League of United Latin American Citizens
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Founded | 1929 |
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| Headquarters | Washington, DC |
| Staff | Rosa Rosales, President; Brent A. Wilkes, LULAC National Executive Director |
| Area served | United States, Puerto Rico |
| Focus | Civil rights organization |
| Volunteers | 115,000 (members) |
| Members | 115,000 |
| Slogan | "All for One, One for All" |
| Website | http://www.lulac.org |
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is a political advocacy group for Latinos in the United States. Founded in 1929 in Corpus Christi, Texas, LULAC is the nation's oldest Hispanic advocacy organization. According to its website, LULAC has "approximately 115,000 members throughout the United States and Puerto Rico," which it claims also makes it the nation's largest Hispanic organization. The current president is Rosa Rosales. The immediate past president is Hector M. Flores.[1]
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[edit] History
LULAC was the lead plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court case Hernandez v. Texas. In its landmark decision, the Warren court decided that Mexican Americans were a distinct ethnic group and were thus guaranteed equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[1]
According to the LULAC website,
The mission of LULAC is to advance the economic condition, educational attainment, political influence, health and civil rights of Hispanic Americans through community-based programs operating at more than 700 LULAC councils nationwide. The organization involves and serves all Hispanic nationality groups.[2]
Ezequiel D. Salinas was a national LULAC president, the first person from heavily Hispanic Laredo, Texas, to head the organization. During the 1940s and 1950s, he worked to establish LULAC chapters in parts of Texas where none had previously existed. He was an early advocate of civil rights for Mexican Americans. LULAC developed, the "Little School of the 400," the model for "Head Start.[3]
[edit] Subsidiaries
The LULAC National Educational Service Centers (LNESC) is a Non-Profit educational advancement organization which helps students with direct-service programs and sholarship assistance.
[edit] See also
- Latino
- NALEO
- NCLR
- American GI Forum
- SVREP
- National Immigration Forum
- Mendez v. Westminster
- Hispanic Federation
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ a b Craig Kaplowitz, LULAC: Mexican Americans and National Policy (Texas A&M University Press, 2005). ISBN 978-1585443888
- ^ "LULAC Website". http://www.lulac.org. Retrieved on 2009-03-24.
- ^ Benjamin Marquez, LULAC: The Evolution of a Mexican American Political Organization (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993)
