LULAC and Veterans Organize for Civil Rights in Tempe and Phoenix, 1940-1947

Christine Marin

The men and women of the «Mexican American generation» as described by historian Mario T. Garcia are those who were born and raised in the United States, who experienced the Great Depression, World War II, and the Korean Conflict, and who became political and community leaders. Garcia suggests that their politics reflected the twin objectives of ethnic and cultural retention together with total integration within the European American society¹. Arizona's Mexican American generation saw the need to defend their rights as Americans, and to eliminate the discriminatory behavior and acts that kept them within ethnic boundaries in the 1940s. In Tempe and Phoenix, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), and the American Legion Thunderbird Post 41 were its tools for tearing down those boundaries, and for bringing about socio-economic and political changes. The League of United Latin American Citizens was an organization that brought positive, marked by improvement in class status for a significant number of Mexican Americans in Arizona as well as in other states.

LULAC was established in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1929, primarily by middle-class Mexican Americans. Throughout its history, LULAC has been committed to the concept of American patriotism, its membership seeking to become fully integrated into the American mainstream². LULAC members in Texas focused their early efforts on eradicating discrimination Mexicans encountered, and which they saw as the primary reason why Mexicans were at the bottom of the socio-economic scale.

The focus of the LULAC membership in Texas was on matters relating to educational reform and assimilation into the Euro-American mainstream society. A major emphasis was placed on the acquisition of American citizenship and in learning English; this was to ensure that Mexican Americans would be able to retain their rights as American citizens. Surely, they believed, that as long as they were bona-fide Americans, which they proved by their major participation in the Allies victory in World War II, neither they nor their families would be subjected to second-class citizenship and inferior schools. Assimilation was their answer, and it was the only solution to a perceived inferiority. In an effort to increase and to augment the geographical areas of LULAC, members reactivated and initiated LULAC councils outside of Texas.

Placida Garcia Smith, director of the Friendly House, an Americanization center for Mexican immigrants established in Phoenix in 1921, and her friend, journalist Maria A. Garcia founded the Phoenix LULAC Council 110, the first council formed in Phoenix, in September 1940³.

The two women knew about the impoverished living conditions of Mexican immigrants in Phoenix, and believed that many became easy targets of derision and discrimination. Phoenix historian Bradford Luckingham explains how the white majority that dominated Phoenix discriminated against Mexicans and Mexican Americans, and that one means of doing this was through segregationist policies. For example, Mexican children attended segregated schools, swam during «Mexican day» at municipal swimming pools, and danced during a «Mexican night» at popular dance halls. Many restaurant, hotel, bar, and theater owners posted signs that flatly stated, «No Mexicans Allowed»⁴.

In her work at the Friendly House, Smith became involved in Depression-era relief efforts, distributing food provided by the local Red Cross to Mexican and Mexican American families in need. As the economic crisis continued to grow, and more and more people of every race were losing their jobs, Smith soon realized that the Friendly House could not continue to assist the impoverished Mexicans. The Maricopa County government saw the repatriation of Mexican nationals as a way to ease the effects of a persistent economic crisis: it would decrease expenditures of relief agencies, and lessen competition for scarce jobs. Repatriating Mexicans was common in every state where they lived in significant numbers. The Friendly House participated in such efforts, with Smith coordinating the repatriation of Mexican families⁵. She learned about the work of LULAC in Texas from mutual friends in Denver, who were familiar with the organization. At the same time, Garcia read about LULAC's efforts to stop discrimination against Mexicans in San Antonio. The women became convinced that they could raise the standard of living of underprivileged Mexican families by forming a LULAC council in Phoenix. Garcia wrote to a representative of the San Antonio LULAC council, indicating their interest in establishing one in Phoenix. Texas LULAC's Supreme President Antonio Fernández and other members of the San Antonio group came to Phoenix to meet with Smith, Garcia, and Gabriel F. Peralta, a co-owner of the Peralta Brothers wholesale grocery store and a volunteer at the Friendly House. As a result, LULAC Council 110 was established, and Placida Garcia Smith served as its first president⁶. Maria Garcia established and headed the Discrimination Committee in order to «get rid of the terrible discrimination against Mexican Americans in Phoenix»⁷. Gabriel F. Peralta served as vice-president, and Daniel Grijalva as treasurer. Grijalva worked as a teacher at Lowell Elementary School in south Phoenix and also volunteered at Friendly House. He served as leader of its Boy Scout troop in 1938, the first Mexican American troop in south Phoenix⁸. His wife, Elizabeth Munoz Grijalva, was a member of Los Conquistadores at Arizona State Teachers College in Tempe, a student organization co-founded by her older brother, Rosalio, in 1937, and in which her sisters Rebecca and Lucinda assumed leadership roles from 1937 to 1941⁹.

LULAC Council 110 held its first meetings at the Friendly House. Activities were linked with those of the Friendly House, mainly because of Smith's ties there. The settlement house had already established itself as an important conduit for providing social services and information to the Mexican and Mexican American community in south Phoenix¹⁰. LULACers saw themselves as the defenders of social justice in their battles against ethnic discrimination and the mistreatment. By educating community members about their rights as citizens and as Americans, Smith and her compatriots believed they could al so help in the economic advancement of Mexican Americans, and offer hope for a better life. In an effort to encourage American citizenship, Council 110 co-sponsored with the Friendly House a series of «American Citizenship» lectures on citizens rights and responsibilities. State legislators from Phoenix and Tucson, James «Jimmy» Carreon and Frank Robles, discussed bills and laws under consideration in the Arizona Legislature¹¹.

The División Juvenil Progresivo, Pedro Guerrero's organization in Mesa, and Council 110 also co-sponsored meetings at the Friendly House, where young boys in the program gave presentations on the importance of learning and speaking English¹². In mid-August 1941, LULAC's state convention was held at the Friendly House, drawing LULAC delegates from the Arizona mining towns of Clifton, Superior, Globe, and Miami¹³. This convention marked the first time that Mexican Americans from mining town communities shared their concerns about political issues with their compatriots in an urban setting. Frank Chavez, of LULAC Council 111 in Miami, recalls sharing concerns with the Phoenix council over the price of copper in the event of a world war, and the impact a war would have on the Mexican American labor force and on their communities¹⁴.

In 1942, Phoenix Council 110 rallied the support of all LULAC councils and the state s entire LULAC membership in a segregation issue in Tempe that illustrates the ethnic tension between Mexican Americans and European Americans in Phoenix and Tempe. At issue was the exclusion of Mexicans and Mexican Americans from Tempe's public swimming pool and recreation center, known as Tempe Beach. The pool and recreational park was built on land donated to the growing town by founder Charles Trumbull Hayden.

In 1921, Hayden encouraged several business associates to become shareholders and invest in the development of a park and recreational center to be built along the Salt River near the Hayden Flour Mill on the north side of present-day Mill Avenue and the Tempe Bridge¹⁵. The investors included Dr. Reginald James Henry Stroud. Because of his interest in athletics and sports, Stroud pushed the idea of building a swimming pool for the community¹⁶. Soon, Stroud chaired a committee to oversee the building of the swimming pool, insisting that the new pool meet the standards of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). Tempe Beach, with its Olympic-size swimming pool, opened in July of 1923, and in time became a «brilliant star in Tempe's crown, attracting young people and families from all over Arizona... State championship aquatic meets were held nearly every year at the pool, and its surrounding park was the community's pride»¹⁷. By the early 1930s, Stroud was the AAU Commissioner for Arizona, and he continued in this position for fifteen years. Stroud developed a reputation for attracting outstanding athletes to Tempe Beach, but he was also known for his dislike of Mexicans and Mexican Americans.

With its goal of fostering economic development in the town, the Tempe Chamber of Commerce ensured that Tempe Beach offer nothing but the best facilities for recreation and socialization for young people and families from throughout the state. During the Depression, for example, city and chamber officials received approximately $30,000 in Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds for maintenance and improvement projects at Tempe Beach. The improvements included the installation of a concrete trough around the edge of the swimming pool in order to improve sanitation¹⁸. If Tempe's officials appeared concerned over the health of its citizens to improve sanitation at Tempe Beach, they weren't so concerned for the welfare of its Mexican and Mexican American citizens, whose municipal taxes helped pay for the maintenance of the city-owned swimming pool.

The Tempe Beach facilities, including the swimming pool and the recreational park, were off-limits to Mexicans and Mexican Americans; since 1923, the City maintained and enforced an unwritten segregation policy against them¹⁹. This «No Mexicans Allowed» policy, sanctioned by the City of Tempe, and enforced by the Tempe Chamber of Commerce, remained in effect and stayed unchallenged by Mexican Americans until 1942, when LULAC Council 110 brought the policy into question, and again in 1946, when Mexican American veterans from Phoenix and Tempe debated with the Tempe city officials over the segregation issue.

At its January 1942 meeting, the Tempe Chamber of Commerce appointed the Tempe Beach Committee to oversee and manage the activities, maintenance, and food and soft drink concessions for the recreational park and swimming pool. Stroud controlled the management of the swimming pool, a responsibility he had since 1923²⁰.

The committee agreed to open the 1942 Tempe Beach season in April, and close it in September²¹.

In early June, two young Mexican American women and their dates, Mexican pilots in training at Williams Air base near Tempe, were denied entrance to Tempe Beach facilities and told to leave the premises²². The two Mexican cadets were among those from Latin American countries, such as Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico and Nicaragua, undergoing field and air training at nearby facilities. Mexican and Mexican Americans from Phoenix, Mesa, Glendale and Tempe frequently hosted social gatherings and parties for these air cadets and welcomed them into their homes. LULAC Council 110 honored them at community gatherings, and believed that the cadets symbolized President Roosevelt's «Good Neighbor Policy» and Latin America's friendship and support of the United States in wartime²³.

Maria A. Garcia, the head of the Phoenix Discrimination Committee for Council 110, was told about the incident at Tempe Beach. She discussed the event with Placida Garcia Smith, and they agreed to share the matter with other members of LULAC Council 110. They decided that Garcia's committee should investigate the incident, and report its findings to the group so that they could bring up the matter at the LULAC annual convention, later that month (June 1942) in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Garcia and her committee met with W. W. Cole, the Mayor of Tempe, to state the council's displeasure with the city's refusal to allow Mexican and Mexican Americans into Tempe Beach, and their disappointment over the shabby treatment of the young Mexican American women and the air cadets from Mexico. Mayor Cole told Garcia that the city did not manage the Tempe Beach, and that the facilities were leased to the Tempe Chamber of Commerce, which established and regulated its own policies. Cole advised Garcia to talk to the Chamber about the matter because the city had no control over the policies enforced there. Garcia and her committee then approached Max Connolly, president of the Tempe Chamber of Commerce, who told them that any changes in policy had to first be considered by the Chamber's board, and that he could not, nor would not, implement changes without its counsel and consent. He added that the Tempe Beach Committee, headed by Stroud, also had to agree to any policy changes.

Garcia informed Connolly that her committee would report her discussion with him and with Mayor Cole to the national LULAC membership at their upcoming convention in Albuquerque. She also expressed her disappointment and dismay over the treatment of the Mexican air cadets who were in the United States as America's allies in a war against fascism, and who were honoring the intent of the principles behind President Roosevelt's «Good Neighbor Policy». Her sincere expressions of Americanism and good will, however, failed to impress Connolly²⁴.

New Mexico Senator Dennis Chavez was one of the attendees at the national LULAC conference in Albuquerque. He was informed by Council 110 of the Tempe Beach incident, and about a Mexican American soldier's being refused service at a drug store in Morenci, a copper mining community located near the Arizona-New Mexico border. In his June 14 speech at LULAC's dedication ceremony of the Barelas Community Center near Albuquerque, Chavez referred to the ill treatment of the soldier who, while in Army uniform, was «denied the privilege of purchasing a soft drink in a drug store in Morenci» as reasons to lash out against «un-American, cowardly, despicable racial intolerance» aimed at Mexican Americans²⁵. Chavez told the audience that LULAC members had a responsibility to bring examples of discrimination in their communities to the attention of their elected representatives, and to demand fair play and justice for Mexican Americans because they had the «backing of the entire nation in its will to promote friendly relations in Latin America»²⁶. Although Senator Chavez did not specifically refer to the Tempe Beach incident in his speech, the LULACers of Council 110 were inspired by him and vowed to continue to challenge the «No Mexicans Allowed» policy at home. They sought and obtained legal affidavits from the two young women, who related the events at Tempe Beach. It s possible the documents were presented to Maria Garcia's husband, Albert, the assistant attorney general for Arizona²⁷.

Perhaps feeling pressure from Council 110 about the issue, the Tempe Beach committee announced in August that it had set aside $500 «for the purpose of constructing a second swimming pool for the exclusive us e of the citizens of Mexican extraction» The city council was asked to donate land for the new pool²⁸. Building a separate pool for use by the Mexicans and Mexican Americans of Tempe was not the solution to end prejudice and discrimination against them. Maintaining a separate city pool in wartime was not a feasible idea. The city of Tempe, in fact, would not authorize the use of restricted war materials to build another pool. Historian Scott Solliday found that segregation remained in effect until 1943, when a federal court ruled that the segregation of Mexican and Mexican Americans at Tempe Beach was unconstitutional²⁹.

The Tempe Beach committee believed that the federal ruling had no bearing over swimming pool regulations enforced by a citizens committee. After all, they reasoned, no city laws nor ordinances had been violated or broken. While the discrimination against Mexicans and Mexican Americans was unconstitutional in spirit, and wrong morally, it was apparently not unlawful because there were no written city laws nor city codes declaring Tempe Beach to be segregated and not open to Mexicans and Mexican Americans.

In late November 1944, Rev. Bernard Gordon, the priest at the Tempe Catholic Church who was sympathetic to the feelings of his Mexican and Mexican American parishioners, led a drive on their behalf to raise funds to build a swimming pool somewhere in Tempe. The drive, however, proved unsuccessful, and a new swimming pool was never built³⁰.

Although LULAC Council 110 tried to make changes at Tempe Beach, the twenty-three year old «No Mexicans Allowed» policy there remained in effect until 1946, when Mexican American veterans from Tempe and Phoenix united to eliminate the policy once and for all. At the forefront in their effort was the American Legion Thunderbird Post 41 of Phoenix, commanded by Navy veteran, Ray Martinez.

Upon discharge from the Navy in 1945, Martinez returned to his south Phoenix neighborhood determined to improve conditions for Mexican Americans and their families. He renewed friendships with Frank «Pippa» Fuentes, Pete Martinez, Carlos Ontiveros and other veterans who were in the stages of developing a new American Legion post and establishing a charter. They invited Martinez to join them.

The group held meetings in 1946 at La Poblanita Café on Jefferson Street, which was owned and managed by Fuentes and his wife, Josefina. At his first meeting, Martinez participated in the on-going discussions about the poverty in their neighborhoods, and about the discrimination their families and others endured³¹. «Most of us didn't know much about Legion programs», Martinez said. «We talked about how to organize because there was a lot of discrimination against Mexicans and we thought it was time to start fighting back... Discrimination [was] the number one issue. We wanted a piece of the pie, too»³².

Thunderbird Post 41's first attack against discrimination centered around the «No Mexicans Allowed» policy at Tempe Beach. Tempe veterans Danny Rodriguez, Raymond Terminal, and Genaro Martinez told Frank Fuentes and Ray Martinez about the history of Tempe Beach and the events surrounding its discriminatory policy, and asked for their assistance in helping them eliminate it. After much discussion, Post 41 members agreed to help their fellow veterans in Tempe. All agreed, however, that Post 41's involvement in the effort would not be a visible one, for fear that its members would be seen as «outsiders» from Phoenix fighting a Tempe issue, and thus lose support for their cause.

The Mexican American veterans established a three-part strategy: 1) meet with each member of the Tempe Chamber of Commerce to explain veterans concerns over the «No Mexicans Allowed» policy at Tempe Beach; 2) convince them it was wrong; and 3) join the Chamber and debate the segregation issue³³. In time, the veterans gained the confidence and the friendships of important Tempe businessmen in city and Chamber politics. Men like the Carr brothers; the Curry twins; and also Dwight «Red» Harkins, a local theater owner, favored the integration of Tempe Beach³⁴. Martinez also learned that Chamber members Harold Nevitt, a service station owner, and Reginald J. H. Stroud, who both were vehemently opposed to integration, would never be convinced otherwise. In an interview with historian Jean Reynolds, Martinez recounts a story he heard about a heated discussion between Stroud and Harkins at a Chamber meeting:

Martinez: «Dr. Stroud said: "If you allow these Mexicans in there, they're gonna tear the damn place up! We won't be able to keep up with the damage!" And Dwight "Red" Harkins said: "Well, how much damage do you think they ll make? And Dr. Stroud said, At least ten thousand dollars worth!" So, I heard that Dwight "Red" Harkins wrote him out a check for the ten thousand dollars and said: "Look. Here's a check. I'm going to give it to you. If they tear up the place, you can go ahead and cash my check and pay for the damages. But only for damages for the place". They say that after Dr. Stroud died and they were processing his paper work, they found that ten thousand dollar check. It was still there»³⁵.

Students at Arizona State College also learned about the discussions concerning the integration of Tempe Beach from Dr. Irma Wilson, advisor to the student organization, Los Conquistadores. Barbara Crumpler, president of the college's Beta Phi chapter of Kappa Delta Pi, the National Honor Society in Education, wrote a letter in May 1946 to the Tempe Beach Committee expressing her organization's concern:

In the interests of true democracy, we urge that admission to the Tempe Beach swimming pool be on the basis of cleanliness rather than on racial differences. Representing as you do the citizens of Tempe, we feel that you cannot help recognizing the injustice of the present un-American practice of refusing to admit clean and decent citizens of Mexican heritage³⁶.

In the weeks prior to the May 1946 Tempe Chamber of Commerce meeting to vote on the integration issue, Tempe veterans Ramón Padilla and Genaro Martinez made it known to chamber members that they wanted to join their membership. They lobbied members for their «yes» votes to admit them in May. That was the same month in which the chamber would vote on the segregation issue. Prior to the meeting, however, Dwight «Red» Harkins called Ray Martinez to tell him that he had $2500 to give him in order to hire a lawyer to file a desegregation lawsuit against the chamber in case it voted against the integration of Tempe Beach³⁷. The money, however, was not needed. On May 21, 1946, by a vote of 23 to 6, the Tempe Chamber of Commerce agreed to drop its «No Mexicans Allowed» policy, stating «admission to Tempe Beach swimming pool is accorded to local Americans of Mexican descent», and agreed to admit new members Genaro Martinez, Danny Rodriguez, and Ramón Padilla as chamber members³⁸. The veterans from Tempe and Phoenix had won. Or so they thought.

Although the Tempe Beach policy was changed, the Chamber decided to open the swimming pool «on a limited basis, the qualification to be decided by the beach committee, possibly with restrictions of its use to residents of Tempe only». There was more discussion over the decision. At issue was the role of the Tempe Beach committee, which still had control over who was «qualified» to be admitted into the swimming pool. Finally, the chamber agreed to vote on the issue again. This time, a split vote favored opening the pool to all citizens, with no restrictions. After that vote, the Tempe Beach facilities , including the swimming pool, were open to all races³⁹. The Mexican American veterans from Tempe and American Legion Thunderbird Post 41 won their battle to desegregate Tempe Beach three years after the federal court ruling had outlawed the segregation there; and twenty-three years after its implementation.

For the veterans of Thunderbird Post 41, however, the issue of segregation was not over, at least not in Phoenix. The issue there was over segregated housing for veterans and their families. At stake was the welfare and safety of the veterans and their families, and not whether they could swim in a public swimming pool.

When veterans returned home after the war, the housing crunch in Phoenix forced the local government to provide emergency housing. Phoenix city officials selected three sites for the construction of at least 150 emergency family units near the downtown area, housing meant to be segregated by race and ethnicity: one site for European Americans; one for Mexican Americans; and the third for African American veterans⁴⁰. While European American families were allocated housing at an abandoned Civilian Conservation Corps camp, the city wanted to place the unit for Mexican Americans in a neglected area that was the site of «an old city dump», located at 5th Street and Henshaw Road (known today as Buckeye Road)⁴¹. The Mexican American veterans rejected this notion, despite the city council's promise that it would «cover the dump; landscape it, and make it look pretty»⁴². Ray Martinez and Post 41 members argued before the city council against the segregation concept, and demanded that the Mexican American housing unit be built as an integrated unit on the same ten acres of land where the European Americans unit was to be located, near 809 North 19th Street⁴³.

European American property owners living in this same area appealed to city officials to keep the housing units segregated. To strengthen their cause, they joined with European American veterans to form the Garfield Property Owners Protective Association. This group, led by businessman Eddie Poole, argued against the integration of housing and the admittance of Mexican Americans into the area on the premise that such a plan would lower their property values. Others believed that the presence of Mexican Americans would create and invite crime, and that both the crime rate and incidents of rape would rise. They also felt that their wives and daughters would be unsafe in an integrated neighborhood. Ray Martinez recalls Poole's opposition speech to integration before the Phoenix City Council:

My god it was the most awful thing you would want to hear...he said, «Those damn Mexicans, you put them in there, they re gonna be raping, they re gonna be robbing and you know, we re going to have all kinds of problems. And we just don t want them because we need to protect our families...» It was so terrible that the members of the City Council were just absolutely devastated, you could see that they were completely uncomfortable...When you start using language that rough, well then that s what can cause riots⁴⁴.

In response to these sentiments and fears, Ray Martinez argued that crime was everyone's concern; one that crossed all racial and ethnic barriers, and that Mexican American families were also fearful of crime and rape. The bitter debate over the integration of veterans housing continued between American Legion Thunderbird Post 41 and the Garfield Property Owners Protective Association until the segregation issue went before the Arizona Supreme Court on December 11, 1946. The court ruled that housing was to be integrated⁴⁵. The city of Phoenix finally completed the controversial 156-unit housing project in 1947, even naming it the Harry Cordova Project, in honor of a Mexican American army corporal killed in the Battle of Normandy in 1944⁴⁶.

Mexican Americans in Tempe and Phoenix experienced and fought against the twin evils of discrimination and racism in the 1940s. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Council 110 and the American Legion Thunderbird Post 41 expressed concerns over the exclusion of people of Mexican descent at Tempe Beach and in public housing facilities, and succeeded in ending the discriminatory practices through their concerted efforts. They confronted public elected officials over such mistreatment and utilized the court system to provide them equal justice under the law. Mexican Americans in Phoenix and Tempe exercised their rights, which had for so long been denied. Their actions are examples of Americanism, a devotion to the United States and the ideals of freedom and democracy. This devotion, to their ideals and to their communities, was what drove LULAC Council 110 and the veterans of American Legion Thunderbird Post 41 to organize and fight for the civil rights of Mexicans and Mexican Americans in Tempe and Phoenix a half a century ago.