George I. Sanchez

Born: October 4, 1906 in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Died: April 5, 1972 in Texas

Education and Work

He attended local public schools throughout his elementary and high school years near the Jerome, Arizona area. (Jerome is now a vacant area, but it in his time it was a mining town where humanity was oppressed constantly)
While studying weekends and summers to earn his B.A. from University of New Mexico, task that took him 8 years, he worked at rural schools as a teacher, principal, and superintendent.
In 1930 he earns his Bachelor’s Degree from University of New Mexico.
Upon graduation, he received a fellowship from the General Education Board (GEB) that paid for his graduate studies and allowed him to continue studying.
In 1931 he earned his Master of Science degree in Education with a specialization in Educational Psychology and Spanish from the University of Texas at Austin.
In 1934 he earned his Doctorate in Education degree from the University of California at Berkeley.
From 1931 to 1935, by way of the GEB, he worked as the director of the Division of Information and Statistics of the New Mexico State Department of Education.
In 1935 he was asked to conduct field studies for the Julius Rosenwald Fund concerning rural and African American education in the south and Mexico.
In 1937 he was invited to become the director of the National Pedagogical Institute of the Venezuelan Ministry of Education.
After an uphill battle against unfair treatment of minority children in the education system of New Mexico, his once promised tenured position at the University of New Mexico was denied.
In 1940 he received a tenured, full-professorship at University of Texas where he became the first professor of Latin American Studies and later served as chair of the History and Philosophy of Education Department.
He worked at University of Texas until his death in 1972.

Contribution and Accomplishments

His contributions extended far beyond the fields of Psychology and Education. He was one of the first to challenge biased research on Intelligence.
He was also one of the first to question the legitimacy of and speak out against the use of I.Q. tests.
He has been attributed with the foundation of Chicano Psychology.
In 1941 he became the national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). During this time, he was an incessant activist for the equality of minorities, especially minority children in public education.
In 1984 the University of California at Berkeley recognized him retrospectively for being the leader in laws affecting Latino children and other minorities.