The most pivotal locations in the development, execution, and aftermath of the student protests

Fifty years ago today, thousands of Mexican-American high school students in East Los Angeles and beyond began walking out of their classrooms or stayed home to protest their unequal education in what became memorialized as the East LA Blowouts.

It was the culmination of months of organizing by college and high school students advised by Sal Castro, a 34-year-old social sciences teacher at Lincoln High School who had long fought for his students against outright racist teachers and district officials.

The bulk of the walkouts and boycotts happened during a two-week period that lasted from March 1 to around March 14, but those actions galvanized a generation. Many who participated went on to get involved in politics, teaching, arts, and a lifetime of activism. The spirit of those students lives in modern-day walkouts against the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant stances.

Here are some of the most pivotal locations in the development, execution, and aftermath of the East LA Blowouts. Nearly all of Castro’s quotes comes from the 2014 book Blowout!: Sal Castro and the Chicano Struggle for Educational Justice, a semi-autobiography co-written with UC Santa Barbara Chicano Studies professor Mario T. Garcia.