LBJ Linked Latinos, Civil Rights In ‘Selma’ Speech

*This makes sense, given that LBJ began his teaching career in a predominantly Mexican-American shool in Cotulla, Texas. The fight for civil rights in the U.S. has been entwined between the Latino and black communities for decades. VL

By Russell Contreras, Associated Press/NBC News

Fifty-years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson asked a joint session of Congress to respond to the brutal beatings of protesters in Selma, Alabama, by passing a federal Voting Rights Act that would “open the city of hope to all people of all races.”

While this week’s commemorations of the 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” may invoke memories of historic events in which the “real hero,” as Johnson said, was “the American Negro,” little is said about Johnson’s call in that speech to include Mexican-Americans in the struggle for equality.

“It was a defining moment for Johnson and Mexican-Americans,” Julie Leininger Pycior, a Manhattan College history professor, said. “And yet it is a moment that is almost totally forgotten.”

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[Photo courtesy of Wikimedia]