why was nelson mostly hispanic in 1950s in san anttonio?

Question

hi in san antonio why was nelson elementary mostly hispanic in 1950s i thought it was anglo and wasnt far from a mostly anglo school called woodlawn and the predomantly jefferson high school served nelson area a hispanic area in that time coudnt be that close to white area cause of resdential segregation?

Answer 1

Nelson was bewteen the Anglo and Hispanic communities. Anglos chose to send their children to Woodlawn and elsewhere. With the number of hispanics that lived not too far from Nelson, it became their school of choice. Back then, a student was expected to go to the school closes to his/her home. It is sort of like Lanier; why was Lanier High School on the West side was mostly hispanics? In the 50's only few hispanics went on to Jefferson. Many chose to go to Fox Tech or Lanier. Back then, you could choose school to attend more or less. This was a time when blacks had their own schools on the East side, so hispanics tried to choose to be around each other as much as possible. Some went to Brackenridge and the High School on West Pyron.

Answer 2

In the 1950s there was segregation in the US. In Texas there was not a legal segregation of hispanics but the hispanics and whites segregated themselves. It was a matter of comfort and culture. After the civil rights changes made during the 1960s the assignment of students to schools was made by residential boundaries and not by schools of choice.
If you ask people in their 50s and 60s they will remember the complaints when they closed Wheatley High School (which was mostly black) and moved those students into Brackenridge. Now San Antonio has no segregation, but due to the demographics of certain areas of the city there would appear to be segregation on paper. This is because there is a higher concerntration of the hispanic population in south San Antonio thus the South San Antonio ISD is 99% hispanic. Also there is a disproportionate percentage of black students on the east side. The other school districts are mixed though certain areas have higher and lower percentages of each race. For example Stone Oak is 66% white white the city is 56% hispanic. Boerne is 76% white as is Smithson Valley. These are not due to segregation, but instead due to the socio-economic structure of San Antonio and the fact that busing is no longer used in the US to produce a false racial equality in schools.