INADMISSIBLE

DeAnda's Legacy

James DeAnda, who was the second Mexican-American ever appointed to the federal bench and who co-founded the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund in 1968, died in Houston on Sept. 7 of prostate cancer. He was 81. DeAnda was one of four Mexican-American civil-rights lawyers who took part in arguing a historic U.S. Supreme Court case, 1954's Hernandez v. Texas. The decision overturned the murder conviction of Pete Hernandez, who had been convicted by an all-white jury in Edna, Texas. The high court held that excluding minorities from juries violated the 14th Amendment. Hernandez was to become an obscure opinion, because within a week of that decision the high court also issued Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, outlawing racial segregation in public schools, says Michael A. Olivas, an immigration and education law professor at the University of Houston Law Center who wrote a book about the Hernandez case. 'It was an important case, because it was the criminal law counterpart to Brown,' Olivas says. 'It's the first application of the equal protection doctrine to Mexican-Americans.' In 1979, President Jimmy Carter appointed DeAnda to the U.S. District Court in Houston. DeAnda served as the chief judge of the Southern District of Texas from 1988 to 1992. He retired from the bench in 1992, returning to private practice where he continued to handle civil-rights cases until his death. Olivas, who gave a eulogy at DeAnda's Sept. 13 funeral, says the progress Hispanics made during DeAnda's lifetime was amazing. Fifty years ago, DeAnda and his co-counsel couldn't spend the night in Edna when they were representing Hernandez in his criminal case for fear of their lives, Olivas says. But this year, DeAnda lived to see a MALDEF attorney successfully argue LULAC v. Perry before the U.S. Supreme Court, urging the court to find that a congressional district in South Texas violated the Voting Rights Act, because it was unfair to Hispanics. 'He was not ordinary in any sense of the term. Just think about the arch of his life,' Olivas says. 'That is a satisfying life. That is a remarkable legacy. And I consider him our Thurgood Marshall.'

James deAnda
The late lawyer and former judge worked quietly to end discrimination against Hispanics in Texas

Aristotle argues that all virtue can be summed up in dealing justly. By that measure, the late James deAnda was among the most virtuous of Texans. DeAnda, who died Thursday at 81, worked quietly for half a century to extend justice to all Texans. As University of Houston law professor Michael Olivas told the Chronicle, deAnda was for Hispanics what Thurgood Marshall was for black Americans.

DeAnda's work was not directly related to but closely coincided with the famous Brown v. Board of Education that outlawed racial segregation in the public schools. DeAnda was a member of the team of lawyers that filed the appeal that ended the official and systematic exclusion of Hispanics from Texas juries. He filed lawsuits that ended the segregation of Hispanics in South Texas school districts and other disgraceful treatment that denied them equal opportunity to quality public education.

Appointed to the federal district bench in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter, deAnda was only the second Hispanic federal judge in Texas. He was also the last Hispanic judge appointed for the heavily Hispanic Southern District of Texas.

DeAnda's work, largely conducted out of the limelight, is not finished. In 1983 deAnda sentenced a former sheriff and two deputies to prison for torturing confessions out of prisoners. The nation finds itself embroiled today in a debate over whether terrorist suspects can be legally and morally mistreated and abused.

Michael Solar, deAnda's law partner when the latter left the judiciary, said the former judge was "never rancorous, but always demonstrated a great deal of understanding and desire to work for the common good."

Can there be a better role model in an age when justice and fortune still fall so unevenly in our society?

James deAnda, a retired federal judge who as a lawyer in the early 1950’s had a leading role in a Supreme Court decision that prohibited courts from keeping Mexican-Americans off juries, died on Thursday at his summer home in Traverse City, Mich. Judge deAnda, who lived in Houston, was 81.

The cause was prostate cancer, said Michael A. Olivas, a law professor at the University of Houston and a friend of the judge.

On May 3, 1954, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Hernandez v. Texas that Hispanic people deserved the same constitutional protections as other minorities.

For some proponents of civil rights for Hispanics, the case ranks with the ruling two weeks later in Brown v. Board of Education that barred segregation in public schools.

Mr. deAnda, then a lawyer in a small practice in Houston, wrote most of the briefs for the Hernandez case, in which a Mexican migrant worker appealed his murder conviction by an all-white jury in Jackson County, Tex.

Mr. deAnda’s research showed that despite the fact that Mexican-Americans made up 14 percent of the county’s population, not one person with a Spanish surname had been on a jury in 25 years.

“The case opened the doors for Latinos to be represented on juries throughout the country,” said Norma V. Cantu, assistant secretary for civil rights in the Education Department in the Clinton administration.

Ms. Cantu, now a law professor at the University of Texas, said Texas officials had argued that Latinos should be considered the same as Caucasians in considering representation. The Supreme Court rejected that argument, she said, earning Mr. deAnda “a place in legal history for expanding the coverage of the 14th Amendment to Latinos.”

The plaintiff, Pedro Hernandez, had been sentenced to 99 years in his first trial. In November 1954, six months after the Supreme Court decision, he was convicted again, by a jury that had two Hispanics, and sentenced to 20 years.

In 1957, Mr. deAnda was also the lead counsel in Hernandez v. Driscoll Independent School District, in which a federal court ordered the desegregation of a school district near Corpus Christi.

Surviving are his wife, Joyce; a son, Lou; two stepsons, Kelly and Patrick Martin; a stepdaughter, Nikki Martin; a sister, Mary deAnda; and a brother, Louis.

Mr. deAnda, who was born on Aug. 28, 1925, in Houston, attended Texas A&M University. In 1943, he left to join the Marines. He returned to Texas A&M and graduated in 1948. Two years later, he earned a law degree at the University of Texas.

In the late 60’s, after many years defending Hispanics in private practice, Mr. deAnda helped organize the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Texas Rural Legal Assistance Organization, which provides legal services to migrant workers.

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter appointed him a federal judge in the Southern District of Texas. He retired in 1992, after serving his last four years as chief judge. He retired from Solar & Associates, a law firm in Houston, in 2002.

Judge De Anda – Houston Chronicle Obituary:

JUDGE JAMES DE ANDA, age 81, died Thursday, the 7th of September 2006, at his summer home in Michigan after a courageous battle with cancer.

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family on Tuesday, the 12th of September, from one until four o'clock in the afternoon in the Library of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, and, from six until eight o'clock in the evening in the Jasek Chapel of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons. At eight o'clock, a recital of the Rosary will begin.

The Funeral Mass will be celebrated at eleven o'clock in the morning on Wednesday, the 13th of September, at St. Michael Catholic Church, 1801 Sage Road in Houston, with the Most Rev. Joe S. Vasquez, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Galveston - Houston, and the Rev. Msgr. Frank Rossi, Pastor, as concelebrants.

Following the mass and Ross Volunteers' military honors ceremony at the church, all are invited to join the family for a reception in the adjacent Parish Life Center. The Rite of Committal and interment will be conducted on Friday afternoon, the 15th of September, at the Martin Cemetery in Little Rock, Arkansas. In lieu of usual remembrances, contributions in memory of Judge De Anda may be directed to the Scholarship in Honor of Chief Judge James De Anda at Texas A&M 12th Man Foundation, Post Office Drawer L-1, College Station, TX 77844; University of Texas Law School 727 East Dean Keeton Street, Austin, Texas 78705 or to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, HQ Office, 634 So. Spring St., 11th Fl., Los Angeles, CA, 90014.

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family on Tuesday, the 12th of September, from one until four o'clock in the afternoon in the Library of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, and, from six until eight o'clock in the evening in the Jasek Chapel of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons. At eight o'clock, a recital of the Rosary will begin.

The Funeral Mass will be celebrated at eleven o'clock in the morning on Wednesday, the 13th of September, at St. Michael Catholic Church, 1801 Sage Road in Houston, with the Most Rev. Joe S. Vasquez, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Galveston - Houston, and the Rev. Msgr. Frank Rossi, Pastor, as concelebrants.

Following the mass and Ross Volunteers' military honors ceremony at the church, all are invited to join the family for a reception in the adjacent Parish Life Center. The Rite of Committal and interment will be conducted on Friday afternoon, the 15th of September, at the Martin Cemetery in Little Rock, Arkansas. In lieu of usual remembrances, contributions in memory of Judge De Anda may be directed to the Scholarship in Honor of Chief Judge James De Anda at Texas A&M 12th Man Foundation, Post Office Drawer L-1, College Station, TX 77844; University of Texas Law School 727 East Dean Keeton Street, Austin, Texas 78705 or to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, HQ Office, 634 So. Spring St., 11th Fl., Los Angeles, CA, 90014.

AUSTIN, Texas-The Honorable James DeAnda, an alumnus of The University of Texas School of Law who became the second Mexican American federal judge when he was appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, died of prostate cancer at his summer home in Traverse City, Michigan, on Thursday, Sept. 7. He was 81.

A funeral is planned for the Houston, Texas, native and co-founder of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) on Wednesday, Sept. 13, in Houston.

The son of Mexican immigrants, Judge DeAnda graduated from UT Law in 1950 when there were only a handful of Hispanic law students. It was also the year that the Law School's first African American law student, Heman Sweatt, was enrolled. As an attorney, DeAnda was known for fighting segregation of Hispanics within Texas' schools.

"Judge DeAnda was an active member of the UT Law community and was one of our most honored and distinguished alumnus," said UT President and former School of Law Dean William Powers Jr. "He was a true legal legend and a tireless advocate in watershed civil rights cases dealing with discrimination in the public education system in Texas," Powers said.

"Judge DeAnda was one of the pioneers to whom we all looked up and who, with Hernandez v. Texas, changed the hopes of all who followed him," said UT Law professor Gerald Torres who came to know Judge DeAnda through his work with MALDEF and Torres' work with other civil rights activists.

"I offer my condolences to the family, colleagues and friends of the Honorable James DeAnda," said Norma V. Cantu, UT professor of Law and Education who is also a former MALDEF attorney and former Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education. "Judge DeAnda's life was marked by many personal sacrifices and by his courageous advocacy for his indigent and minority clients," said Cantu, who attended the MALDEF annual banquet in San Antonio on Friday evening. "While most people know that Justice DeAnda was the youngest member of the litigation team that brought about a landmark U.S. Supreme Court victory in 1954 that insisted that Latinos must be allowed to serve as jurors, he should also be remembered as one of the founders of the premier national civil rights organization: MALDEF. When I read our UT mission statement-what starts here changes the world-I will always remember James DeAnda," Cantu said.

The Tarlton Law Library at The Jamail Center for Legal Research at UT Law is currently in the process of publishing an oral history interview of Judge DeAnda including a speech that was given by DeAnda at the Hispanic Legal Archives Series held by The University of Texas School of Law's Chicano/Hispanic Law Students' Association on April 7, 2000.

Before law school, DeAnda attended Texas A&M and served with the U.S. Marine Corps in the Pacific theater during World War II. After graduation from UT Law, DeAnda began practicing with Houston attorney John J. Herrera.

In the mid-1950s, DeAnda moved to Corpus Christi and through his associations with the American GI Forum, the League of United Latin American Citizens, and MALDEF, DeAnda became involved in landmark cases dealing with discrimination in the public education system in Texas. Those cases include Hernandez v. State of Texas, Hernandez v. Driscoll CISD, and Cisneros v. Corpus Christi ISD. In Cisneros, the U.S. Supreme Court extended for the first time Brown v. Board of Education to Mexican Americans.

DeAnda was the last surviving member of a legal team of four Hispanic attorneys in the case of Hernandez v. State of Texas, which overturned an all-white jury's murder conviction of a southeast Texas man. On appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that all Hispanics were a separate group deserving the same constitutional protections as other minorities. Two of the other members of the legal team were also graduates of UT Law: Carlos Cadena, '40, and Gustavo C. "Gus" Garcia, '38. DeAnda was co-founder, in 1968, of MALDEF and created Texas Rural Legal Aid in 1970 (now called Texas RioGrande Legal Aid).

In 1979, President Carter appointed DeAnda to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The judge became only the second Mexican American appointed to the federal bench after fellow UT alumnus Reynaldo G. Garza, '39, who was named to the federal bench in 1961. DeAnda became the Southern District's chief judge in 1988.

After retiring from the bench in 1992, DeAnda continued to practice law with the Houston law firm of Solar & Associates. He was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award for Community Service from The University of Texas School of Law Alumni Association in 2004.

"You will find law to be a most satisfying career because of the service you can give your fellow man," DeAnda once said to a group of law students. "I know of no other endeavor in which you can bring about healthy change and make a decent living. You can live well and do good," he said.

Judge DeAnda is survived by his wife, Joyce, and four children. A fund honoring DeAnda has been established at MALDEF to support the important litigation programs that he championed.

Civil rights lawyer James deAnda was lauded in South Texas on Friday for having helped countless minority kids by winning a landmark case that indirectly led to the desegregation of schools there.

He went on to become the nation's second Hispanic federal judge. DeAnda, of Houston, died Thursday at his summer home in northern Michigan after suffering from prostate cancer. He was 81.

"The loss of Judge deAnda is the loss of one of the last giants in the civil rights movement involving the Mexican American community," said Tony Bonilla, 70, a Corpus Christi lawyer and former national director of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Bonilla knew deAnda and praised him for his humbleness despite many successes.

James deAnda

• Born: Aug. 21, 1925, in Houston
• Died: Sept. 7, 2006, in Traverse City, Mich.
• Military: U.S. Marine Corps in World War II
• Survived by: Wife Joyce; a son, Lou deAnda; a brother, Louis deAnda; a sister, Mary deAnda; three stepchildren; and numerous grandchildren.
• Services: Mass at 11 a.m. Wednesday at St. Michael Catholic Church at 1801 Sage Road in Houston. Interment Friday afternoon in the Martin Cemetery in Little Rock, Ark.

It stemmed from a Hispanic defendant, accused of killing a man in a bar in the Southeast Texas town of Edna, who complained that it was unfair to be tried before an all-white jury because it wasn't an accurate representation of the community.

The high court ruled in favor of Hernandez because Mexican Americans were an identifiable minority, which was as clear as the signs on the bathroom doors in the courthouse, said Michael A. Olivas, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center, who wrote the 2006 book "Colored Men and Hombres Aqui" about the case.

The book title references the sign on a bathroom used by African Americans and Hispanics. Anglos had a facility of their own. Out of 6,000 jurors serving in the area up to the time of the case, none were Hispanic, though Hispanics made up 16 percent of the area's population, Olivas said. Hernandez was retried and convicted of murder, but his Supreme Court case did for Hispanics what Brown vs. Board of Education did for blacks, though the former case never became a household name.

"It's really quite clear that in Jim Crow Texas, Mexican Americans and blacks were both subordinated classes and the Supreme Court saw that," Olivas said. "I think the reason why they chose to take that particular case was because they were looking for a companion case to Brown," which was decided a week later. Olivas said deAnda and his colleagues, among only two dozen Hispanic attorneys in Texas at the time, weren't welcome in Edna.

"They couldn't even get a hotel room there," he said. "These guys were really courageous to be able to take on this kind of case." DeAnda's work in South Texas continues to reverberate in cases he won and institutions he helped start.

He represented plaintiffs in Corpus Christi and Driscoll against public school districts, which led to their desegregation and the requirement that the special needs of Mexican American students be met.

As an attorney in Corpus Christi in the late 1960s, deAnda founded what became Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, which serves migrant farm workers and other impoverished residents. Based in Weslaco, it started small and today is the third-largest federally funded legal services program in the United States, said Executive Director David Hall.

"He encountered a fair amount of opposition," Hall said of the nonprofit organization, which serves about 22,000 clients a year. "Back in those days, most mainstream lawyers did not like the idea of a staff attorney legal services program. Some thought it was way too radical and was going to upset the world order as they knew it."

In 1968 in San Antonio, he also co-founded the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, or MALDEF, along with several attorneys who saw a dire need for a legal arm to fight discrimination against Hispanics.

"I think his reputation is one of the leading civil rights attorneys for Latinos in Texas and the United States," said Al Kauffman, who left MALDEF in 2002 and is the senior legal policy associate with the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.

DeAnda also traveled the country with close friend Hector P. Garcia, founder of the American GI Forum.

In 1979 President Jimmy Carter appointed deAnda to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. He was the second Hispanic appointee to a federal bench; Reynaldo Garza of Brownsville was the first.

"We knew he was ill, so that his death did not come as a complete surprise," said U.S. District Judge George Kazen of Laredo, who was sworn in with deAnda. "But it's of course a sad moment, death always is. ... He was just a good man, an able lawyer, a fine judge and just a very decent and honorable man."

DeAnda left the bench in 1992, having become chief judge of the Southern District. He worked in private practice with the Houston firm Solar & Associates until his battle with cancer overtook him.

Former U.S. District Judge James deAnda, who played a crucial role in a little-known, but pivotal 1954 case that recognized Hispanics as a protected class of people, died Thursday at his summer home in Traverse City, Mich., of prostate cancer. The Houston native was 81.

DeAnda was the last surviving member of a legal team of four Hispanic attorneys behind the case, Hernandez v. Texas, which overturned an all-white jury's murder conviction of a southeast Texas man. On appeal, the Supreme Court ruled that Hispanics were a separate group deserving of the same constitutional protections as other minorities.

"He is our Thurgood Marshall in many respects," said Michael Olivas, a University of Houston Law Center professor and longtime friend, referring to the first black Supreme Court justice, who also played a key role in doing away with racial segregation.

DeAnda went on to fight segregation of Hispanics within Texas' schools and later became the second Hispanic federal judge in the U.S. He also served as a chief federal judge.

In the Hernandez case, deAnda and his law partner John J. Herrera showed that Hispanics were essentially barred in Jackson County from serving as jurors despite making up 16 percent of the population at the time. The attorneys found that no Hispanic had ever served on any jury in a quarter of a century there. They noted in their case that minorities were forced to use segregated bathrooms in the same courthouse where the state argued Hispanics were classified as white. Bathrooms for Hispanics and blacks were in the basement, which bore the sign "Colored Men and Hombres Aqui," said Olivas, whose book about the case was recently published.

'Never sought limelight'

The landmark case was overshadowed more than a week later, however, when the high court handed down its Brown v. Board of Education decision. The two watershed civil rights cases should be considered "bookends" that began to unravel decades of wrongs experienced by blacks and Hispanics, Olivas said. But, few may have heard of deAnda or the role he played in securing Hispanics' civil rights.

"There is no school named after him," Olivas said. "He never sought the limelight, therefore people don't know him." The son of Mexican immigrants, deAnda was raised in Houston's north side. He graduated from Jefferson Davis High School in 1942 and enrolled at Texas A&M University.

He interrupted his schooling to join the Marines during World War II. He served in the Pacific and then later in China.

After the war, deAnda completed his legal studies at the University of Texas Law School. In 1950, he returned to Houston, but had a difficult time finding work because no firm would hire a Hispanic, Olivas said.

He ultimately teamed with Herrera, and both routinely took cases statewide because there were so few Hispanic lawyers representing Americans of Mexican descent.

The Hernandez case was one of the pair's earliest cases. Pete Hernandez, a cotton picker from Edna, was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Joe Espinosa during a bar fight.

The attorneys appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court with funding from civil rights groups, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the American GI Forum.

Attorneys Carlos Cadena and Gus Garcia were added to the team and both argued the case before the high court - the first Hispanics to do so. Hernandez was convicted when the case was retried, this time with a jury that included two Hispanics.

'Genuine role model'

In 1954, deAnda filed suit against the Driscoll School District, the first in a series of school desegregation cases.

Hispanic and white students were separated when they entered first grade in the South Texas school district.

The Hispanic students spent three years in the first grade, after which they were declared bilingual and promoted to the second grade.

The court ruled in deAnda's favor and the district ultimately abandoned the system. Similar cases followed in Corpus Christi and other nearby school districts.

"Judge deAnda was the epitome of humility," said Michael Solar, another longtime friend and legal partner. "He always respected his role as a lawyer, as a judge and as a civic leader. ... He was never rancorous, but instead always demonstrated a great deal of understanding and desire to work toward the common good. He was a genuine role model."

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter appointed deAnda to serve as a federal judge for the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Texas. He was sworn in by Texas' first Hispanic federal judge, Reynaldo Garza. DeAnda was the last Mexican-American judge appointed in the Southern District, Olivas noted.

"What's important is what happened, but also what hasn't happened," he said. DeAnda also served as the Southern District's chief judge from 1988 until he retired four years later.

He returned to private practice in Houston and joined Solar's firm. He set aside his legal work in December, when he began cancer therapy.

DeAnda is also credited with creating the Texas Rural Legal Aid, which provides services to migrant farm workers and was also cofounder of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund or MALDEF.

"In dangerous and difficult times, he and the few other Mexican American lawyers worked tirelessly to defend our communities' interests before an indifferent judiciary and hostile legislatures," stated John Trasviña, the group's interim president and general counsel. "We are all in his debt, and his co-founding of MALDEF planted the seeds that we still cultivate today."

DeAnda's survivors include his wife, Joyce, and four children. A Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Wednesday at St. Michael Catholic Church, 1801 Sage. rosanna.ruiz@chron.com

This Article was published on HispanicBusiness.com website, Friday September 8, 2006.

Former U.S. District Judge James deAnda, who played a crucial role in a little-known, but pivotal 1954 case that recognized Hispanics as a protected class of people, died Thursday at his summer home in Traverse City, Mich., of prostate cancer. The Houston native was 81.

DeAnda was the last surviving member of a legal team of four Hispanic attorneys behind the case, Hernandez v. Texas, which overturned an all-white jury's murder conviction of a southeast Texas man. On appeal, the Supreme Court ruled that Hispanics were a separate group deserving of the same constitutional protections as other minorities.

"He is our Thurgood Marshall in many respects," said Michael Olivas, a University of Houston Law Center professor and longtime friend, referring to the first black Supreme Court justice, who also played a key role in doing away with racial segregation.

DeAnda went on to fight segregation of Hispanics within Texas' schools and later became the second Hispanic federal judge in the U.S. He also served as a chief federal judge.

In the Hernandez case, deAnda and his law partner John J. Herrera showed that Hispanics were essentially barred in Jackson County from serving as jurors despite making up 16 percent of the population at the time. The attorneys found that no Hispanic had ever served on any jury in a quarter of a century there.

They noted in their case that minorities were forced to use segregated bathrooms in the same courthouse where the state argued Hispanics were classified as white. Bathrooms for Hispanics and blacks were in the basement, which bore the sign "Colored Men and Hombres Aqui," said Olivas, whose book about the case was recently published.

'Never sought limelight'

The landmark case was overshadowed more than a week later, however, when the high court handed down its Brown v. Board of Education decision. The two watershed civil rights cases should be considered "bookends" that began to unravel decades of wrongs experienced by blacks and Hispanics, Olivas said.

But, few may have heard of deAnda or the role he played in securing Hispanics' civil rights.

"There is no school named after him," Olivas said. "He never sought the limelight, therefore people don't know him."

The son of Mexican immigrants, deAnda was raised in Houston's north side.

He graduated from Jefferson Davis High School in 1942 and enrolled at Texas A&M University.

He interrupted his schooling to join the Marines during World War II. He served in the Pacific and then later in China.

After the war, deAnda completed his legal studies at the University of Texas Law School. In 1950, he returned to Houston, but had a difficult time finding work because no firm would hire a Hispanic, Olivas said.

He ultimately teamed with Herrera, and both routinely took cases statewide because there were so few Hispanic lawyers representing Americans of Mexican descent.

The Hernandez case was one of the pair's earliest cases. Pete Hernandez, a cotton picker from Edna, was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Joe Espinosa during a bar fight.

The attorneys appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court with funding from civil rights groups, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the American GI Forum.

Attorneys Carlos Cadena and Gus Garcia were added to the team and both argued the case before the high court -- the first Hispanics to do so.

Hernandez was convicted when the case was retried, this time with a jury that included two Hispanics.

'Genuine role model'

In 1954, deAnda filed suit against the Driscoll School District, the first in a series of school desegregation cases.

Hispanic and white students were separated when they entered first grade in the South Texas school district.

The Hispanic students spent three years in the first grade, after which they were declared bilingual and promoted to the second grade.

The court ruled in deAnda's favor and the district ultimately abandoned the system. Similar cases followed in Corpus Christi and other nearby school districts.

"Judge deAnda was the epitome of humility," said Michael Solar, another longtime friend and legal partner. "He always respected his role as a lawyer, as a judge and as a civic leader. ... He was never rancorous, but instead always demonstrated a great deal of understanding and desire to work toward the common good. He was a genuine role model."

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter appointed deAnda to serve as a federal judge for the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Texas.

He was sworn in by Texas' first Hispanic federal judge, Reynaldo Garza.

DeAnda was the last Mexican-American judge appointed in the Southern District, Olivas noted.

"What's important is what happened, but also what hasn't happened," he said.

DeAnda also served as the Southern District's chief judge from 1988 until he retired four years later.

He returned to private practice in Houston and joined Solar's firm. He set aside his legal work in December, when he began cancer therapy.

DeAnda is also credited with creating the Texas Rural Legal Aid, which provides services to migrant farm workers and was also cofounder of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund or MALDEF.

"In dangerous and difficult times, he and the few other Mexican American lawyers worked tirelessly to defend our communities' interests before an indifferent judiciary and hostile legislatures," stated John Trasvina, the group's interim president and general counsel. "We are all in his debt, and his co-founding of MALDEF planted the seeds that we still cultivate today."

DeAnda's survivors include his wife, Joyce, and four children. A Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Wednesday at St. Michael Catholic Church, 1801 Sage.

Contributions may be sent to:

MALDEF
634 South Spring Street
Los Angeles, CA 90014