Event to honor 1948 Bastrop court case ending educational discrimination in Texas

The Bastrop County Historical Commission and the Bastrop school district on Saturday will host a tribute to the historic court case that helped end educational discrimination against Hispanic students in Texas.

The free event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Jerry Faye Wilhelm Center for the Performing Arts will commemorate the landmark decision in a 1948 federal case, Minerva Delgado vs. Bastrop Independent School District, that successfully challenged the segregation of Hispanic students from white students in five Texas public school districts, including Bastrop.

The court case was named for Mina Ward School student Minerva Delgado, whose grandparents, Samuel and Nemesia, were rejected by school officials when they sought in 1947 to enroll Minerva in the all-white public school.

Now Minerva Delgado Lopez, a Houston resident, she will be a special guest for the event. Other former students of the Mina Ward School and Elgin Mexican School will be in attendance.

Students from the Bastrop school district’s Colorado River Collegiate Academy will present a play centered around the court case, “The Courageous Challenge and a Transformational Ruling,” written by local historian and former Mayor Ken Kesselus.

Former Texas State Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos will give a talk “The Challenge Ahead.”  Gene Preuss, a history professor at the University of Houston-Downtown, will speak on the cultural and legal settings in Texas prior to the 1948 case.

The Bastrop High School Band and Naval Junior ROTC also will participate. There also will be performances by folklorico dancers and mariachi musicians.

Linda Quiroz will present a video, “Achievements of Mexicans and Other Latinos Since the Delgado Ruling.”

“I think it’s very important for the community to come out to this event because it shows a time when education and other things were not as always easy to obtain for Hispanics as they are now," said Quiroz, a Bastrop resident with children who attended Bastrop schools.

"We, as Hispanics, have the freedom now to attend a quality school and shoot for the stars when it comes to education,” Quiroz said. “Back then, it was not only the Hispanic culture and race that was limited. African Americans and other races were limited in their ability to get a quality education. While the experiences between these groups weren’t exactly the same, there were a lot of similarities and it’s good for other people to hear first-hand what the Hispanics went through.”

A Texas Historical Commission plaque on Nort Main Street honoring the former Mina Ward School and the court case reads: “In 1947, Samuel and Nemesia García asked school officials to let their granddaughter attend the Anglo American school, but the request was denied. On Nov. 17, 1947, on behalf of 20 students in four local school districts, San Antonio attorney Gustavo (Gus) C. Garcia, supported by University of Texas professor George I. Sanchez and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), filed a class action lawsuit titled Minerva Delgado, et al. vs. Bastrop Independent School District of Bastrop County, et al. The complaint accused the schools of depriving children of equal educational opportunities.

"At the hearing on Jun. 15, 1948, federal judge Ben H. Rice issued a summary judgment, ruling the segregation of children of ‘Mexican or other Latin American descent’ was ‘arbitrary and discriminatory and in violation of plaintiff’s constitutional rights as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.’ The Mina Ward School closed, but statewide the decision preserved segregation of African American students and any first graders who did not exhibit English-language proficiency. The school and the Delgado v. Bastrop case are remembered for their significant contributions to the Civil Rights movement and for providing greater opportunities for generations of Texans.”

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Event honors 1948 Bastrop court case ending educational discrimination