in other history and interdisciplinary journals.