Mexican Inclusion: The Origins of Anti-Discrimination Policy in Texas and the Southwest

Chapter 6. Laboratories of Democracy? People of Mexican Origin

chaPTer 6 laboratories of Democracy? People of Mexican Origin and Fair Employment in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas The development of fair employment policy in the United states began during the second World War when Franklin roosevelt issued executive order 8802, creating the United states’ first federal antidiscrimination agency, the Fair employment Practices Committee (FePC). The temporary wartime FePC, in existence from 1941 to 1946, focused on employment discrimination, leading to attempts at the national and state level to pass fair employment legislation. While the impetus for roosevelt’s order was primarily pressure from african american groups, the FePC was created “to encourage full participation in the national defense program by all citizens of the United states, regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin, in the firm belief that the democratic way of life within the nation can be defended successfully only with the help and support of all groups within its borders.”1 The FePC’s work in the southwestern United states focused on people of Mexican origin, with Mexicanamerican civil rights leaders coordinating efforts to combat discrimination. Carlos Castañeda led the efforts of the FePC toward people of Mexican origin and remained active in Texas politics in the postwar era. Focusing on people of Mexican origin in the southwest allows for exploration into regional variations in fair employment legislation and implementation. substantial attention has been devoted to the plight of african americans nationally and regionally in terms of framing discussions of civil rights, antidiscrimination, and fair employment. This chapter shifts the focus to look at the challenges faced in states with large populations of Mexican origin, specifically arizona, new Mexico, and Texas. looking at attempts to pass and implement fair employment legislation provides insight into the possibilities and challenges that arise when individual states become the battleground for legislation and policy. after World War ii, attempts to pass legislation creating a permanent fair employment agency at the federal level were unsuccessful because of senate filibustering and the 104 • chaPTer 6 domination of the House rules Committee by southern Democrats. The characterization by louis Brandeis of the states as the “laboratory of democracy” meant that they would provide the site for debates regarding fair employment prior to the passage of the Civil rights act of 1964. arthur Bonfield has defined fair employment practices legislation as “a body of statutory law whose main or exclusive object is the elimination of discrimination in employment on the basis of race, religion and national origin.”2 as Thomas sugrue notes, “between 1945 and 1964, twenty-nine states outside the south enacted fair employment practices laws. The age-old doctrine of ‘states rights’ in america cut two ways.”3 Texas also continued the Texas good neighbor Commission, begun during the second World War, which initially dealt with public accommodation but later shifted its focus to promoting fair employment for people of Mexican origin. Fair employment legislation is part of the larger “rights revolution” many political scientists discussed:4 the period from the 1940s to the 1960s that saw a shift toward civil rights policies as a major area of contention. since southern Democrats effectively controlled the passage of national legislation, civil rights activists needed to rely on other policy arenas such as the federal courts and the individual states. The process of state-level fair employment legislation passage and implementation allows scholars to explore policy innovation and federalism .5 if each state is a laboratory of democracy, each state is also an incubator for policy innovations. in addition, taking a state-level approach allows for study of whether and how particular policies can be created at the state level and if relatively uncoordinated state-level approaches provide openings that allow policy entrepreneurs to design agencies and policies to implement fair employment legislation. although the vast majority of states outside of the former Confederacy debated fair employment legislation, scholarly accounts have focused primarily on african americans and the rise of conservative opposition to fair employment policy.6 states with large populations of people Mexican origin also debated fair employment and other civil rights legislation. each state-level debate had salient features, but no studies have been completed that explore whether a particular site of policy innovation arose around fair employment policy and people of Mexican origin. This chapter explores the politics and implementation of fair employment legislation in the three states with the largest proportion of residents of Mexican origin: arizona, new Mexico, and Texas. California had a lengthy debate in the 1940s...