I’m back with another episode of The Untold Stories of the Civil Rights Movement, where I look at some of the most important civil rights cases. I quickly unpack their stories and why I believe they are significant. This series is an adaption to an ad hoc seminar I created while a student at Duke University School of Law.
In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, this week I discuss Hernandez v. Texas (1954). It was actually the first civil rights case decided by the Warren court; it was decided two weeks before Brown v. Board of Education. Pedro Hernandez, an American of Mexican descent was tried and convicted of murder by an all white, non-Hispanic jury. At that time Mexicans were considered “white,” but they were subjected to Jim Crow rule like Black Americans. His attorneys appealed his case to the Supreme Court. They argued that the systematic exclusion of Mexican Americans from the jury violated the equal protection of the 14th Amendment. His attorney Gus Garcia contended that Mexicans were “a class apart” from blacks and whites.
Resource:
Film – “A Class Apart” by PBS
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–Until Next Time–
Palooke
