Francisco "Pancho" Medrano Middle School is a 178,900-square-foot facility in northwest Dallas, designed to accommodate 1,224 students. In addition to standard academic and special education classrooms, the new school includes a career education classroom, an instructional technology classroom, science labs, and a media center, as well as space for alternative education, performing and visual arts, a gymnasium, a 450-seat auditorium, and outdoor playfields.
Biography of Francisco "Pancho" Medrano
The school is named for Francisco "Pancho" Medrano, the activist who worked alongside César Chávez for equal rights and with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement. Medrano was born on Aug. 2, 1920, in Dallas and was the son of Mexican immigrants who had come to Dallas on foot from Mexico. Medrano attended Dallas public schools through the eighth grade, after which he went to work at a rock quarry near Bachman Lake to help support his family.
Through Works Progress Administration training, Medrano became a riveter at North American Aviation Co. There, he became involved in the company's recreational boxing team. He proved a natural at boxing and eventually became a professional heavy-weight prizefighter. Following World War II, Medrano organized a labor union for the North American Aviation plant and was also associated for 50 years with the United Automobile Workers Union.
His many union and civil rights efforts helped fight discrimination and unfair treatment of all minorities in Dallas and around the country, including Mississippi and Arkansas. In 1965, Medrano took part in the civil rights march on Selma, Ala., led by King. He also was instrumental in the process that helped to overturn Texas laws barring mass demonstrations. Locally, Medrano's initiatives made him an important figure in the community, where he was particularly keen on encouraging Mexican-Americans to register and vote. It was a tenet he believed in so strongly that he went to great effort to vote one more time just a few days before he died in April 2002 at the age of 81.
