The sound of student laughter and conversation in the halls of Denver's West High School has a distinct timbre. Teenagers dash between classes and chat in a mix of Spanish and English.

Mia Martinez-Lopez, one of three Latina educational leaders at the multi-school campus, said there can always be improvements, but the progress made in terms of meeting students’ needs shouldn’t be overlooked. The use of all languages is encouraged. In fact, her entire office staff is bilingual — sometimes even trilingual.

“We have other Latino assistant principals,” she said. “A lot more teachers of color.”

Students don't just see themselves reflected in their teachers, but in what they learn too. Martinez-Lopez said they “offer Hispanic-American lit classes. We have Chicano studies.”

This might seem commonplace in a modern classroom, but this is West High. The scene here was far different 50 years ago.

In 1969, students were shamed by teachers if they spoke Spanish. Classes didn’t teach Chicano history or culture and a social studies teacher, Harry B. Shafer, intentionally mispronounced students’ names.

The teacher reportedly told students, “If you eat Mexican food, you’ll look like a Mexican” and “Spanish students are stupid because their parents are stupid.”

The Denver Post reported that students addressed their concerns with the administration, but weeks went by and nothing was done. Frustrations grew and it came to a head with a student walkout to protest discrimination.

View of Latino students from West Denver High School during their "walk-out," March 20, 1969.

Martinez-Lopez wasn’t even born then, but she knows the story well — because her father Emanuel Martinez was there.

“We learned about all the events of The Movement back when we were kids,” she said. “My dad would tell stories about what happened on that day. He had lots of stories about specific students and things he saw and the police brutality that was going on at the time.”

At 21, Emanuel Martinez was a member of the Crusade for Justice, a Denver group that fought for Chicano rights. Founded by Denver activist Rudolfo “Corky” Gonzales, who coined the term Chicano, the Crusade helped spark a national movement. The FBI, and many others, considered the group to be radical, so when they joined the student protests, police were ready.

On March 20, 1969, a few hundred students left West and crossed Elati Street to demonstrate at Sunken Gardens Park. Martinez was there with other members of the Crusade. Students then marched three blocks south to the now-defunct Baker Junior High, where Martinez said they rallied more students and headed back to West.

“By the time we got there, the police were already there in riot gear and ready for us with gas masks,” he said. “The whole thing.”

Thirty officers ordered demonstrators to leave school grounds and go back to Sunken Gardens.

Emanuel Martinez poses for a portrait in his studio in Morrison, March 15, 2019.

Nita Gonzales, “Corky” Gonzales’ daughter and 18 at the time, participated in the walkout. She said she and some students were at the top of the stairs at the entrance of West when police began to push everyone back.

“Students started tumbling over,” she said. “They were grabbing me by my hair, by my shirts and coats and then my dad and the other adults got upset and tried to intervene and as a result, they were getting beat up.”

Fights broke out between officers and demonstrators, according to news accounts. Police used pepper spray to contain the violence.

Twenty-six were arrested, including Martinez, a news photographer and 11 juveniles. At least two were hospitalized, including a police officer. Martinez said he was handcuffed in the back of a police van and watched several officers struggle to put a teenage girl inside.

“They brought in a girl who was like... took about three or four policemen to get her in because she was wild,” he said.

Her ankle got caught in the door and police kept pushing on it, trying to get her inside, he said. Police doused everyone in the wagon with pepper spray from a hole in the roof. That left it cloudy inside the van and the detainees struggling, Martinez said.

“Your eyes are stinging, your skin and everything is just, you know, stinging like crazy.”

The protest didn’t end there.

Twenty-five squad cars were sent to the scene and a police helicopter hovered overhead. Demonstrators marched north to the Denver Police Building, City Hall and Mayor Bill McNichols’ office.

Gonzales said the walkout got bigger the next day, March 21, 1969, as students joined in from the city’s schools.

“Manuel, Thomas Jefferson, Lincoln, South, all came out and supported the students at West High School,” she said.

Members from the Students for a Democratic Society and the Black Panthers, two groups also considered extremely radical in the 60s, joined in. Martinez said at least 1,000 protestors were there.

“These were people of different races that supported the students and their grievances and their demands,” he said. “And this is when really, there is a riot that took place. Kids were throwing bottles and rocks and everything at the policemen and cars were destroyed.”

A newsreel produced by City of Denver Commission on Community Relations intoned that demonstrators “showered newsman, officers and bystanders with rocks, bottles and beer cans.” Scenes of broken glass and splatters of blood on the sidewalk, as well as actions against police were shown. Commentary from Corky Gonzales was included.