[EL] Starr County

[George Korbel]

I was happy to hear and see President Obama give what appeared to be a welcome benediction on civil rights enforcement. One thing bothers me– not what was said but what was unsaid. When the president thrilled us with Seneca Falls, Selma and Stonewall he ticked off some of the bedrock of our civil rights. Icons all. Leaving aside the significance of 3 in his S trill poetic rhetoric, I wish that he would have included a fourth. Starr County where in 1967 the Texas Rangers were brought into break up a farm worker strike. Texas Ranger Capitan A Y Allee was Bull Connor on steroids and there at his worst. The viciousness of this police riot shocked the federal judiciary and he was an unspoken background for much of the civil rights litigation here in the 70s and 80s 
 
I am happy that the national political parties have begun to understand the significance of the Hispanic vote. I only wish that their speech writers also understood the history behind that vote.   
 		 	   		  
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