COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT: Landmark Supreme Court decisions affecting Mexican-Americans to be examined, discussed at Vanderbilt event

As Political Salsa approaches it one-year birthday, it is being recognized as a place to get out information to the community. My publishing of announcements I receive is not an endorsement, but recognition of the need to pass on important information to create a more enlightened society.

The following announcement comes from the loc the local chapter of the American Constitution Society. I wish it well with its event:

The Nashville Chapter and the Vanderbilt University Law School Student Chapter of the American Constitution Society, Active Voice, the American GI Forum of the United States, Equal Justice Society, Connexion Americas, the Hispanic National Bar Foundation, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition, Latino Public Broadcasting, Public Broadcasting System and the Vanderbilt University Law School Chapter of the Latin American Law Students Association present:

A Special Screening of
"A Class Apart"

A documentary film chronicling the landmark 14th Amendment case,
Hernandez v. Texas

Post-screening discussion featuring:

A. Gregory Ramos
Member, North, Pursell, Ramos & Jameson, P.L.C.

Renata Soto
Executive Director of Conexion Americas


Thursday, April 16, 2009
5:30 p.m.
Vanderbilt University Law School
Renaissance Room
131 21st Avenue South
Nashville, TN

There is no cost to attend this event.

In the tiny town of Edna, Texas, in 1951, field hand Pete Hernandez murdered tenant farmer Joe Espinosa after exchanging words in a gritty cantina. From this unremarkable small-town murder emerged a landmark civil rights case that would forever change the lives and legal standing of tens of millions of Americans. "A Class Apart" tells the little-known story of a band of underdog Mexican-American lawyers who took their case, Hernandez v. Texas, all the way to the Supreme Court, where they successfully challenged Jim Crow-style discrimination against Mexican-Americans.

In the landmark case, defense lawyers forged a daring legal strategy, arguing that Mexican-Americans were "a class apart" and did not neatly fit into a legal structure that recognized only blacks and whites. As legal skirmishes unfolded, the lawyers emerged as brilliant, dedicated, humorous and at times terribly flawed men. This film dramatically interweaves the story of its central characters -- activists and lawyers, returning veterans and ordinary citizens, murderer, and victim -- within the broader history of Latinos in America during a time of extraordinary change.