George Isidore Sánchez (1906–1972) was a pioneer in American educational scholarship and civil rights activism, originally from the state of New Mexico.

Sanchez also acted as the 13th president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), while spearheading several landmark civil right aimed court cases focusing on equal educational opportunities for Chicano Americans and opposing the use of racially-biased standardized tests based on non-proficiency in English.

[1][2] Sanchez is remembered as a leading figure in the early "Mexican-American/Chicano" movement, which culminated during World War II, after heavy involvement with and collaboration between Chicano-Americans and Latin Americans through The Office of Inter-American Affairs.

The longest settled period of time George enjoyed as a child happened to be in Jerome, Arizona, now a ghost town, but at the time was known as William A. Clark's copper mining boom town, with shipments moving hourly towards Clark County in Las Vegas, Nevada.

When he graduated, he worked as a part-time student for seven years at the University of New Mexico, all the while teaching at the surrounding public county school systems.

From 1937 to 1938, Sanchez served as the Director of the Instituto Pedagógica Nacional (a normal school) and was a part of the Venezuelan Ministry of Education.

"[8] Sánchez criticized the inclination to romanticize New Mexico and its people while at the same time ignoring the grinding poverty in the state.

During this time he also received funding from a number of organizations including the American Council of Spanish-Speaking People for court cases supporting Mexican-American civil rights and education.

[13][14] Sánchez was a specialist in mental measurements and bilingual education and a critic of culture bias in the intelligence tests of the day.