The purpose of this study is to examine the history of the Chinese Freedom Schools of San Francisco, a representative movement in San Francisco’s Chinatown call for language rights in the lead-up to Lau v. Nichols (1974), which called for differentiation of treatment of students. In 1971, the Chinese Freedom Schools were quickly assembled in opposition to mandatory busing. The media and school district framed the Chinese as racist, asserting that Freedom Schools usurped Brown’s aims. Yet, such positioning of the Chinese dismisses their resistance based on a history of exclusion, leading to a busing boycott. The Freedom Schools was Chinatown’s call for self-determination and autonomy (language rights), a logic that would later galvanize the implementation of Cantonese bilingual education throughout the Bay Area of California.