DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the LULAC Councils in Wharton County. Now, 1936 is a year worth remembering in Wharton County, Texas. Not because things were easy — they were not — but because that was the year a group of community leaders decided they'd had enough of doing nothing about deeply engrained anti-Hispanic racism.
So they got to organizing. And what they built was Wharton's first council of the League of United Latin American Citizens — LULAC, Council Number 69. That name, LULAC, carried real weight.
These councils gave the Latin American population a platform to assert their citizenship — not beg for it, assert it — and to push back against overt discriminatory policies. Then in 1951, a women's LULAC council was chartered, and the movement in Wharton County grew another ring. Now here's where the story gets its teeth.
The Wharton County LULAC councils threw their resources — generous funding — behind a case that would travel all the way to the highest court in the land. Hernandez v. The State of Texas, decided in 1954 by the U.S.
Supreme Court. A pivotal Mexican-American civil rights decision. And those councils, right here in Wharton County, proved pivotal to making it happen.
Think on that the next time you cross through this stretch of Texas. But LULAC in Wharton County wasn't done. They became early participants in something called the Little School of the 400 — a program spearheaded by LULAC national president Felix Tijerina.
The idea was pointed and purposeful: schools had been using so-called language difficulties as cover for segregated schooling. Tijerina's program cut right through that. It taught students four hundred essential English words — four hundred, counted out — enough to succeed in those early elementary grades where the odds were stacked against them.
Now, within Wharton County, one town stood a little apart from the rest. Louise. The Czech immigrants living in Louise were sympathetic to the plight of Spanish-speakers — a sympathy that showed up in how they ran their community.
In Louise, schools, churches, and businesses were not segregated the way they were in other towns across the county. That was not nothing. That was, in its own quiet way, remarkable.
One of Louise's own, Conrado Cardenas, rose to become a prominent LULAC leader. In 1956 he became district governor. And his district didn't just talk about the Little School of the 400 — they ran a test of it, proved its value with real data.
That data then became the lever that leaders used to secure state funding for bilingual education, ESL programs, migrant programs, and the HeadStart project. Four hundred words. A women's council.
A Supreme Court case. One town that chose a different way. That's what organizing looks like when it's serious — and in Wharton County, starting in 1936, it was very serious indeed.
What the marker says
In 1936, community leaders began organizing to fight deeply engrained anti-Hispanic racism present in Wharton County. That year, Wharton established its first council, Number 69, of the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC. A women's LULAC council was chartered in 1951. LULAC councils allowed the Latin American population to assert their citizenship while also advocating for changes to overt discriminatory policies. Through generous funding, Wharton County LULAC councils would prove pivotal to the success of the U.S. Supreme Court case Hernandez v. The State of Texas (1954), a pivotal Mexican-American civil rights decision. Wharton LULAC was also an early participant in the "Little School of the 400." This program, spearheaded by LULAC national president Felix Tijerina, sought to combat segregated schooling under the guise of language difficulties. Through the program, students were taught 400 essential words in English to succeed in early elementary grades. The town of Louise stood out within Wharton County. Czech immigrants living in the community were sympathetic to the plight of Spanish-speakers. In Louise, schools, churches, and businesses were not segregated like other towns in Wharton County. Louise resident Conrado Cardenas was a prominent LULAC leader, becoming district governor in 1956. Cardenas" district participated in a test of the Little School of the 400 program, proving its value. Leaders used this data to secure state funding for initiatives including bilingual education, ESL programs, migrant programs, and the HeadStart project. (2021)