Teaching to Change LA: An online journal of IDEA, UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education, & Access: Equal Terms in LA: The Struggle for Educational Justice, 1954: Vol.4, No. 1-5, 2003-2004
Los Angeles History
icon: history

Youth Summit 2004Youth Summit 2004!

On June 11th, 2004 students from around Los Angeles traveled to UCLA to present their research on Brown v Board of Education to UCLA faculty, staff, and each other. This issue features their work in researching and learning about the historic Brown case.

During the summer of 2003, UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA) convened urban youth, teachers, and parent activists to explore how Brown’s promise of education on “equal terms” has played out across greater Los Angeles. The students and parents came from communities in East, South, and South East Los Angeles, as well as the suburbs of Lynwood and Santa Monica. Over five weeks, they became a community of critical public historians, studying the fifty-year struggle for educational access and equity in their communities. (Click here to read introduction.)

icon: history Create a public history project in your school

Photo View the Photo Album from the 2003 IDEA Summer Seminar

Video Watch Student Video Documentaries from the 2003 IDEA Summer Seminar

Photo collage
1954-
1963		 |
 1964-
1973		 | 1974-
1983		 | 1984-
1993		 | 1994-
2003		 | Parents in
South Gate/Lynwood

1954-1963
A Look at the Promise of "Education on Equal Terms:" The First Ten Years After Brown vs. Board This group chronicles Los Angeles schools in the first ten years after Brown v. the Board of Education and includes GIS maps based on census data on this time period. The site includes a PowerPoint presentation and a video documentary on racism in Los Angeles schools in the 1950's.

1964-1973
A Time of Activism
These students examined the struggle Los Angeles students faced in fighting for equal rights and educational opportunities from the mid-sixties to the early seventies. This site includes a PowerPoint presentation and a video documentary about issues around racism, including tracking in schools, the 1965 Watts rebellion, and the 1968 East LA Blowouts.

1974-1983
The Rise and Fall of Integration
This group researched how students perceived education from 1974 to 1983 and how this decade compares to education today. These students additionally created a PowerPoint presentation and a video documentary about the quality of education experienced by former Los Angeles students.

1984-1993
Critical Public History Writing Assignment
These researchers took a look at the demographic changes in South Los Angeles during the decade of 1973-1974. These changes include the influx of immigration from citizens of South American and Asian countries and the ensuing social division of the city. These students additionally created a Power Point presentation and a video documentary that examines the effects of gangs, drugs, and social reproduction on students' ability to receive a quality education.

1994-2003
From Products of Social Inequality to Shapers of Society
These students created a PowerPoint presentation and a video that asks, "Why are schools overcrowded?" and "Why do teachers lack credentials?"

Parents in South Gate/Lynwood
Behind the Alameda Corridor
Parent activists from Lynwood and South Gate interviewed residents and civic leaders in and around South Gate, Lynwood, and Los Angeles about the historical racism and segregation behind the Alameda Corridor.