The photo shows a lineup of COPS leaders at the ground-breaking ceremony for Palo Alto College. Pictured with shovels in hand are (from left) Helen Ayala, president of COPS; first student Elizabeth Aguilar-Villarreal; and Mary Segovia, chair of Southside college committee of COPS.

"At the first convention of Communities Organized for Public Service (COPS) in 1974, Fernando Rodriguez Jr. introduced a resolution to open a community college on the West Side or South Side. Berriozábal remembers the idea of such a college was a hard sell for local officials.

'If we have insensitivity now, just imagine the insensitivity back in the 1960s and '70s when we wanted a college in that area,' she said."

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Grassroots Effort Led to Palo Alto's Founding, San Antonio Express News