(NAME-MCE) The Story of Hernandez v. Texas on PBS Tonight

[Anselmo Villanueva]

*The Story of Hernandez v. Texas;
A Milestone for Justice for Latinos

Watch tonight (9:00 p.m. EST) on your local Public Broadcasting Station
(PBS)*
*FEBRUARY 23, 2009* - Tonight, the epic battle of one of the greatest legal
achievements of the 20th century will be depicted on PBS. "A Class Apart"
tells the story of the groundbreaking Hernandez v. Texas case, starting in
Edna, Texas and going all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954.  Argued
weeks before the internationally famous Brown v. Board of Education case but
much less known, the unanimous Hernandez decision by the U.S. Supreme Court
established that Mexican Americans in Texas, while previously (and arguably)
treated as "white" under the law were in reality segregated as a class apart
from the white mainstream and subject to discrimination, mistreatment and
disregard by Texas law, society, governmental institutions and custom.

That Mexican American lawyers could reach the U.S. Supreme Court and argue
victoriously to the Court on a question of basic civil rights was unheard of
at the time.  "A Class Apart" chronicles the historic victory and includes
Hernandez v. Texas scholar, University of Houston Law Professor (and MALDEF
Board member) Michael Olivas.

Today at MALDEF, the law firm of the Latino community, we continue to
protect the rights of Latinos and extend our affirmative agenda for
immigrant rights, voting rights, education, employment and related issues.
We stand on the shoulders of lawyers like those who represented the rights
of Latinos at the United States Supreme Court in Hernandez v. Texas and the
men and women in the community who supported them.  MALDEF also owes its
institutional origins to lawyers like James DeAnda, Gus Garcia, Carlos
Cadena and Chris Alderete and a generation of attorneys and community
leaders who made great strides forward for Mexican Americans in Texas and
the Southwest after World War II.

Please join us in saluting those who blazed that trail and are featured in
tonight's PBS American Experience, "A Class Apart."  For more information,
please see www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience<http://simplesend.com/simple/t.asp?S=225&ID=24522&NL=2566&N=32435&SI=2286834&URL=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience>
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MALDEF
634 S. Spring Street
Los Angeles, CA 90014
(213) 629-2512

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