A dramatic response to American racism occurred in Los Angeles during 1855 when a brilliant eighteen-year-old Mexican-American, Francisco P. Ramirez, published a Spanish-language newspaper, El Clamor Publico. Ramirez called upon a Mexican-American majority to rebel and seize power by electing themselves to public office. Ramirez 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...