A Clamor for Equality: Emergence and Exile of Californio Activist Francisco P. Ramírez

A dramatic response to American racism occurred in Los Angeles during 1855 when eighteen-year-old Francisco P. Ram rez published a Spanish-language newspaper, El Clamor P blico. Ram rez called upon a Mexican American majority to seize control of their destiny by electing themselves to public office. Ram rez was a radical liberal in a town controlled by white conservative Southerners with antebellum values. Nevertheless, from 1855 to 1859, he railed against slavery and ridiculed those in Los Angeles who supported it. His demands for Mexican equality, the abolition of slavery, free elections, and education for women were well ahead of his time. He was the first civil rights activist in Los Angeles. In December 1859 El Clamor P blico bankrupted for lack of popular support. For three decades afterward Ram rez was involved in every major political and social movement of his day. He continued to champion equality and civil rights as a San Francisco newspaper editor and the only Mexican American lawyer in Los Angeles. Ram rez's dramatic entry into public life to his previously veiled years of exile, Gray's illuminating biography speaks volumes about the history of ethnic conflict, politics, and violence in Southern California. From Ram rez's dramatic entry into public life to his previously veiled years of exile, Gray's illuminating biography speaks volumes about the history of ethnic conflict, politics, and violence in Southern California.

Author: Paul Bryan Gray
Publisher: Texas Tech University Press
Published: 10/15/2012
Pages: 408
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.60lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.60w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9780896727632

About the Author
Paul Bryan Gray, a California lawyer and historian, was honored in 2001 with the Historical Society of Southern California s Donald H. Pflueger Award for distinguished research and writing, in connection with Forster vs. Pico: The Struggle for the Rancho Santa Margarita.Gordon Morris Bakken teaches American history at California State University, Fullerton. He is the author of twenty books as well as numerous articles and law reviews, book chapters and encyclopedia entries, and book reviews."