#TBT: Dr. Hector P. Garcia formed American GI Forum in 1948

"Veterans plan protest meet Friday night" was the unassuming headline on the front of the local section of the Corpus Christi Times on March 25, 1948. By the end of that meeting, Dr. Hector P. Garcia had convinced the assembled to form a new civil rights organization aimed at helping Hispanic veterans overcome problems within the system.

Dr. Garcia, already a member of LULAC which formed in the city in 1929, was concerned with the way veterans' benefits were being handled, particularly for Mexican-American veterans. He called for other veterans unhappy with the problems with hospitalizations, pensions and disability payments to meet at Lamar Elementary School's auditorium on Morris Street. He told the newspaper there was a chance a new veterans organization would be formed.

Dr. Hector was right.

The meeting was attended by more than 400 people, mostly ex-service members, and the decision was made to form the American GI Forum. The group elected officers, with Garcia as president, John Huey as vice president, Fred H. Woodward as secretary and Gregorio Montoya as treasurer. The group discussed the lack of Latin American representation on the drafts boards, along with the delay in receiving pension and disability checks. The group also publicly denounced the anti-bonus stand taken by Texas Gov. Beauford Jester.

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"Veterans not only want a bonus," Garcia said at the meeting, "but need one, need it to live like people." Garcia invited Jester, who called asking for a bonus "un-American," to come witness the slum living conditions many former servicemen were enduring in South Texas.

Forum members were active, hosting meetings and forming chapters in other South Texas towns quickly. But it was nearly a year later that the organization and Garcia were catapulted to national attention.

In January 1949, widowed Beatrice Longoria of Three Rivers received notice her husband, Felix Longoria's remains would be finally be shipped home for burial. Longoria had been killed in action in the Philippines in 1945.

When Beatrice Longoria contacted the only funeral home in Three Rivers to arrange burial services, she was told the body couldn't remain in the chapel until the burial because "the whites wouldn't like it."

When the newspaper reached out to the funeral home to verify their stance, the manager T.W. Kennedy confirmed what Longoria had reported.

"We just never did make a practice of letting them use the chapel," he told reporter George Groh, "and we don't want to start now."

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Longoria worked with Garcia and the GI Forum, who took the issue to Texas' newest U.S. Senator, Lyndon B. Johnson. LBJ offered to arrange burial at Arlington National Cemetery. While the funeral home came back and said they would host the funeral and burial after all, national media had already picked up the story, bringing the issue to a wider audience which became known as "The Longoria Affair."

Longoria was reburied at Arlington on Feb. 6 and in April the Texas House of Representatives announced the findings of a five-man investigation into the affair to judge whether racial discrimination was evident. After testimonies, four of the five members concluded there was no discrimination evident. But the fifth member, Rep. Frank Oltorf of Marlin, issued the minority report of the committee which lamented the majority's opinion. 

"I could not concur with the majority report without violating both my sense of justice or my intellectual honesty," he wrote, concluding with, "I cannot look into the heart of Mr. Kennedy to ascertain his true intent, but can only accept his oral words which appear to me discriminatory."

The forum members and Dr. Hector Garcia continued to advocate for Hispanic veterans and civil rights through the next several decades after the group was established in 1948. In 1984 Garcia was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. Garcia died in 1996, but the American GI Forum continues with chapters in 10 states and Puerto Rico. At one time, the forum was in 34 states. 

Allison Ehrlich writes about things to do in South Texas and has a weekly Throwback Thursday column on local history. Support local coverage like this by checking out our subscription options and special offers at Caller.com/subscribe