Good Neighbor Commission

In 1943, Governor Coke R. Stevenson established the Good Neighbor Commission in response to requests by Office of Inter-American Affairs (OIAA) agent Tom Sutherland, among others. The OIAA was established by President Roosevelt in 1940 with the goal of improving cultural and economic relations with Latin America. The Good Neighbor Commission was originally requested because of the Mexican government’s ban on moving workers into Texas because of discrimination against Mexicans. The purpose of the six-person commission was to handle, solve, and improve social, cultural, and economic relations and problems among Mexican Americans living in Texas. The commission also aimed to ease relations between Texas and Mexico, and between Texas and other Latin American countries. Specifically, the commission intended to improve education, housing, and health measures for migrant workers and other Mexicans living in Texas.

The Good Neighbor Commission was officially designated a paid state commission in 1945. In 1947 Mexico lifted the ban on movement into Texas. Poor living conditions and discrimination were still in effect, however, but eventually most discrimination issues were turned over to the Texas Council on Human Relations, formed in 1950 under oil magnate Neville Penrose. The next few years saw varied effects of the commission depending on who was working for it at the time. For example, in 1949 state representative J.F. Gray made a claim against the commission when access to a funeral home was denied to the family of Felix Longoria, a Mexican who was killed during World War II. The commission responded to the claim, and, with help from Lyndon B. Johnson, enabled Longoria to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

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