Hernandez, Alfred J., 1917-

Alfred J. Hernandez was born in Mexico City August of 1917. At age four, his parents immigrated to the Rio Grande Valley of Texas as farm workers. He graduated from high school, and during WWII, enlisted in the U.S. Army; serving in the African and European war operations as a technical sergeant. Hernandez received his American citizenship while he was serving in Europe. On his return to the United States, he enrolled in the University of Houston where he did his pre-law work and obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree from South Texas College of law in 1953. Alfred J. Hernandez married the former Minnie Casas and they had two sons; Alfred, Jr., John Joseph and a daughter Anna Marie.

Hernandez was president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) from 1965 to 1967 and became a civil rights leader, working for the improvement of the social and economic conditions of all American citizens of Spanish speaking descent in the United States.

On March 28, 1966, Judge Alfred J. Hernandez together with delegates of LULAC organized with "Albuquerque Walkout" in protest of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) discriminatory hiring practices against Mexican Americans. He also was one of the organizers of the Selma [Texas] Minimum Wage March of 1966, a two month trek from the Rio Grande Valley which began as a labor strike of the United Farm Workers Association against local agri-business and ended in a confrontation with Governor John Connally on the highway near New Braunfels. The march to Austin received national coverage and brought national attention to social conditions of Mexican Americans.

Judge Alfred J. Hernandez was Chairman of the Board of Project SER, (Job for Progress, Inc.) created in 1965 as a job training center for unemployed Mexican Americans. He also served on the GI Forum Job Opportunity Program and was a member of the Houston Crime Commission.

From the guide to the Alfred J. Hernandez Papers MSS 159., 1932-1981, 1960-1979, (Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public Library)