DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about LULAC Council 60 of Houston. Now, every good story has a founding moment, and this one starts on February 17, 1929, down in Corpus Christi, where representatives from three organizations sat down together and decided that scattered efforts weren't going to cut it anymore. What they built that day was the League of United Latin American Citizens — LULAC — a statewide force aimed square at racism and inequity, and built around the ideals of patriotism, education, and equality.
Five years later, up in Houston, something quietly remarkable happened. The rules said you only needed ten members to charter a new council. Well, more than twenty Houston men showed up anyway — more than twice what was required — and they didn't meet in a hall or a courthouse.
They met at a filling station and bookstore, right there at 74th and Navigation, out in Magnolia Park. That was 1934, and what they chartered was LULAC Council 60. They didn't waste much time getting to work.
The goals were clear: improve education, employment, and civil rights, and fight local prejudice and discrimination head-on. A lot of those early efforts were shared with the Latin American Club of Harris County, and in 1939 the two groups merged — folding together into LULAC Council 60 of Houston, plain and simple. When wartime industries fired up across the city, Council 60 was there securing jobs for Mexican Americans in those industries.
When the doors to Houston's police and fire departments were still closed to Mexican Americans, Council 60 worked to open them. This was not a group that waited for change to arrive on its own. The council had started as all-male, but that, too, changed.
In 1948, Council 60 organized the LULAC Women Council 22. The very next year, 1949, came the Junior LULAC Council. The circle was getting wider.
Through the 1940s and 1950s, LULAC at the state level was working alongside the American G.I. Forum, taking cases before Texas courts. One of those cases — Pete Hernandez v.
State of Texas — traveled all the way to the United States Supreme Court. The decisions that came out of those cases struck at discrimination directly: school desegregation, fairer jury selection. These weren't small victories.
In 1955, Council 60 moved into a two-story stucco clubhouse at 3004 Bagby, and from those headquarters the work kept growing. They launched a program called the Little School of the 400, which became considered a model for what would later be known as Project Head Start. They built SER, which grew into Operation SER — Jobs For Progress.
From a filling station and bookstore in Magnolia Park to a clubhouse on Bagby, to programs that shaped education and employment policy — Council 60 didn't just serve Houston. The marker says the group continues to provide leadership for the national organization itself. Twenty men who could have sent ten walked into that meeting in 1934.
Turns out, they knew exactly what they were building.
What the marker says
On February 17, 1929, representatives from three organizations met in Corpus Christi to merge and form the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). The new group sought to unify statewide efforts to challenge racism and inequities toward Texas' Hispanic residents, while also promoting patriotism, education and equality. Although needing only ten members to charter a new council, more than 20 Houston men met in 1934 at a filling station and bookstore at 74th and Navigation to form LULAC Council 60, of Magnolia Park. The group immediately set out to eradicate local prejudice and discrimination, and adopted the national organization's primary goals: improving education, employment and civil rights. Many of their early efforts were combined with the Latin American Club of Harris County, with which they merged in 1939 to become simply LULAC Council 60 of Houston. Local work included securing jobs for Mexican Americans in wartime industries; similar efforts later opened the door to Mexican Americans in the city's police and fire departments. The initially all-male Council 60 organized the LULAC Women Council 22 in 1948 and the Junior LULAC Council in 1949. Throughout the 1940s and 1950a, LULAC, at the state level, was involved with the American G.I. Forum in bringing cases before Texas courts, with one, Pete Hernandez v. State of Texas, going before the U.S. Supreme Court. The cases resulted in anti-discriminatory decisions, including school desegregation and jury selection. In 1955, LULAC 60 moved to a two-story stuco clubhouse at 3004 Bagby. From these headquarters, Council 60 began several important programs, including the "Little School of the 400," considered to be a model for Project Head Start, and SER, which became Operation SER/Jobs For Progress. The group continues to provide leadership for the national organization. (2005)