BILINGUAL EDUCATION TIMELINE

The purpose of this page is to illustrate the path that bilingual education has taken through the U.S.
system of education.

1906: The Nationality Act (Texas)

1896: Plessy vs. Ferguson

1923: Meyer v. Nebraska

1927: Farrington v. Tokushige

1925: Pierce v. Society of Sisters

1944: Mo Hock Ke Lok Po v. Stainback

1954: Brown v. Board of Education

1964: Civil Rights Act

1965: Elementary and Secondary Education Act

Mid 1960's: Language legislation was given important support by President Johnson's War on Poverty.

1967: 1st U.S. Senate Congressional hearing on bilingual education.

1968: Bilingual Education Act (BEA)

1974: Bilingual Education Act

1974: Lau v. Nichols

1974: Serna v. Portales Municipal Schools

1975: Office of Civil Rights published the Lau Remedies.

Replaced by Lau Regulations at the end of the Carter Administration, which was withdrawn in 1981.

1981: Senator S.I. Hayakawa introduced a constitutional amendment that made English the sole official
language of the United States.
1983: Hayakawa founds "U.S. English", a legislative organization.
By 1998, twenty-five states had made English their official language.

1998: Ron Unz's Proposition 227 passed in California: the English for the Children initiative.

1999: State initiative in Utah promotes English-only laws in the state government.

2000: Proposition 203 passed in Arizona

2001: The Colorado English for the Children Initiative

2001: No Child Left Behind Act