Marfa, Texas, is known internationally for its arts scene. But on the south side of the city, there’s this old school. It’s a school where teachers once paddled Latino students for speaking Spanish. Now, some of those same students — grandparents and retirees in their 80s — are working to save the long-shuttered segregated Blackwell School and make it a national historic site to teach the history of segregated schools for Latinos in the United States.

This episode has been updated. An earlier version included audio of Jessi Silva describing an integrated school she attended in addition to  the Blackwell School in Marfa, Texas. That school was in California, not Marfa.

More reading:

Saving the school where kids were paddled for speaking Spanish

Lorenzo Ramirez, late plaintiff in famed school desegregation case, honored by Orange

Mendez vs. segregation: 70 years later, famed case ‘isn’t just about Mexicans. It’s about everybody coming together’