During the 1950's there was a struggle for power and identity by the Mexican American in the United States. Many of these people were land laborers. They worked in the fields and did menial tasks to make what little money they could. Just like the blacks in the country, the Mexican Americans wanted to be, not second-rate citizens, but second, or middle class citizens and have equalities of the whites. This is where the related struggle of the Chicano movement for power and identity and the black movement come together. The Chicanos needed more of their culture taught to them in schools, and taught not by the racist white teachers, but by fellow Chicanos. They wanted to gain some sense of identity by working at jobs in the cities and not in the fields as peasants.
Things started to happen by the Chicano youth when one day, March 3, 1958, when thousands of Chicano students walked out of their high school. This had a domino affect on other predominantly Hispanic high schools, totaling thousands of students gone from class. They were yearning for a sense of identity just like the blacks wanted their own identity with understanding who they are through the history of their culture. Chicanos weren't getting this education in the schools they attended. They couldn't because they were being taught by people who are not of the same culture, race, or share the same views. This is what has leaded these people to leave their schools, to protest for what they need. The Chicano youth, like the black youth, had started the largest protest by Mexican Americans in history. They also wanted the schools desegregated like the black civil rights movement did. The Mexican-Americans took a backdoor approach and used the legal system against the government in the Westminster case. To get these schools desegregated they claimed that they shouldn't be kept from the whites because they weren't black rather white.