Book Reviews : Chicano Revolt in a Texas Town. By JOHN S. SHOCKLEY. (Notre Dame: Univer sity of Notre Dame Press, 1973. Pp. 302. $3.95.)

• DOI: 10.1177/106591297402700424
• Author: Rudolph O. La Garza
• Published date: 01 December 1974
• Date: 01 December 1974
• Subject Matter: Articles

752

Harvey

also

looks

at

the

efforts

of

the

Johnson

Administration

to

coordinate

the

proliferation

of

civil

rights

activity,

suggesting

at

least

by

implication

that

coordination

was

the

linchpin

of

the

government’s

success

or

failure.

The

rapid

dismantling

of

the

President’s

Council

on

Equal

Opportunity,

headed

by

Vice

President

Hubert

H.

Humphrey,

raises

important

questions

which

the

author,

though

he

is

aware

of

them,

does

not

really

try

to

resolve.

Why

the

rapid

demise

of

the

PCEO

by

revocation

of

an

infant

Executive

Order?

Was

it

because

Johnson

succumbed

to

congressional

pressure?

Was

the

President

jealous

of

Hubert

Humphrey’s

civil

rights

&dquo;prestige

and

authority?&dquo;

What

are

the

clues?

By

extension,

the

most

important

question

is

that

of

LBJ’s

&dquo;real

identity,&dquo;

i.e.,

was

he

a

southerner

of

the

prototypical

understanding

or

not?

Did

the

mystique

of

the

presidential

office

transform

this

legislative

genius

of

conservative

persuasion

into

a

formidable

foe

of

racial

inequality?

Or

was

he

simply

playing

the

practical

politics

game,

logically

dictated

by

the

circumstances

of

his

ascension?

Harvey

concludes

that

any

evaluation

of

the

subject

matter

&dquo;in

any

absolute

sense&dquo;

is

difficult.

Numerical

advances

of

blacks

do

not

fully

explain

the

accom-

plishments

nor

the

legacy.

Much

of

the

advances

which

did

occur

seem,

to

Harvey,

to

be

due

to

external

impetus:

the

Kennedy

memory,

the

civil

rights

activity

in

Alabama,

the

skillful

thrusting

of

a

Clarence

Mitchell.

All

Johnson

did

was

lend

the

prestige

of

his

office

and

his

ear

to

the

promotion

of

passage,

implementation

and,

to

a

negligible

extent,

coordination

of

federal

civil

rights

guarantees.

If

that

was

not

enough

-

and

Harvey

implies

that

it

was

not

-

then

he

ought

to

say

what

more

might

have

made

the

difference.

The

author

implies,

but

does

not

wish

to

do

so

loudly,

that

the

problem

was

and

is

one

of

such

complexity,

of

such

bulk,

that

very

little

more

might

reasonably

have

been

anticipated

in

the

way

of

effort

or

end

product.

That

despite

one

brief

and

puzzling

reference

to

the

power

relationship

of

a

Chief

Administrator

vis-~-vis

an

incumbent

bureaucracy.

It

seems

the

major

problem

with

this

writing

is

that

the

questions

of

Johnson’s

allegiance

and

commitment

are

not

resolved.

In

fact,

Harvey

leaves

the

reader

with

far

more

questions

about

the

motivation,

the

impact

and

the

possible

early

historical

conclusions

about

all

the

significant

actors

in

the

overall

Johnson

Ad-

ministration

performance

than

he

answers.

To

be

recommended

is

the

extensive

selected

bibliography

for

guidance

to

those

who

wish

to

pursue

the

questions

raised,

both

directly

and

indirectly,

by

this

compilation.

°&dquo; _?&dquo;&dquo;’

University

of

Washington

TEMPIE

DURDEN

JONES

Chicano

Revolt

in

a

Texas

Town.

By

JOHN

S.

SHOCKLEY.

(Notre

Dame:

Univer-

sity of

Notre

Dame

Press,

1973.

Pp. 302.

$3.95.)

In

1969,

Mexican

Americans

in

Crystal

City

organized

and

mobilized

them-

selves

to

protest

the

discriminatory

practices

endemic

to

the

Crystal

City

school

system.

Unknown

to

Crystal

City’s

ruling

clique,

this

narrowly

focused

protest