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0:41

Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History

0:43

Class from how Stuff Works dot com.

0:51

Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

0:54

I am Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly

0:56

fry. So. It's been a while since

0:58

we've had a Supreme Court case on the show

1:02

as a guest. As a guest,

1:04

right uh, and that's become

1:07

a theme sort of on on at

1:09

least in terms of yours and my time

1:11

on the show HALLI we've had several Supreme Court episodes,

1:13

and I think the last one that we had was one of the goofier

1:16

ones because we talked about Butter versus Margarine.

1:19

This one is not a goofier one. Today we are

1:21

talking about Hernandez versus Texas,

1:24

which got a brief mention in our past episode

1:26

on Marcario Garcia, and that

1:28

was the first Mexican immigrant to the United

1:30

States to earn the Medal of Honor. And

1:33

in addition to tying directly to civil

1:35

rights for Mexican Americans, Hernande's

1:38

versus Texas was also the first

1:40

case to be argued before the Supreme Court by

1:42

Mexican American attorneys, and it set

1:45

off a whole new precedent and how

1:47

the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was interpreted

1:49

in terms of race and ethnicity. A

1:51

lot of the stuff that we're talking about today generally

1:54

applied more broadly to pretty

1:56

much everybody of Hispanic

1:58

or Latino descent, but specifically

2:00

the people that we were talking about, our our Mexican Americans.

2:03

So the other thing is this was

2:05

decided it right before Brown versus

2:07

Board, like a week or two before

2:09

the decision came down in Brown versus

2:12

Board. So in a lot of ways it was completely

2:14

overshadowed by that way more famous

2:16

decision, although it was really

2:18

important in its own way. And

2:21

Hernandez versus Texas began

2:23

with a murder, and the facts of that murder

2:25

were really not in dispute. On August

2:28

four, Pedro Hernandez,

2:30

who went by Pete, got into an argument

2:33

with Gitano Espinoza, who was known as

2:35

Joe, at Chinko Sanchez's

2:37

tavern in Edna, Texas. Edna

2:40

is southwest of Houston and southeast

2:42

of San Antonio, and sits roughly between

2:44

those two cities. It's not clear

2:47

exactly what started to this argument,

2:49

but according to witnesses, at some point,

2:51

Espinoza started making fun of Hernandez

2:53

because he had a club foot, and

2:56

Hernanda has left the bar. He walked

2:58

home, got a rifle, came back

3:00

and shot Espinosa in the chest in

3:02

front of witnesses. Espinoza

3:04

died not long after reaching the hospital

3:07

in less than twenty four hours after the crime.

3:09

Hernandez was indicted for murder.

3:11

Four days later, he was denied bail Hernande's

3:15

mother went to Gustavo Garcia,

3:17

known as GUS, for help, and Garcia

3:20

was a prominent civil rights lawyer in San

3:22

Antonio. He served as

3:24

a legal advisor to the League of United

3:26

Latin American Citizens or LULAC,

3:29

which was the first civil rights organization

3:31

for Mexican Americans in the United States,

3:34

and he served in that same capacity for the American

3:36

GI Forum, which was formed in the wake

3:38

of World War Two to help Mexican

3:40

American veterans get access to the benefits

3:43

they were entitled to under the g I Bill

3:45

of Rights. I kind of want to

3:47

do an episode at some point about the g I

3:49

Bill, because the language

3:51

in the bill didn't have

3:54

anything related to race or

3:56

ethnicity in it, but the way

3:58

it was actually implement it, it was

4:00

a lot easier for white returning

4:02

veterans to get access to the benefits

4:05

that were involved and pretty much anyone else. So

4:08

it has a really complicated

4:10

history in terms of how

4:12

and who it allowed to

4:14

get access to things like education and buying

4:16

new homes and things like that. So by

4:19

the time he agreed to represent Pete Hernandez,

4:21

Garcia had been involved with some of the biggest

4:24

civil rights cases for Mexicans and Mexican

4:26

Americans in Texas. He had

4:28

worked as a legal advocate for migrant workers

4:30

in the Briscero program, which we've talked about on the

4:32

show before. He had also been part

4:34

of the team and del got O versus bell Strap

4:36

Independent School District.

4:38

They'll got

4:40

O versus bell Strap followed the California

4:42

case of Mendez versus Westminster, which we've

4:44

also talked about on the show, and

4:47

it made segregation of Mexican American

4:49

school children illegal in the state of Texas,

4:52

with the exception of like first

4:54

graders who genuinely needed some more

4:56

English language instruction before they joined

4:59

classes that were being in English.

5:01

Garcia had also represented the family

5:03

of Felix Longoria, who was killed

5:05

in action in World War Two. When

5:07

Longoria's body was returned home to Texas,

5:10

the only funeral home in his hometown

5:12

of Three Rivers refused to allow

5:14

its chapel to be used for the service

5:17

because, in the director's words quote,

5:19

the whites would not like it. After

5:21

them, Senator Lyndon B. Johnson got involved.

5:24

Longoria was buried at Arlington National

5:26

Cemetery. Joining

5:28

Garcia and the defense team was Carlos

5:30

Kanena, whose prior civil rights

5:32

work included challenging restrictive covenants

5:35

that were keeping Mexican Americans from being able

5:37

to buy land in San Antonio. Garcia

5:40

is known as an incredibly eloquent

5:42

and charismatic speaker, and Kanana had

5:45

a head for numbers and statistics, so when they

5:47

worked together as a legal team, typically

5:49

Garcia would be the one who argued the case

5:51

in court and Kandana meticulously

5:54

assembled all the research and the information

5:56

that was needed to make that argument in court.

5:59

Also on a team where John Jay Herrera known

6:01

as Johnny, and James DeAnda, who

6:04

practiced together in Houston, and

6:06

Herrera and Garcia already knew one another

6:08

and they had actually worked together on Delgado Versus

6:10

Blastrop. So the reason

6:13

this seemingly straightforward

6:15

small town murder trial required

6:17

a team of four attorneys, including

6:19

some of the most well known civil rights lawyers

6:21

working in Texas at the time, is that it

6:24

was not just a simple criminal matter. While

6:26

working out another case together in Fort Bend

6:29

County, Johnny Herrera had idly

6:31

wondered to James Dandah why he

6:33

had never seen a Mexican person on a jury

6:36

there and then when they looked into it further,

6:38

they realized that there had been no one of

6:40

Mexican descent on a Fort Bend County jury

6:43

in more than thirty five years. The

6:45

same pattern was true in Jackson County,

6:48

where Hernandez was going to be tried. Herrera

6:51

was not the first person to make this observation.

6:53

All Anglo juries had come up at least

6:56

seven times in Texas court since nine

6:59

There hadn't been a Mexican person on a jury,

7:02

or, to be more specific, anyone

7:04

who had a recognizable Mexican or

7:06

Latin American surname in twenty

7:08

five years in at least seventy Texas

7:11

counties. Every attempt

7:13

to address that disparity had been met with

7:15

the same legal response from the state. Indianda's

7:18

words, quote, well, Mexicans

7:20

are Caucasians, and there were Caucasians

7:22

on the jury, so what are you fussing about?

7:26

Arera's Indanda's client and

7:28

Acito Sanchez had been found guilty

7:30

of murder. Arera Indianda had

7:32

appealed the conviction on the grounds that Sanchez

7:34

had been discriminated against by the existence

7:36

of this all white jury, but the

7:39

Texas Court of Appeals upheld the conviction,

7:41

making that same argument as a Mexican,

7:44

Sanchez was white and the jury was white,

7:46

so there was no discrimination. And

7:48

at that point the team was out of funds.

7:50

Sanchez was really reluctant to pursue the

7:53

case any further. As well, he was

7:55

afraid that he would get a harsher sentence

7:57

if his conviction was overturned and he had to

7:59

be retry. This Mexicans

8:02

are white argument stretched back to the Treaty

8:04

of Guadalupe hid Allgo, which ended

8:06

the Mexican American War in eighteen forty

8:09

eight, and the war ended with Mexico

8:11

seating a huge amount of territory,

8:13

much of it inhabited by both Mexicans

8:15

and indigenous people, to the United

8:18

States. In Article

8:20

eight, the treaty gave Mexicans living

8:22

in the United States territory a choice to

8:24

quote the treaty quote, those who shall

8:27

prefer to remain in the said territories

8:29

may either retain the title and rights

8:31

of Mexican citizens or acquire

8:33

those of citizens of the United States.

8:36

But they shall be under the obligation to make

8:38

their election within one year from the

8:40

date of the exchange of ratifications

8:42

of this Treaty and those who shall

8:44

remain in the said territories after the

8:46

expiration of that year, without having

8:49

declared their intention to retain the character

8:51

of Mexicans, shall be considered

8:53

to have elected to become citizens

8:55

of the United States. The

8:57

treaty went on to recognize the proper

9:00

the rights of Mexicans and to state

9:02

that those who became American would be quote

9:04

admitted at the proper time to

9:06

the enjoyment of all the rights of citizens

9:09

of the United States, according to the

9:11

principles of the Constitution, and

9:13

in the meantime shall be maintained and

9:15

protected in the free enjoyment of their

9:17

liberty and property, and secured

9:20

in the free exercise of their religion

9:22

without restriction. Of course,

9:24

this is just one aspect of this whole

9:26

treaty, and it's also important to note

9:28

that Mexico had given its indigenous

9:31

population the rights of citizenship, but

9:33

those rights were essentially ignored once

9:35

the territory they had been living in became part of the United

9:38

States. So even though in theory,

9:40

if you had Mexican citizenship before, you

9:42

were supposed to have American citizenship, now

9:45

that citizenship was denied. The indigenous

9:47

population that was living in former Mexican

9:49

territory, and for the Mexican

9:51

citizens of Spanish descent once that year

9:54

was up after the ratification of the Treaty

9:56

of Guadalupe a Dago, unless

9:58

they had specifically said they were retaining

10:00

Mexican citizenship, they were to be considered

10:03

American citizens. And all

10:05

of this together meant that from a legal perspective,

10:07

they were white. And we'll get to

10:09

how the team built a legal defense

10:12

around all of this after we first pause and have

10:14

a little bit of a sponsor break.

10:21

Throughout the murder trial of Pete Hernandez,

10:24

his legal team tried to establish that the

10:26

absence of Mexicans on the jury was discriminatory.

10:29

Their first effort in doing this was on October

10:32

four, ninety one, when Garcia

10:34

and Kanana tried to quash the original

10:37

indictment because that indictment had been delivered

10:39

by an all Anglo grand jury. As

10:42

expected, no one was surprised by this.

10:45

The court refused and the trial began

10:47

as planned on October eight, and

10:49

all Anglo jury was selected. And

10:52

once that was done, the legal team filed

10:54

a motion to quash. In the hearing

10:56

that followed, they spent a lot of time trying

10:58

to establish that, regardless of

11:00

whether they were legally considered white, Mexicans

11:03

were treated as a class apart. The

11:06

team noted things like restaurants that posted

11:08

no Mexicans signs and the

11:10

recently ended school segregation, and

11:13

they asked a number of witnesses things like, would

11:15

you ever say a German Man and a white

11:18

man, how about an Englishman and a

11:20

white man? How about a Mexican

11:22

and a white man. And even

11:24

though the resulting answers provided solid

11:26

evidence that Mexican residents of Jackson

11:29

County were treated differently from Anglo

11:31

residents, the motion was ultimately

11:33

denied. I learned two really

11:35

fascinating things while reading through

11:37

all of this questioning during the hearing

11:40

to quash the jury, uh.

11:42

And one of them was that at the time,

11:44

a lot more people used the word Latin American

11:47

rather than Mexican because people, I

11:49

mean a lot of different reasons. The preferred language

11:51

to talk about stuff changes over time, and that's

11:54

normal, like that's expected. Part of it

11:56

was, uh that people were

11:58

kind of concerned that if you said Mexican, that you

12:00

might actually mean a Mexican national living

12:02

in Mexico right now, rather than a person

12:05

of Mexican descent living in the United States. Um.

12:07

And the other one was that apparently people

12:09

still considered Bohemian to be a

12:12

recognizable like ethnic

12:14

class, and so some of the questions were

12:16

like, would you say, oh, look, there's a

12:18

Bohemian and a white man, And people were like, no,

12:20

of course, not, that's weird. That

12:24

was like, that's never a thing I've even thought

12:26

of. Uh, but I mean to

12:28

be clear in case it's not obvious. People were

12:30

like, no, I wouldn't say a German Man and a white

12:33

man. Those are both white. And people would say, well, would

12:35

you say a Mexican and a white man? Oh? Yeah.

12:38

Like they built that case over

12:40

a lot of questions, but in spite of that,

12:42

they did not quash the jury.

12:45

After the jury selection and all those pre

12:47

trial motions, the charges against

12:50

Hernandez were read at one fift pm

12:52

on October eleventh. The

12:54

jury went to deliberations at four thirty

12:56

in the afternoon, and by eight pm that same

12:59

night they had reached a verdict. Hernandez

13:01

was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Her

13:04

Era, Indiana had already tried to make a discrimination

13:07

argument in their appeal of Anacito Sanchez's

13:10

murder conviction, so the team started

13:12

with that brief as the foundation for their appeal

13:15

of Hernandez's conviction. They

13:17

drew parallels to the systemic exclusion

13:19

of black jurors, which the Supreme Court

13:21

had already found violated the constitutional

13:23

rights to do process in equal

13:26

protection, and they also drew parallels

13:28

to how Mexicans were treated quite differently

13:30

from people of other nationalities who

13:32

really were considered to be white. Cardena,

13:35

who crafted a lot of the brief, also made

13:38

the point that, in his words quote about

13:40

the only time that so called Mexicans,

13:42

many of them Texans for seven generations,

13:45

are covered with the Caucasian cloak, is

13:47

when it serves the ends of those who would

13:49

shamelessly deny this large segment

13:52

of the Texas population their fundamental

13:54

rights. So basically, nobody's

13:56

really calling us white until it suits

13:59

them to be like, well, you're not being discriminated

14:01

against because you're white. You're different

14:03

until we have to defend ourselves, and

14:06

then you're just like us. Hernandez's

14:08

case was brought before the Texas Court of Criminal

14:11

Appeals on November twenty one one,

14:14

with the team arguing that the lower court had

14:16

aired in denying the motions to quash

14:18

both the grand and petit juries. The

14:21

Texas Court of Appeals disagreed and

14:23

affirmed that conviction on June eighteenth,

14:25

ninetifty two, and

14:27

the appeals Court's decision noted

14:30

that the Fourteenth Amendments equal protection clause

14:33

applied to two classes only,

14:35

quote, the white race comprising one

14:37

class and the Negro race comprising

14:40

the other class. The appeals court

14:42

also repeated part of the decision

14:44

that had had given in the Sanchez case,

14:47

quote, Mexican people are not a separate

14:49

race, but white people of Spanish descent.

14:52

That went on to specify, quote in contemplation

14:55

of the Fourteenth Amendment, Mexicans

14:57

are there for members of and within the classification

14:59

of the white race, as distinguished for members

15:02

of the Negro race. The team

15:04

tried to bring the jury selection issue

15:06

back to the Court of Appeals on October two,

15:09

but the court declined to hear it. So

15:12

from there their next step would be to take this

15:14

case to the United States Supreme Court,

15:16

and although this had always been their goal,

15:19

they recognized that it was an incredibly risky

15:21

decision to try it. On a personal

15:23

level, it was risky for Pete Hernandez.

15:25

He had been found guilty of murder and

15:28

sentenced to life in prison, and if

15:30

the Supreme Court overturned his conviction,

15:32

he would need to be retried. Like

15:35

we said, it was clear that he had committed this

15:37

crime, and if he was retried, he could

15:39

potentially be sentenced to death. Going

15:42

to the Supreme Court carried other risks as

15:44

well. If the court did not find

15:46

in Hernande's favor, it would probably

15:49

take at least a generation for another

15:51

similar case to be heard. That

15:54

meant that for a generation, Mexican

15:56

Americans in many Texas counties

15:58

would continue to face juries composed

16:00

only of Anglos, And since

16:02

the whole issue was tied to whether Mexicans

16:04

were white, there were plenty of imagined

16:07

scenarios and consequences should

16:09

the Court decide that no, they were not.

16:12

This risk was compounded by the fact

16:14

that Peter Nandez's case was not particularly

16:17

likely to elicit the court's sympathy.

16:20

At the same time as Hernandez's and

16:22

Sanchez's cases were being heard in

16:24

Texas, civil rights cases involving black

16:26

Americans were playing out elsewhere in

16:28

the United States as well. These

16:30

were often backed by national organizations

16:33

like the n double a CP with experienced

16:35

civil rights lawyers who were carefully

16:37

selecting cases whose defendants were

16:40

likely to be sympathetic and regarded

16:42

by white justices as respectable

16:44

and worthy of compassion. Like this has come up

16:46

in a lot of past episodes, like the

16:50

Mildred and Richard Loving were sympathetic

16:52

people because they were a couple who loved each other

16:55

and wanted to live together in Virginia. And

16:57

Rosa parks Uh was simp

17:00

athetic because she had a job

17:02

and was like, I had a reputation for

17:04

being, you know, a kind person who

17:06

went to church. All of these things were part of

17:08

deciding whose case would be presented

17:10

to the Supreme Court. This was

17:12

not the case with Pete Hernandez.

17:15

He had murdered someone after a fight in

17:17

front of witnesses. At the same

17:19

time, a Supreme Court case seemed

17:21

like an opportunity to try to right some

17:23

of the wrongs within the court system,

17:26

so the team filed their petition

17:28

for a writ of certiorari with the Supreme

17:30

Court on January twenty one, nineteen

17:33

fifty three. This is the document

17:35

that formally asks the higher court

17:37

to review the lower court's decision and

17:40

this was a day pass the deadline and

17:42

typewritten when the Supreme Court's rules

17:44

stated that they must be professionally printed.

17:47

But the Court agreed to hear the case anyway,

17:50

and on October twelfth, nineteen fifties three,

17:52

it was scheduled for the next session. People

17:55

were really worried that the fact that

17:57

they turned it in a day late and typewritten

18:00

is that have professionally printed, was like an indicator

18:03

of bad things to come. Arguing

18:05

a case before the Supreme Court is expensive.

18:08

To be allowed to do it at all, attorneys

18:11

have to apply for and be granted admission

18:13

to the Supreme Court Bar. This requires

18:16

sponsorship from people who have already

18:18

been admitted to the Supreme Court Bar.

18:20

So, in addition to the application fee,

18:22

the team, none of whom had ever argued

18:25

before the Supreme Court before, had to

18:27

find other attorneys who were already approved

18:29

to sponsor them and then pay a

18:31

fee to apply. There are also

18:34

filing fees for the case itself, and

18:36

the team arguing the case is responsible

18:38

for paying for all there the briefs to be printed,

18:41

along with travel to Washington, d c. And

18:43

food and lodging while there, and especially

18:46

in the cases of attorneys who have private practices

18:49

the disruption of their business

18:51

as and income while they're gone. Hernand

18:54

Is his team did not have a lot of money.

18:56

They were basically a collection of local

18:58

Texas lawyers whose own practices

19:00

and incomes and stracy just suggested

19:03

we're going to suffer while they were away.

19:05

So the Robert Marshall Civil Liberties

19:07

Trust contributed five thousand dollars

19:09

to the cost of the proceedings, and local

19:12

LULAC chapters made donations as well,

19:15

and the rest of their budget was filled in by small

19:17

donations from other civic organizations

19:19

and even individual people. There

19:22

are interviews with some of the folks

19:24

that were involved in all of this who would talk about

19:26

people who just really did not have any money

19:29

coming up to them on the street and like handing

19:31

them a dollar and being like, please use this

19:33

to help pay for the case. Because

19:36

their budget was so tight, they eventually

19:39

decided that not all of them would go to

19:41

Washington. D C, Garcia,

19:43

Kardenna, and Herrera would all go to Washington,

19:45

while Danda stayed behind in Texas, both

19:48

to try to save money on all of their costs and

19:50

also to try to keep all of their law

19:52

businesses functioning while

19:55

the rest of them were away. Money

19:57

became one of the sources of tension for the

19:59

t once they actually got to Washington.

20:02

Garcia was somewhat of a showman

20:05

and had a flamboyant personality, and he

20:07

hired a publicist and reserved

20:09

a hotel suite that the rest of the team thought

20:12

was beyond their budget. It wasn't

20:14

just about luxury though. At that point,

20:16

the Double A CP and other organizations

20:18

fighting for equal rights for Black Americans

20:21

were national organizations with better

20:23

funding and much better name recognition.

20:26

Brown versus Board was national news,

20:28

and Garcia really wanted a similar

20:30

national structure and recognition

20:32

for Mexican Americans. Leading

20:35

up to their arguments before the Supreme Court,

20:37

Garcia himself also became a source

20:40

of tension as well. He struggled

20:42

with alcoholism, and the day before they

20:44

were to argue, he vanished from the hotel

20:46

and finally returned very late

20:49

and heavily intoxicated. The

20:51

rest of the team, while trying to sober

20:53

him up, started to worry that the whole thing was going

20:55

to fall apart. And after we take another

20:58

quick break, we will talk about the Supreme Court

21:00

argument and what happened afterward. Hernandez

21:08

versus the State of Texas was argued before

21:10

the United States Supreme Court on January

21:12

eleventh, nineteen fifty four. The

21:14

question before the court was is

21:17

the equal Protection of the law claws

21:19

of the Fourteenth Amendment violated

21:21

when a state tries a person of a particular

21:24

race or ancestry before a jury

21:26

in which all persons of that race or

21:28

ancestry have been excluded from

21:30

serving. The team's strategy

21:33

was twofold. They would establish

21:35

that Mexican jurors, specifically those

21:37

with Spanish surnames, were being systematically

21:40

intentionally excluded from juries

21:42

in Jackson County, Texas, including

21:44

in the trial of Peter Nandez. And

21:47

they would also establish that the exclusion

21:49

from jury service was part of an overall

21:51

pattern of discrimination against Mexican

21:53

Americans, treating them as a class

21:56

apart from white citizens. Establishing

21:59

that Mexican amerry kins were excluded

22:01

from Jerry's was easy enough. They had plenty

22:03

of documentation that almost fifteen

22:05

percent of the county's population had Mexican

22:08

or Latin American surnames, including

22:10

eleven percent of the man over aged twenty

22:12

one, about six or seven percent

22:15

of the freeholders and the tax roles were of

22:17

Mexican descent as well. Yet,

22:19

in spite of all of that, zero

22:22

people with Mexican or Latin American

22:24

surnames had served on a Jackson County

22:26

jury in twenty five years. They

22:28

also had polenty of evidence of Mexican

22:30

Americans in Jackson County not being

22:32

treated as white. Until

22:35

the decision in del got O versus blast Trop

22:37

in September, Mexican

22:39

children in Texas had not been allowed to attend

22:42

school with white children. There

22:44

was at least one restaurant with a posted sign

22:46

that Mexicans would not be served, along

22:49

with signs that said quote no chili,

22:51

which meant exactly the same thing. But

22:54

the most compelling piece of evidence

22:56

of discrimination again against Mexican Americans

22:59

that was present had before the Supreme Court came

23:01

from Johnny Herrera's own experience,

23:04

and it had also been part of that first

23:06

motion to quash the jury in Hernandez's

23:08

original trial. During that

23:10

original trial in Jackson County, Herrera

23:13

had gone to the restroom and he had found that

23:15

there were two bathrooms. One

23:17

of them was unmarked and the other was

23:19

labeled colored men and under that

23:22

ombre zeki or men here.

23:25

Meanwhile, the state of Texas argued

23:27

that the lack of Mexican and Latin American surnames

23:30

among jurors was just a coincidence,

23:33

and that Mexicans were white, so the

23:35

Fourteenth Amendment did not apply. In

23:38

other words, at the courthouse where the Texas

23:40

legal system was arguing that Mexicans

23:42

were white, there were segregated

23:44

restrooms, one unmarked and

23:46

only for white men, and the other marked

23:49

for black and Mexican men. Garcia,

23:52

who as we said, had come back to the hotel

23:55

really late and heavily intoxicated,

23:57

was pretty quiet during the earlier parts

23:59

of the arguments, but after

24:01

some of the justices asked a series of

24:04

questions along the lines of whether Mexican

24:06

Americans or citizens and whether they could

24:08

speak English, he kind of revived.

24:10

He started an incredibly eloquent

24:12

legal argument that combined the histories

24:15

of Mexico and the United States, including

24:17

the fact that many of the families who were

24:19

being affected by this systemic jury exclusion

24:22

had been in Texas for generations

24:24

before Sam Houston even showed up there. It

24:27

was Unfortunately, the transcript

24:29

of this does not seem to exist anywhere

24:31

anymore. But it was such a compelling

24:34

listen that when his time was up, Chief

24:36

Justice Earl Warren told him to continue

24:39

and allowed him to talk for twelve more minutes.

24:42

The Supreme Court issued its unanimous

24:44

decision on May third, nineteen fifty

24:46

four. By being denied a jury

24:48

of his peers, including Mexican Americans,

24:51

Pete Hernandez had been denied Fourteenth

24:53

Amendment protections and this denial

24:56

was unconstitutional. As

24:58

part of Earl lawren majority opinion,

25:01

he wrote, quote throughout our history,

25:03

differences in race and color have defined

25:06

easily identifiable groups which have

25:08

at times required the aid of the courts

25:11

in securing equal treatment under the laws.

25:13

But community prejudices are not static,

25:16

and from time to time, other differences

25:18

from the community norm may define

25:20

other groups which need the same protection.

25:23

Whether such a group exists within a community

25:26

is a question of fact. When this existence

25:28

of a distinct class is demonstrated,

25:31

and it is further shown that the laws as

25:33

written or as applied, single out

25:35

that class for different treatment, not based

25:37

on some reasonable classification, the

25:40

guarantees of the Constitution have been

25:42

violated. The Fourteenth Amendment

25:45

is not directed solely against discrimination

25:48

due to a two class theory that

25:50

is based on differences between white and

25:52

negro. He also went on to

25:54

say, quote, but it taxes our credulity

25:57

to say that mere chance resulted in there

25:59

being no members of this class among

26:01

the over six thousand jurors

26:03

called in the past twenty five years.

26:06

The result bespeaks discrimination, whether

26:08

or not it was a conscious decision on

26:10

the part of any individual jury

26:12

commissioner. With the Supreme

26:15

Court having issued its decision, the Texas

26:17

Department of Corrections was notified that

26:19

Hernandez would be remanded for a retrial

26:22

on May seventh, nineteen fifty four, and that was

26:24

four days after the decision was announced. He

26:26

was re indicted on September nineteen

26:29

fifty four, and the trial was moved to

26:31

another county after a successful

26:33

petition for a change of venue. Garcia

26:36

argued the new trial, which was held on November

26:38

fifteen and included two Mexican Americans

26:40

among the jury. Hernandez was again

26:43

found guilty and this time sentenced to twenty

26:45

years in prison. He was recommended

26:47

for parole on June seventh, nineteen

26:50

sixty and Governor Price Daniel

26:52

ordered his release on the next day.

26:55

This was in part due to advocacy by

26:57

Garcia, who recognized that Hernandez

26:59

had knowingly risk his own life in

27:01

pursuit of this civil rights school. As

27:03

we said earlier, the facts of the case were clear

27:06

and that he had committed murder, so

27:08

by allowing this case to be appealed, he

27:10

was knowingly risking a death sentence. Her

27:13

Nanda's versus Texas was notable and

27:15

influential in a lot of ways,

27:18

since it's set the precedent that the Fourteenth Amendments

27:21

protections applied to Mexican Americans

27:23

that laid the ground work for fighting other

27:25

forms of discrimination against them, including

27:28

things like housing and employment discrimination.

27:31

The idea that the Fourteenth Amendment was

27:33

not just related to a two class idea

27:35

of race was also a huge

27:37

deal. Before her name is versus

27:39

Texas. Most Fourteenth Amendment arguments

27:42

were about black and white, not about any

27:44

other race or ethnic group. But

27:46

the application of those same rights and protections

27:49

to Mexican Americans meant that in the United

27:51

States race was not just a

27:53

two class system. There were other

27:55

classes as well, some of them not related

27:58

to race in any way. Who could be the

28:00

targets of unconstitutional discrimination

28:03

to recap what we said at the top of the show.

28:05

Hernandez versus Texas was also hugely

28:08

important because it was the first Supreme Court

28:10

case related to civil rights for Mexican Americans,

28:13

particularly after the World War two

28:15

era, and it was the first to be

28:18

argued by Mexican Americans. People

28:20

doing it weren't being backed by any kind of nationwide

28:23

legal organization or a strategy. They

28:25

were just a handful of local lawyers who

28:27

were also Mexican American,

28:30

of which there were not that many practicing

28:32

in Texas. The four of them represented roughly

28:35

of the Mexican American lawyers practicing anywhere

28:37

in Texas at the time, so this was a groundbreaking

28:40

first from a lot of different directions. Hernandez

28:43

versus Texas continued to be the main

28:46

president in civil rights cases for Mexican

28:48

Americans until nineteen seventy

28:50

one, when cy Naro's versus Corpus

28:52

Christie Independent School Districts recognized

28:55

Hispanics as a distinct minority

28:57

group, with all the constitutional protections

29:00

that apply to other minority groups

29:02

applying to Hispanics as well. However,

29:05

the core issue that started this whole case,

29:07

which was the under representation of Mexican

29:10

Americans on juries continues to be an

29:12

issue. In nineteen seventy seven,

29:14

the Supreme Court heard Costanata

29:16

versus Pardita, which found that a

29:18

defendant had been discriminated against

29:20

in part because seventy nine

29:22

percent of the county's population where he

29:24

lived with Mexican American, but over

29:27

an eleven year period, only thirty

29:30

nine percent of those summoned to be on

29:32

the grand jury were Mexican American. Carlos

29:35

Cadena served as the City Attorney

29:37

of San Antonio until nineteen sixty

29:39

one, when he joined the faculty at

29:41

Saint Mary's School of Law and became

29:44

the nation's first Mexican American law

29:46

professor. He was later appointed

29:48

to the Fourth Court of Appeals and eventually

29:50

became its Chief Justice, making him

29:52

the first Mexican American to hold that position.

29:55

He helped co found the Mexican American Legal

29:58

Defense and Educational Fund became

30:00

its first national president. He

30:02

died of lung cancer in two thousand eleven.

30:05

Johnny Herrera continued with his civil

30:07

rights work for the rest of his career, eventually

30:10

becoming the national LULAC President and

30:12

working as its national legal Advisor.

30:14

He died after a stroke. In nineteen eighty six,

30:17

James DeAnda was appointed to serve as a

30:19

federal judge under President Jimmy Carter.

30:22

He died of prostate cancer in two thousand

30:24

six. Gus Garcia

30:26

sadly struggled with alcohol abuse for

30:28

the rest of his life, which was later compounded

30:31

by depression. He was in and out

30:33

of hospitals, and he was disbarred after

30:35

passing bad checks. He stopped

30:37

attending meetings of LULAC in the g I

30:39

Forum, and his behavior became increasingly

30:42

erratic. He died on June third,

30:45

nineteen sixty four, and he was forty

30:47

eight. It's clear that

30:49

Hernando's versus Texas broadened the applicability

30:52

of the Fourteenth Amendment's protections, but

30:54

there continues to be some debate about how

30:56

much it actually helped Mexican Americans.

30:59

Most of its arguments had to do with surnames,

31:02

which excluded people who had changed their last

31:04

names, or who, for example, were Mexican

31:06

on their mother's side but had their father's

31:09

Anglo surname, and at

31:11

least for a time, it's set the precedent that

31:13

people who were protected under the Fourteenth Amendment

31:16

were really only entitled to those protections

31:18

when it was clear that their whole community

31:20

was operating under a systemic state of discrimination,

31:23

although that was later refined

31:26

by other court cases and

31:28

the whole thing wasn't framed as whether

31:30

Mexican Americans deserved equal rights,

31:32

but whether Mexican Americans were white.

31:36

It's actually one of the most interesting

31:39

things to me on a sort of intellectual

31:42

level about this whole case. Um.

31:45

A lot of people think of race

31:47

as having some kind of inherently biological

31:50

component, but it really is a It's a social

31:52

construct. And if you look at

31:55

the history of race in the United States, there's

31:57

a whole negotiation of who is and is

31:59

not allowed to be white. Uh

32:01

and a lot of it is fascinating

32:05

and sometimes disturbing, And if you want

32:08

a way more condensed look

32:12

into how that has worked throughout the United

32:14

States history. I strongly recommend the series

32:16

Seeing White from the podcast Seen on Radio,

32:19

which goes through the whole thing. Uh.

32:22

We It touches on a lot of things we've talked about on

32:24

the show before, but in a lot

32:26

more compressed time frame, like

32:28

we have some of the same things we have talked about

32:30

on the show, like some exact episodes

32:33

that we have had on the show. They have talked

32:35

about as well, but it's condensed

32:37

over I think thirteen or fourteen episodes

32:40

of their podcast. UM. I also

32:42

didn't say, but Pete Hernandez

32:44

sort of disappears from the historical record after

32:46

he was paroled and at some

32:48

point he clearly died, but it's

32:50

it's not it's not otherwise

32:52

clear exactly what happened to him after that. And

32:55

regardless of all that other stuff that

32:58

we just said, Branda's were since Texas

33:00

is UH an important

33:02

and groundbreaking Supreme Court case that is

33:05

just buried by

33:07

Brown versus Board coming UH

33:10

immediately after it. Basically like when I was looking

33:12

for artwork related to this,

33:15

there are so many pictures

33:17

from Brown versus Board and basically

33:20

none from this UM. It

33:22

just did it did not get the kind of

33:25

UH national attention and coverage

33:27

that Brown versus Board did, although people at

33:29

home in Texas were waiting

33:32

by the radio to find out what the Supreme

33:34

Court had decided like that,

33:36

people were as attached to finding out as

33:38

like any other civil rights issue that directly

33:41

pertains to a person, people will wait

33:44

for to find out what the Supreme Court is going to announce

33:46

on it, and that's definitely what happened in Texas with

33:49

this particular case. Do

33:51

you have a little bit of listener mail to finish this one

33:53

off? This is from Jonathan

33:56

uh and Jonathan wrote a note called Iman

33:58

Pasha's ethnicity, and Jonathan

34:00

says, I was listening to your two episodes on I Mean

34:03

Pasha and was surprised when you mentioned in part

34:05

two that he would have wanted to know about

34:07

one of the German African companies because

34:09

he was ethnically German. In part

34:11

one you say he was a German Jew, which would

34:13

make him ethnically Ashkenazi, not German.

34:16

Given the history of anti Semitic persecution,

34:19

even mentioned that he may have

34:21

faced anti Semitism in his education,

34:23

It's not obvious to me that he would be proud

34:25

of his German nationality and want

34:28

to know about its African endeavors.

34:30

Although I realized he may have assimilated

34:32

into German Christian society after

34:34

his mother remarried. Best Jonathan,

34:37

So thank you very much Jonathan for writing

34:39

this note. Um. It

34:41

is one a mystery

34:43

to me how I Mean Pasha conceived

34:46

of his own like

34:48

ethnic and national identity. UM

34:52

from like. I read a lot of

34:54

his UH papers and notes

34:56

and things like that in the context of

34:59

biographies that were compiled about him in the nineteenth

35:01

century. UM. And when he does

35:03

talk about it, it's usually in the context

35:05

of letters to his mom or his sister, where

35:07

he's like, Oh, don't worry, I know I changed

35:10

my name, but I'm still German. Like That's

35:12

that's pretty much the only time he

35:14

references it at all, UH,

35:18

at least that I found. He doesn't seem

35:20

to really think

35:22

on it a lot, at least not in a way

35:24

that he wrote down in his own UH

35:26

journals. And then when it comes to other

35:29

people's writing of him, most of

35:31

the people who were writing about him during

35:33

or shortly after his UM

35:36

his lifetime definitely had a motive.

35:39

Like when German people were writing

35:41

about him, they wrote about him as a German

35:43

and really tried to to diminish

35:47

the idea that he might have converted to Islam

35:50

UH. And then people who were Jewish,

35:52

like Jewish people writing about him tended to

35:54

more emphasize the fact that Um,

35:57

he had been Jewish from birtha

35:59

but then had can verted. Like it, it really

36:01

seems like it's it's hard to

36:03

get a sense of both how

36:06

he conceived of himself and

36:09

how other people conceived

36:11

of him, because a lot of the people who

36:13

wrote down things about him clearly

36:16

wanted to establish that he was one

36:18

thing or another. Um, when we really

36:20

don't have, uh,

36:22

a good sense of how he thought of himself. The family

36:25

did convert when he was five, and he

36:27

was baptized at five, So from that point

36:30

on, um, at least from

36:32

a like, from a practicing

36:34

religion standpoint, it's it seems

36:37

like they were Lutheran. So uh,

36:39

it was definitely not my intent to diminish

36:41

the fact um that the family

36:44

had been Jewish. But I also feel

36:46

like in a lot of ways he is a chameleon in

36:49

terms of his ethnicity

36:51

and his religion. And it's it's really

36:53

fuzzy how he thought about

36:56

all those things related to his own self, which is usually

36:58

how you and I try to focus

37:02

how people framed their own identity, and in this

37:04

case, it's, I mean, it's it's a

37:06

little unclear. Well, it is

37:08

unique in that he seemed to not be

37:11

terribly attached to any of those concepts

37:13

anyway. Um,

37:16

you know the fact that he like up and

37:18

left half of his life to start over again, and

37:20

didn't seem to have like any concerns

37:23

about I'm leaving behind all of the life

37:25

I have built. It's like, okay, now now it's a different

37:27

life. Like he didn't his

37:30

his sense of identity seemed to not be

37:32

uh attached to much

37:35

of any cultural concept if

37:38

he kind of kind of a morphous and to

37:40

shift a lot depending on where

37:42

he was and what he was doing at the time, and

37:45

people who encountered him at

37:47

various points would have vastly different

37:49

descriptions of how he came across

37:52

them on basically everything, aside

37:54

from the fact that he was very clean and meticulous

37:56

and thoughtful when it came

37:58

to things about how he presented himself

38:01

in terms of religion or or his nationality

38:03

or or anything like that like that, that really

38:06

shifts a lot depending on when people

38:08

encountered him aware. So that's

38:10

that. Thank you again for sending us that note. If

38:13

you would like to write to us about this or anither podcast,

38:16

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38:18

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38:20

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38:23

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38:26

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38:28

all of that. Uh, And then at

38:30

our website, which is missed in history dot com, you will

38:32

find a searchable archive of all the episodes

38:34

that we have ever done. There are show

38:36

notes for all of the episodes Holly and I have ever

38:39

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38:41

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38:43

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38:45

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38:51

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