LULAC History - All for One and One for All

The founding of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) on a cold, rainy day at Salon Obreros y Obreras, Corpus Christi, Texas, on February 17, 1929, marked an important milestone in the history of Hispanic American people in the United States, as LULAC has since evolved into one of the premiere organizations representing the civil rights of Hispanic Americans.

The League sprung from the rise of a Texan-Mexican middle class and resistance to racial discrimination. The strength of the organization has historically been in Texas, although it now enjoys widespread support across the country.

LULAC is a multi-issue organization because its founders were confronted with a plethora of the challenges: addressing political disfranchisement, racial segregation, and racial discrimination that plagued Latinos through the early twentieth century. Since its inception, LULAC has responded to deepening issues in American society affecting Hispanic Americans, including racism, lack of political representation and the growing Hispanic vote, the exclusion of Hispanics from juries, and the segregation of public schools, housing, and public accommodations. And though the organization would criticize American society for discriminating against Hispanic Americans, in particular, it encouraged reform rather than an attempt to restructure the political and economic construct of the country.

LULAC is set apart from its peer organizations in the Hispanic community by its political ideology. The founders of LULAC respected the precepts on which the United States was established, including the writings of the country’s founding fathers, and in an effort to imbue LULAC with the same spirit of purpose and opportunity that is the foundation of American democracy and free enterprise, they praised the nation in well-crafted written statements and speeches. This deference toward the American way of life was done largely, in the beginning, to placate the American public’s suspicion of the organization’s motives and to satisfy the personal beliefs and political preferences of the League’s membership. Officers and members of LULAC were required to take an oath swearing their loyalty to the government of the United States and their support of its Constitution and laws. The organization would adopt “America” as its official song, English as its official language, and “George Washington’s Prayer” as its official prayer. The League’s constitution was modeled after the U.S. Constitution.

LULAC’s early activists fought racism in a country that clearly rejected Mexican American people and culture. But the League’s members held on to their pride and sought to retain their Latino heritage while also advocating a grasp of the English language, loyalty to the United States, and participation in American civic and social activities, becoming advocates of bilingualism and biculturalism, as long as it was understood that Hispanic Americans’ primary loyalty was to the United States and its institutions.

The founders of LULAC were economic conservatives who viewed racial discrimination, not class domination, as the primary cause of Mexican Americans’ problems.

At the beginning of World War II, many of the League’s councils ceased to exist because their members volunteered or were drafted into the armed services. By the end of the war, LULAC councils were revived with the return of Hispanic veterans who had constituted the core of activists destined to renew the fight for equal civil rights. For a period of fifteen years post–World War II, the organization conducted a series of lawsuits, petitioned local governments, and mobilized the Latino vote to challenge discriminatory practices in America’s Southwest. Along with another organization, the American GI Forum, LULAC was at the forefront of civil rights for Hispanic Americans in the post–World War II years.

The League remains, to this day, unique from an organizational perspective, largely because it had two notable mobilization phases, the first in 1929 when LULAC was established, and the second in 1945 after World War II. While World War II decidedly interrupted the group’s work, and most of its councils disbanded, by war’s end Hispanic veterans saw the vast opportunities in a booming United States economy and wanted to participate in the American dream. The period from the end of the war through the late 1950s was a long period of political activism. LULAC’s crusade for civil rights moved forward in concert with a libertarian ethic and a strident antisocialist stand, arguing that discrimination provided an opportunity for propaganda to divide and decimate the country.7 Beginning in the late 1950s LULAC created a series of landmark programs for the Latino community that have themselves become important institutions for the advancement of Hispanics. These include the LULAC’s Little Schools of the 400 created in 1957 to teach basic English words to Hispanic preschoolers. This innovating program was the model used by President Johnson in the creation of the federal Headstart program.

In the 1960s LULAC councils built more than two dozen housing projects to provide affordable housing to low income families. LULAC and the American GI Forum created SER-Jobs for Progress, the premiere Hispanic employment training program in 1966. Today SER provides employment and training services through more than forty-three employment centers located throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. In 1968 LULAC created the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund to provide legal services to the Hispanic community. LULAC’s flag ship educational program, the LULAC National Educational Service Centers, was created in 1973 and now provides counseling services to more than 20,000 Hispanic students each year at seventeen regional centers located throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.

In the last decade, LULAC created the LULAC Corporate Alliance, an advisory board of Fortune 500 companies, to foster stronger partnerships between Corporate America and the Hispanic community and the LULAC Institute to develop and support community-service programs for its volunteer councils.

LULAC has grown dramatically from the small, tightly associated band of South Texas individuals who joined together in 1929 to form the organization. Now a nationwide organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with more than 700 LULAC councils operating throughout the United States and Puerto Rico, LULAC represents and serves Latinos from all nationalities and backgrounds. LULAC councils award millions of dollars in scholarships to Hispanic students each year, organize citizenship and voter registration drives, conduct thousands of volunteer-based service programs for disadvantaged Latinos, and actively empower the Hispanic community at the local, state and national levels. LULAC, and the family of organizations it helped create, is a tremendous force for advancing the education, employment, housing, health, political empowerment, and civil rights of Hispanic Americans. With a vibrant and growing membership, unparalleled grassroots outreach, innovative model programs, and dynamic leadership, LULAC’s best days are still to come.

LULAC was one of the first national organizations to place emphasis on the role of women. Its first council #9 was created on February 22, 1934, in El Paso, Texas. By 1938, the league had created the first women's national office in Mrs. Ester Machuca as Ladies Organizer General.

The growth of the role of women in LULAC has never stopped. In 1981, the league's first National Vice-President for Women was elected. Programs for women are carried out at the local level through the efforts of state coordinators for women. One of the league's most successful programs has been two-day conferences on education and employment held in various states, and a national conference "Adelante Mujer Hispana."

Click here to see Mujeres de LULAC: A History of Accomplishments .

1929-1930 Ben Garza, Corpus Christi, Texas
1930-1931 Alonso S. Perales, San Antonio, Texas
1931-1932 Manuel C. Gonzalez, San Antonio, Texas
1932-1933 J.T. Canales, Brownsville, Texas
1933-1934 Mauro M. Machado, San Antonio, Texas
1934-1935 Ermilo Lozano, San Antonio, Texas
1935-1936 James Tafolla, Jr., San Antonio, Texas
1936-1937 Frank J. Galvan, El Paso, Texas
1937-1938 Ramon Longoria, McAllen, Texas
1938-1939 Filemon T. Martinez, Albuquerque, New Mexico
1939-1940 Ezequiel Salinas, Laredo, Texas
1940-1941 Antonio M. Fernandez, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1941-1942 George I. Sanchez, Austin, Texas
1942-1943 Ben Osuna, Albuquerque, New Mexico
1944-1945 William Flores, El Paso, Texas
1945-1947 Arnulfo Zamora, Laredo, Texas
1947-1948 Jose Maldonado, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1948-1950 Raoul Cortez, San Antonio, Texas
1950-1952 George J. Garza, Laredo, Texas
1952-1953 John J. Herrera, Houston, Texas
1953-1954 Alberto Almendariz
1954-1955 Frank Pinedo, Houston, Texas
1955-1956 Oscar M. Laurel
1956-1960 Felix Tijerina, Houston, Texas
1960-1961 Hector Godinez, Seattle, Washington
1961-1963 Frank Valdez
1963-1964 Paul Andow
1964-1965 William Bonilla, Corpus Christi, Texas
1965-1967 Alfred Hernandez, Houston, Texas
1967-1969 Roberto Ornelas
1969-1970 Alfred Hernandez, Houston, Texas
1970-1971 Paul Garza, Jr., Laredo, Texas
1971-1973 Pete Villa
1973-1975 Joseph Benites, Phoenix, Arizona
1975-1977 Manuel Gonzalez, Waco, Texas
1977-1978 Edwardo Morga, California
1978-1979 Eduardo Pena, Washington, D.C.
1979-1981 Ruben Bonilla Jr., Corpus Christi, Texas
1981-1983 Tony Bonilla, Corpus Christi, Texas
1983-1985 Mario Obledo, Sacramento, California
1985-1987 Oscar Moran, San Antonio, Texas
1987-1990 Jose Garcia DeLara, San Antonio, Texas
1990-1994 Jose Velez, Las Vegas, Nevada
1994-1998 Belen Robles, El Paso, Texas
1998-2002 Enrique Dovalina, Houston, Texas
2002-2006 Hector Flores, Dallas, Texas
2006-today Rosa Rosales, San Antonio, Texas

What follows are some of the milestones accomplished by LULAC in its history. These milestones offered many difficult struggles, at times – life threatening, that LULAC and its members endured to get equality in justice, employment, housing, health care, and education for all Hispanics. 

1929
Feb. 17, 1929: The League of United Latin American Citizens is formed in Corpus Christi, Texas.

1930
Desegregated hundreds of public places throughout Texas, such as barber shops, beauty shops, swimming pools, restrooms, water drinking fountains, public dinning places, and hotels.

1931
Provided the organization and financial base for the Salvatierra vs. Del Rio Independent School District case, the first class action lawsuit against segregated "Mexican Schools" in Texas.

1933
Formed a committee in San Antonio which led to the formation of the Liga Defensa Pro-Escolar, later known as the "School Improvement League" that fought for better schools and better education.  

1936
Pressured the U.S. Census Bureau to reclassify persons of Mexican descent from the designation of "Mexican" to "White". The 1940 census count reflected the change.

1940
Played a major role in filing discrimination cases for the Federal Employment Practices Commission, the first federal civil rights agency. 

1945
Successfully sued to integrate the Orange County school system, that had been segregated on the grounds that Mexican children were “more poorly clothed and mentally inferior to white children”.

1946
In Santa Ana, California, filed the "Mendez vs. Westminster Lawsuit" which ended 100 years of segregation in California's public schools and becomes a key precedent for Brown vs. Board of Education.  

1947
Protested the non-burial of veteran Felix Longoria of Three Rivers, Texas, and assisted in his burial at the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.  

1948
LULAC attorneys filed the "Delgado vs. Bastrop I.S.D. Lawsuit" which ended the segregation of Mexican American children in Texas.

1950
LULAC and the American G.I. Forum filed fifteen school desegregation lawsuits in Texas.

1954
LULAC attorneys took the "Hernandez vs. The State of Texas Lawsuit Case" to the Supreme Court, winning the right for Mexican Americans to serve on juries.

1957
Council 60 in Houston, Texas, piloted the "Little School of the 400" project, a pre-school program dedicated to teaching 400 basic English words to Spanish speaking pre-school children.

1960
LULAC Council 60 in Houston, Texas, worked to transform the Little School of the 400 to "Project Headstart" under the Lyndon B. Johnson administration.

1965
LULAC Council 60 in Houston, Texas, piloted a job placement center which led to the federally funded of SER - Jobs for Progress.

1966
LULAC marched with and financially supported the United Farm Workers in their struggle for minimum wages and dignity.

1966
LULAC and the American G.I. Forum joined forces to organize SER - Jobs for Progress, now the largest and the most successful work power program in the nation.

1968
LULAC created the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF). The legal arm of the Latino community.

1969
LULAC reached the 2,000 household unit mark which provides housing to low income persons.

1970
LULAC filed the "Cisneros vs. Corpus School District Lawsuit" which defines Hispanic Americans as a minoritie for the first time.

1973
LULAC in San Francisco, California, piloted a project known as the LULAC Educational Service Center, in order to advance the educational needs of Hispanic students of that area.

1973
LULAC formed the "LULAC National Educational Service Centers, Inc," (LNESC) modeled after the successful project in San Francisco, California to provide educational services to Hispanic students. Today LNESC serves more than 20000 students a year through its network of 16 educational centers.

1975
LULAC formed the "LULAC National Scholarship Fund" in order to centralize its scholarships gifts which dated back to 1932.

1980
LULAC filed numerous lawsuits with MALDEF and the Southwest Voter Education Project calling for single member districts.

1980
LULAC fought to get better coverage of Latinos in the media.

1986
LULAC took the lead in defining a Mexican American position in the Immigration and Reform Act of 1986.

1986
LULAC lobbied the Texas Senate subcommittee holding hearings on English Only and was successful in stopping the resolution from coming out of the committee.

1987
LULAC filed the “LULAC vs INS” class action lawsuit to force INS to process elegible amnesty applicants.

1989
LULAC filed the "LULAC vs. Mattox Lawsuit" which challenged the selection of judges throughout urban Texas.

1990
LULAC filed the "LULAC vs. Clements Lawsuit" which challenged the allocation of funds to Texas Universities.

1994
LULAC elected the first woman president, Belen Robles.

1995
LULAC established the “Commitment with America” to better serve Hispanic American communities elected the first woman president, Belen Robles.

1996
LULAC establishes the LULAC Institute to provide model volunteer programs for Latino communities.

1998
LULAC filed a brief in support of sampling techniques for the 2000 census.

2000
LULAC issues the “LULAC Challenge” to candidates for elective office in order to establish their positions on the top ten issues of concern for Hispanic Americans.

2003
LULAC attorneys settle “LULAC vs. INS” class action lawsuit that provides an avenue for 100,000 immigrants to become permanent legal residents.

2004
LULAC announces the LULAC Leadership Initiative to revitalize Hispanic neighborhoods from within by creating innovative grass roots programs in over 700 Hispanic communities served by LULAC Councils.