The Women’s Airforce Service Pilots

WASPs Frances Green, Margaret (Peg) Kirchner, Ann Waldner and Blanche Osborn in front of a B-17 Flying Fortress. These four female pilots leaving their ship at the four engine school at Lockbourne are members of a group of WASPS who have been trained to ferry the B-17 Flying Fortresses. (U.S. Air Force photo) [source]

Jacqueline Cochran, c. 1943. [source]

Formation
As the United States geared up for World War II after Pearl Harbor, it became clear that there were not enough military pilots to serve both home and abroad. Two women sprang into action to address this need. Nancy Harkness Love and Jacqueline Cochran both began lobbying for using women pilots in the war effort in 1941, but it would take a while for the lack of male pilots to be felt and overcome the prejudice against female pilots. In the summer of 1942, Love began recruiting women under the direction of the American Army Air Force and they were commissioned in September as the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron to ferry airplanes from factories to flight schools across the country. Meanwhile, Jacqueline Cochran had returned from setting up a similar group in Britain and was put in charge of the Women’s Flying Training Detachment in November of the same year under the Army Air Force commander, General Arnold. The first class of WFTDs started training at the Houston Municipal Airport before more permanent quarters were found for them in Sweetwater, Texas at the Avenger Airfield. Both groups continued to operate until August 1943 when they were merged to form the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots under Jacqueline Cochran.

WASP trainees, c. 1943. [source]

Training and Duties
At Avenger Field, the women were subject to military order, but were still considered civilians. They had to pay for their room and board and had no benefits if they were ill. The women were required to already have some flying experience, but also received addition training. They gained about 210 hours of flight time, spread between several of the most used military aircraft, and 285 hours of classroom instruction over seven months. Male pilots would often come visit the training grounds and Avenger Field was eventually limited to emergency landings only to prevent them from disrupting the women’s training, though that didn’t stop men from planning emergency landings to get a chance to spend time with the women. The planes were not designed for the women’s smaller frames and the WASPs would often carry extra parachutes to be used as booster seats. Despite this, these women often ferried some of the largest aircraft, including B-17 bombers. As they proved themselves as pilots, they were tapped to drag targets for live ammunition target practice, helped with flight training, and tested damaged aircraft. The WASPs were often the first to fly a plane off the line or after it had been repaired, jobs which required numerous emergency landings. Altogether, 1,074 women graduated from the program at Avenger Field, 38 of whom would die in the line of duty. Jacqueline Cochran refused to accept black women as WASPs – she was afraid their presence would jeopardize the program – but two Chinese women were accepted, one of whom, Hazel Ying Lee, died in a plane crash. Altogether, the WASPs ferried more than 12,000 planes and flew 60 million miles between 1942 and the end of the abrupt end of the program in December 1944.

President Barack Obama signs S.614 in the Oval Office July 1. The bill awards a Congressional Gold Medal to Women Airforce Service Pilots. The WASP program was established during World War II, and from 1942 to 1943, more than a thousand women joined, flying sixty million miles of non-combat military missions. Of the women who received their wings as Women Airforce Service Pilots, approximately 300 are living today. (Official White House photo/Pete Souza) [source]

Delayed Recognition
The WASPs were never officially considered part of the military. In 1944, General Arnold supported a bill in congress to make the WASPs part of the regular military, but it failed. As the war wound down in Europe and more male pilots returned, the WASPs were considered superfluous and the program was terminated. The women were left in whatever city they happened to be in with no resources. The other WASPs would take up collections to help them get home. Since they weren’t considered veterans, they also had no access to veteran’s benefits, such as health care or education. Most of the women continued on with their lives, keeping in touch and forming reunion groups as the women aged, but not talking too much about their service. Then, in 1976, the Air Force released a statement they were accepting women to be pilots and it would be the first time women had flown for the Air Force. The WASPs were furious at the erasure of their history. After persistent lobbying, Congress granted the women veteran status in 1977. The women began speaking more about their service and built an archive at Texas Women’s University. Today, Dr. Katherine Sharp Landdeck of Texas Women’s University is one of the experts on the WASPs and has done a lot to bring their story into the public eye. She was interviewed a few years ago on the Stuff You Missed in History podcast [Part 1, Part 2], and has a book forthcoming in 2020, The Women with Silver Wings, which has already been optioned as a film. In 2010, the WASPs received the Congressional Gold Medal, though by that time, only about 300 of the WASPs were still alive. And the fight for their legacy continues. In 2018, the Texas Board of Education included the WASPs on a list of figures to remove from Texas history books in an effort to “streamline” curriculum, though the motion failed after public outcry.

William “Gooseneck Bill” McDonald

William McDonald from
History and Directory of Fort Worth, 1907 . [source]

Education
William Madison McDonald was born in College Mound, Texas in 1866 to newly freed parents. He worked for and studied law under a white family friend, Z. T. Adams while still in high school. When he graduated in 1884, Adams and some other family friends helped him attend Roger Williams University in Tennessee. He returned to Texas to become principal of the African American High School in Forney.

Politics
McDonald was involved in Republican politics and gained statewide prominence when he was elected to the Republican State Executive Committee in 1892. McDonald quickly became the leader of the “Black and Tan” faction, in which African Americans and supportive whites shared power. During this time, Dallas journalist, William Greene Sterett nicknamed McDonald “Gooseneck Bill,” a name he would carry for the rest of his public life. McDonald ran for chairman of the executive committee in 1898, but was defeated by another African American, Henry Clay Ferguson. Unfortunately infighting between the two men and their followers led to a decline in the power of African Americans in the Texas Republican Party and eventually the “Lily-White” faction took control. However, McDonald and other black Republicans continued to fight for power in the party.

The New Grand and Masonic Temple, which housed several of William McDonald’s business ventures. [source]

Business
Though he remained active in politics, McDonald turned his attention to business, at which he was wildly successful. McDonald was a member of the African American section of the Masons and was elected as Right Worshipful Grand Secretary in 1899, a major leadership position he would hold for the next 47 years. In 1906, he moved to Fort Worth to manage the Fraternal Bank and Trust Company, which had been founded by the Masons. McDonald grew the bank into a cornerstone of the African American community in Fort Worth, providing loans to African American entrepreneurs to encourage the growth of their businesses. Under McDonald’s management, the bank survived the Great Depression. In 2008, The Dallas Morning News reported that McDonald was “probably Texas’ first black millionaire.” McDonald also built the Jim Hotel, known as a venue for blues and jazz artists. Some of the greatest musicians of the era played there, including Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, B.B. King, and Billie Holiday.

Legacy
As he grew older, McDonald drifted away from the Republican party, more often voting and campaigning for candidates independently. He continued to contribute to local fraternal organizations. Though the buildings that housed his businesses have been torn down, his name remains part of the landscape of Fort Worth as a YMCA branch. McDonald passed away in 1950, after a full life of community and business, politics and activism.

Jovita Idár

Teaching Frustrated
Jovita Idár had a lifelong drive to improve life for the less fortunate. Born in 1885 in Laredo, she attended school and obtained her teacher’s certificate at age 18. Idár taught for a few years, but soon became frustrated by the terrible conditions in her school and her inability to do anything about them. She resigned and went to join her brothers in writing for their father’s newspaper, La Crónica.

Jovita Idár. [source]

La Crónica
La Crónica was a Spanish language newspaper that focused on news and issues important to Mexican Texans. It reported on inequalities in education and economic conditions between Hispanic and Anglo Texans, as well as violence, including lynching, toward Tejanos. In 1911, the paper organized a conference, El Congreso Mexicanista, that brought together Mexican Americans to discuss what was happening. Idár joined many other women at the conference, who attended as both speakers and participants. The conference resulted in La Liga Femenil Mexicanista, which worked to get education for poor children, with Idár as its first president and “Por la Raza, Para la Raza” [By the Race, For the Race] as its motto. The conference also created a network of Hispanic women ready to fight for suffrage. Idár would publish her first of many articles on women’s suffrage that same year. The paper was also vocal in its support of the ongoing Mexican Revolution.

Leonor Villegas de Magnón and Aracelito Garcia with flag of La Cruz Blanca – Front. 1914. Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries. University of Houston Digital Library. Web. July 30, 2019. [source]

La Cruz Blanca
In 1913, the Mexican Revolution came to Laredo’s doorstep with a battle in Nuevo Laredo. Idár joined her friend Leonor Villegas de Magnon in crossing the border to nurse and assist wounded soldiers. Magnon took the experience and created La Cruz Blanca, an organization similar to the Red Cross. Idár joined the organization and spent some of 1914 traveling across Northern Mexico to assist the wounded, but returned to Laredo later that year. While Magnon continued working with La Cruz Blanca, opening her home to the wounded and eventually being awarded a medal by the Mexican government, Idár returned to Laredo to fight for Mexican American and Women’s rights on a different front.

Jovita Idar (center) with colleagues in El Progreso’s print shop, 1914. (Georgia State University Library Archives for Research on Women and Gender) [source]

Newspapers
Back in Laredo, Idár joined the staff of El Progreso, and reported on the lynching of Mexican Americans in Texans, leading some to compare her to Ida B. Wells. As part of her reporting, she exposed the violence practiced by the Texas Rangers and protested President Wilson sending troops to the US-Mexico border. Wilson sent the Rangers to shut the paper down, but Idár stood in the doorway and refused to let them in. The victory was short lived, however, since the Rangers came back and shut the paper down later. Idár returned to La Cronica and, after her father died in 1914, she ran the paper.

Married Life
Idár married Bartolo Juarez in 1917 and retired a bit from public life. The couple moved to San Antonio, where Idár continued to be involved with Mexican American life. She served as a translator at the local hospitals and established a free kindergarten. She got more involved in the Democratic Party and continued to work with newspapers, serving as an editor for the Methodist Church’s publication, El Heraldo Cristiano. Idár passed away in 1946, having helped to create the transnational identity of la Raza.

William Physick Zuber

Last Surviving Veteran of the Army of San Jacinto

William Physick Zuber by Jerkins, 1910. Photograph by me.

Fighting for Independence
William Zuber immigrated to Texas with his family in 1830. When the Texas Revolution broke out in 1835, he joined up, despite being only 15 years old. Zuber, as the youngest person at the battle, was detailed to the rear guard during the Battle of San Jacinto. His service earned him a land grant of 640 acres, which he settled on in Grimes County. He married Louisa Liles and the couple had six children. Zuber continued to serve in the army off and on, including fighting for the Confederacy during the Civil War. Despite being self-educated, Zuber taught at rural schools for many years.

Leaving a Legacy
Later in his life, he began writing and publishing on Texas history. He did biographical sketches of fellow veterans of the Battle of San Jacinto and profiles of battles of the Texas Revolution. Zuber was a charter member of the Texas State Historical Association and his writings appeared in their publications. He wrote several pieces of memoir which were later collected and published under the title My Eighty Years in Texas. Zuber moved to Austin in 1906 and began a job as a guide for the Senate. He would tell visitors stories of his life and of the many famous Texans he had known. He is honored with a portrait in the Senate Chamber and is considered the Texas State Capitol’s first tour guide. Zuber died in 1913, the last surviving veteran of the Army of San Jacinto.

The State Fair of Texas

Big Tex in 2011, By TheNewAnimaniacsFan2001 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, [source]

Early Days
The very first State Fair in 1886 was actually two fairs. The group of businessmen who came up with the idea couldn’t agree on where to put it and split into two camps with two fairs, one at the present day site and one in north Dallas. But by the next year they had settled their differences and agreed on the site closer to central Dallas, where the fair has been held ever since. The State Fair of Texas included many events that would be familiar to fair goers today: livestock and produce showing, cooking and handicraft competitions, and famous speakers and performers. Despite the popularity of the Fair, the association faced mounting debt and sold the property to the City of Dallas in 1903, with the agreement that they could still hold the Fair for two weeks every fall.

Expansion
The city expanded the facilities and, in 1930, constructed a 46,000 seat stadium to host the annual rivalry of Texas and Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl.In the 1930s, while the rest of the country was in a deep depression, Texas was gearing up to celebrate its Centennial and the Fair site was chosen to host the Central Exposition. Many new buildings were constructed to house the many exhibitions and several are still open as year round museums. The Exposition ran for six months in 1936 and brought more than six million people to the fairgrounds. The State Fair of Texas got Big Tex, one of its most recognizable denizens in 1952. The giant Texan welcomed people to the fair for sixty years before he was destroyed in a fire in 2012. A new Big Tex was erected before the 2013 Fair and he continues to be a beloved sight.

Racism and Desegregation
From the beginning of the Fair, African Americans were only allowed in on special days, called Colored People’s Day. These days were discontinued in 1910, but brought back as part of the Centennial Exposition as Negro Achievement Day. However, the Hall of Negro Life was the only Centennial Exposition building demolished after the Exposition was over. In 1923, the Fair hosted Ku Klux Klan day, where thousands of new members were sworn in. In 1955, Juanita Shanks Craft led a protest to desegregate the Fair, which was fully desegregated by 1960. Today, one of the permanent museums on the fairgrounds is the African American Museum of Dallas, which celebrates African American art, history, and culture.

The Modern Fair
The Fair has faced some controversy in recent years over its size and economic impact on the city of Dallas. Except for the three weeks of the Fair, the site is largely empty. The buildings are aging and the grounds are in need of cleaning up. A recent economic study called in to question the amount of people and money that the Fair brings in and brought to light the fact that the Fair itself keeps very few statistics. In 2016, the City of Dallas began the process of figuring out how best to the handle the fairgrounds and in 2018 turned the property over to Fair Park First, a non-profit organization that hopes to perform much needed maintenance, add more green space, and turn the fairgrounds into a year round destination.

The Spindletop Oilfields

The Lucas Gusher at Spindletop Hill [source]

Anthony Lucas was convinced there was oil in the salt domes around the Gulf of Mexico. He was the leading expert on the salt domes and, despite the prevailing wisdom of geologists, he kept drilling for oil. In 1899, he took a lease from the Gladys City Company on a salt dome formation south of Beaumont, Texas called Spindletop Hill. The Gladys City Company had already drilled several unsuccessful wells, but Lucas kept trying. In 1899, he drilled a well to over 500 feet before running out of money. He and his partner, Pattillo Higgins, found some backers in 1900 and resumed drilling in October. They would continue drilling until January, 1901. On the 10th, at a depth of over 1100 feet, they hit bubbling mud and the drilling pipe shot out of the hole. Everything was quiet for a moment, then the gusher started. Oil, mud, and gas, shot over 100 feet in the air for nine days, until it was finally capped, spouting an estimated 100,000 barrels a day. Called the Lucas gusher, the well opened what came to be known as the Spindletop fields. By the end of 1901, at least 5 more successful wells had been drilled. Spindletop ushered in the oil era in Texas, making a state that had been land rich and cash poor very cash rich.

Spindletop Oilfield, 1903 [source]

The oil flow from Spindletop fell fairly quickly, from 17,500,000 barrels a day in 1902 to 10,000 barrels a day in 1904. However, new drilling techniques and locations allowed for a resurgence of the fields in the 1920s, and again in the 1950s and 60s, and Spindletop continued to produce a limited amount of oil into the 1990s.

Samuel Ealy Johnson, Jr.

Portrait of Samuel Ealy Johnson, Jr., 1907. LBJ Presidential Library. [source]

More than a Farmer
Best known as the father of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Samuel Ealy Johnson, Jr. served as an inspiration and spring board for his son’s career. Johnson was born in Buda, Texas, but moved to the Hill Country at a young age. He desperately wanted to go to school and become more than a farmer, but the schools in the Hill Country required tuition fees and his family was poor. To help pay for school, Johnson bought a barber’s chair and tools and gave hair cuts in the evenings. Even so, he had to leave school before he graduated. Even without his diploma, Johnson studied diligently and was able to pass the examination for a teacher’s certificate. He spent the next several years teaching in one room school house around the Hill Country. Eventually, finances forced him to move back to the family farm, which he took over when his father retired.

House of Representatives
In 1904, financially solvent from a few good years on the farm and with a popular reputation in the Hill Country, Johnson ran for and won a seat in the Texas House of Representatives. During his first two terms in the House, he worked to regulate business and pushed through a bill providing state funding to reimburse Clara Driscoll for the purchase of the Alamo property and provide for its preservation. Johnson met Rebekah Baines while she was working as a reporter of the legislative session and the two married in 1907. Funnily enough, Baines was the daughter of Joseph Wilson Baines, whose seat Johnson had taken over.

Sam Ealy Johnson, Jr. as a Member of the Texas House of Representatives, c. 1905, LBJ Presidential Library. [source]

Boom and Bust
In 1909, Johnson was again facing hard financial times and retired from the legislature. Though many legislators found jobs in industries or lobbying after their terms, Johnson had always steadfastly refused bribes and fought against the interests of big business, so he returned to the family farm. After many years of poverty and five kids, Johnson was slowly able to put the family back onto stable footing. He began buying real estate and then businesses around Johnson City. In 1917, a special election was held for Johnson’s old seat in the House and he ran unopposed. He would hold the seat until 1923, despite, once again, losing almost everything investing in the cotton market. This cycle of boom and bust was difficult for the family and particularly for Rebekah. She did her best to instill stability and the love of education and culture in her children, which Lyndon Johnson credited as a driving force in his life. Johnson suffered a series of heart attacks in the mid 1930s and passed away in 1937, the same year his son won a seat in the US House of Representatives.

Sam Rayburn

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Sam

Sam Rayburn, during his time as Speaker of the US House of Representatives By Douglas Chandor – http://history.house.gov/Collection/Detail/29447?ret=True, Public Domain, [source]

Working and Learning
Born in 1887 in Tennessee, Sam Rayburn grew up on a cotton farm in Bonham, Texas. At 18, he attended East Texas Normal School, completing his degree in two years while also teaching school to earn the money to pay for his college. He taught for a couple of years after graduating before pursuing a different dream: law and politics. At only 24, Rayburn was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1906. While serving in the legislature, Rayburn also attended the Law School at the University of Texas, passing the bar in 1908. 

Speaker of the Texas House
In 1911, Rayburn narrowly won election as Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. One of his first moves was request the appointment of a special committee to determine the “duties and rights of the speaker.” As it turned out, the Speaker had enormous power which had gone largely untapped. Rayburn used this power to preside over a well-run progressive session. This would not be Rayburn’s last term as Speaker, though the next would require a change of scenery.

Sam Rayburn, 1937. By Harris & Ewing, photographer – Library of Congress Catalog: https://lccn.loc.gov/2016871300 Original url: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016871300/, Public Domain

The National Stage
In 1912, Rayburn won election as a Democrat to the Fourth Texas District of the US House, where he would serve for the next 49 years. Rayburn was assisted by another powerful Texan, John Nance Garner, who helped Rayburn make connections and get appointed to powerful committees. In 1937, he became the Democratic Majority Leader, then, in 1940, he became Speaker of the US House of Representatives, a position he retained, except for a few interruptions for Republican controlled sessions, until his death. Almost immediately, Rayburn proved his leadership, helping Roosevelt keep the US Military intact on the eve of World War II, when isolationists would have let it lapse. He would go on to be key in obtaining funding and keeping secrecy for the Manhattan Project. After the war, Rayburn would continue to be a giant in the House, often collaborating with fellow Texan, Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson, to muscle legislation through Congress, including one of the first civil rights bills.

Sam Rayburn’s 1947 Cadillac Fleetwood Series 62, gifted to him by his fellow congressmen. By Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, [source]

Mr. Sam
Rayburn was personable, preferring private meetings to public confrontations, and kept a middle-of-the-road stance during several polarizing times. He was known for being un-bribable, refusing any donations larger that $25. When Republicans gained control of Congress in 1947, Rayburn lost the use of the car provided for the Speaker. To show their appreciation, 142 Democratic congressmen and 50 Republican congressmen pooled $25 checks to purchase him a new car. Rayburn accepted the car, but returned the checks from the Republican congressmen, since he felt it would be a conflict of interest as he was continuing to serve as Democratic Minority Leader. Rayburn came into the legislature when Wilson was president and died in 1961 during the Kennedy administration. Altogether, Rayburn served 17 years as the Speaker of the House, a record that has yet to be broken. In Washington, D.C. and throughout Texas, people fondly remember “Mr. Sam.”

Robert E. Howard

Creator of Conan the Barbarian

Robert E. Howard, 1934. [source]

Early Writing
Robert E. Howard started writing young. With the encouragement of his teachers in Cross Plains, Texas, he wrote many historical stories, often featuring bloodshed and violence, which he had experience with from his father’s profession as the town doctor in a farming community. Howard began submitting stories to pulp fiction magazines when he was 15, but only got rejections. His senior year of high school, friends encouraged him to publish two stories in the school newspaper. Despite his desire to be a professional writer, he went to college for a business certificate, probably to appease his father. In 1927, while still in college, he submitted “Spear and Fang,” a short story about cavemen, to a magazine called Weird Tales. The magazine paid him $16 for the tale and, though he would continue to take odd jobs around his hometown, Howard was now a professional writer. He quit school at the end of the year.

“The cover of Weird Tales issue May 1934 featuring Queen of the Black Coast, one of Robert E. Howard’s original stories about Conan the Barbarian. Painting by Margaret Brundage.” [source]

Sword and Sorcery
Howard would continue to publish stories in Weird Tales, especially in a genre that came to be known as Sword and Sorcery. He was influenced by authors such as Edgar A. Poe and H.P. Lovecraft, which mixed fantasy, horror, and violence to create characters such as Solomon Kane, a puritan vampire hunter, King Kull of Atlantis, and, most famously, Conan the Barbarian. The Solomon Kane story, “The Shadow Kingdom,” is usually considered the first printed example of Sword and Sorcery. Howard said of his protagonists,

“They’re simpler. You get them in a jam, and no one expects you to rack your brains inventing clever ways for them to extricate themselves. They are too stupid to do anything but cut, shoot, or slug themselves into the clear.“

Howard’s success continued to grow. He was well paid for his writing, reportedly earning $500 in a month in the middle of the Great Depression. Later in his career, Howard moved from Sword and Sorcery to writing almost exclusively westerns.

Death
Howard and his mother had always been very close. By the mid 1930s, many of Howard’s friends had moved on to their own lives and he became more and more dependent on his mother. Hester Howard has suffered from tuberculosis for decades and, in 1936, she slipped into a coma. In the weeks leading up to her coma, Howard set his affairs in order and purchased a pistol. When he was assured that his mother would not recover from her coma, he purchased a cemetery plot and shot himself. Hester Howard passed away the next day and a double funeral was held for the two of them. Howard had sometimes expressed a fear of growing older and some see in his work his ideal world: where everyone remained young forever.

The League of United Latin American Citizens

First Convention of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), 5/17/1929 [source]

Mexican Americans have always faced discrimination in the United States, but particularly in the Southwest. Numerous political organizations have sprung up over the years to fight for the civil rights of Hispanics, but the oldest and most active is the League of United Latin American Citizens, better known as LULAC.

Unification
By the 1920s, there were a few organizations focused on Hispanic civil rights, The Order of the Sons of America and the Knights of America being the most prominent. Ben Garza, head of the Corpus Christi chapter of the Order of the Sons of America, suggested that the groups get together and try to form a unified organization. It was not an easy process. The first attempt in 1927, simply created a new organization, the League of Latin American Citizens. Garza and Alonso Perales of the League of Latin American Citizens called for a convention in Harlingen on February 7th, 1929. The larger Order of the Sons of America refused to send delegates, so Ben Garza’s Corpus Christi chapter split off to attend the convention. Garza was elected chairmen of the convention and a committee was formed, consisting of Juan Solis and Mauro Machado from the KoA, Alonso Perales and Jose Canales of LLAC, and E.N. Marin, A. DeLuna and Fortunio Trevino of the OSA to draft a charter for the new organization. They named it the League of United Latin American Citizens and declared its motto “All for one and one for all,” a callback to the difficult process of unification.

Pete Hernandez (center) with LULAC attorneys Gustavo Garcia (left) and Johnny Herrera, c. 1953. [source]

Desegregation
In the first years of the organization, LULAC focused on promoting voter registration and campaigning for candidates friendly to their goals, as well as gaining rights to a good education for their children. In 1947, LULAC filed Mendez v. Westminster, which ended school segregation for Hispanics in California. This case helped LULAC expand across the Southwest. Building on their success, in 1948, LULAC filed Delgado v. Bastrop ISD, which effectively ended segregation for Hispanics in Texas. These two cases would later be used as precedents for the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954. LULAC continued to be heavily involved in desegregation efforts. In 1954, they argued Hernandez v. State of Texas, which proved that Texas had been discriminating against Hispanics when selecting juries, preventing Hispanic defendants from being tried by a jury of their peers. [Great podcast on this from Stuff You Missed in History Class here.]

LULAC Today
LULAC membership has fallen in recent years, thanks largely to the diversification of Hispanics in the United States and a long history of anti-immigration in the organization, but it continues to campaign for Hispanic rights. It recently filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas to protest gerrymandered districts, and campaigned strongly against SB4, which would allow officers to ask immigration status at any kind of stop. LULAC also continues to serve their communities as a civic organization, advocating for education, doing toy drives, and helping the elderly.