HISTORY
In 1848, the victorious United Stated acquired a large part of Mexican territory, along with it, thousands of residents who were offered American Citizenship as a part of the treaty ending the war. Legal citizenship for Mexican Americans was one thing; equal treatment turned out to be quite another. Many would lose their land to unfamiliar American laws, or to swindlers. With the loss of land came the loss of status.
HERNANDEZ VS. TEXAS In 1950, Pedro Hernandez, a migrant cotton picker, shot and killed Joe Espinosa after an altercation in a small town of Texas, he would be sentenced to life in prison in front of a white jury. Hernandez’s distraught mother sought the help of Gus Garcia, experienced Mexican-American civil …show more content…
His ambition was unusual, as no Mexican American before him had tried a case in the US Supreme Court. The stakes were high; a victory in the Supreme Court would win national recognition for equality of Mexican Americans, defeat would establish at a national level that Mexican Americans were indeed second-class citizens.
LULAC
LULAC was founded in 1945, when they successfully integrated the Orange County School System, a school segregated on the grounds that Mexican were “more poorly clothed and mentally inferior to white children.”(Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics, 480) LULAC was also involved in another historical case, Hernandez vs. Texas, in which they protested the fact that it was unconstitutional that Mexican Americans had never been called to jury duty in the state of Texas.
LULAC fought for full access to political involvement and educational opportunities for Hispanic Americans and through time have held voter registration drives, citizenship awareness sessions, sponsor health fairs and tutorial programs, and raised scholarship money for the LULAC National Scholarship Fund. LULAC has used television and Radio in order to protest against the “English Only” Movement and fund the Hernandez Vs. Texas
In 1848, the victorious United Stated acquired a large part of Mexican territory, along with it, thousands of residents who were offered American Citizenship as a part of the treaty ending the war. Legal citizenship for Mexican Americans was one thing; equal treatment turned out to be quite another. Many would lose their land to unfamiliar American laws, or to swindlers. With the loss of land came the loss of status.
HERNANDEZ VS. TEXAS In 1950, Pedro Hernandez, a migrant cotton picker, shot and killed Joe Espinosa after an altercation in a small town of Texas, he would be sentenced to life in prison in front of a white jury. Hernandez’s distraught mother sought the help of Gus Garcia, experienced Mexican-American civil …show more content…
His ambition was unusual, as no Mexican American before him had tried a case in the US Supreme Court. The stakes were high; a victory in the Supreme Court would win national recognition for equality of Mexican Americans, defeat would establish at a national level that Mexican Americans were indeed second-class citizens.
LULAC
LULAC was founded in 1945, when they successfully integrated the Orange County School System, a school segregated on the grounds that Mexican were “more poorly clothed and mentally inferior to white children.”(Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics, 480) LULAC was also involved in another historical case, Hernandez vs. Texas, in which they protested the fact that it was unconstitutional that Mexican Americans had never been called to jury duty in the state of Texas.
LULAC fought for full access to political involvement and educational opportunities for Hispanic Americans and through time have held voter registration drives, citizenship awareness sessions, sponsor health fairs and tutorial programs, and raised scholarship money for the LULAC National Scholarship Fund. LULAC has used television and Radio in order to protest against the “English Only” Movement and fund the Hernandez Vs. Texas