James DeAnda (August 21, 1925 – September 7, 2006) was an American attorney and

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

of the

United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas The United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas (in case citations, S.D. Tex.) is the federal district court with jurisdiction over the southeastern part of Texas. The court's headquarters is in Houston, Texas and has six ...

, noted for his activities in defense of Hispanic civil rights, particularly as a plaintiff's attorney in Hernandez v. Texas.

Early life and education

Born in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

to Mexican immigrants, DeAnda's attendance at

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

was interrupted by

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service in the

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in the Pacific. Graduating from Texas A&M with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree in 1948, he then received a

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Ch ...

from the

University of Texas School of Law The University of Texas School of Law (Texas Law) is the law school of the University of Texas at Austin. Texas Law is consistently ranked as one of the top law schools in the United States and is highly selective—registering the 8th lowest ac ...

in 1950. He was in private practice in Houston from 1951 to 1955, and in Corpus Christi, Texas from 1955 to 1979. In the early 1950s, he was on the plaintiff's team in Hernandez v. Texas, writing most of the briefs. In the late 1960s, he was among those who organized the Texas Rural Legal Assistance Organization and the

Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) is a national non-profit civil rights organization formed in 1968 by Jack Greenberg to protect the rights of Latinos in the United States."MALDEF" entry in ''Los Angeles A to Z: An ...

Federal judicial service

On February 13, 1979, DeAnda was nominated by President

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1 ...

to a new seat on the

created by 92 Stat. 1629. He was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on May 10, 1979, and received his commission on May 11, 1979. He served as Chief Judge from 1988 until retiring from the bench on October 1, 1992. After retirement, he returned to private practice in Houston until 2005.

Discrimination

DeAnda reported later in life that he had not faced much discrimination during his schooling, possibly due to his more Mediterranean-sounding surname and light complexion. However, upon graduation from the University of Texas, he discovered that initially promising interviews with elite law firms led to no follow-up once the potential employers learned that his parents were from Mexico. As a result, he ended up practicing law alongside other Mexican-American lawyers in Houston like John J. Herrera, working to provide counsel to Hispanics up and down the Gulf Coast who could not find equitable representation elsewhere. It was in this capacity that he came face to face with the discrimination Mexican-Americans faced daily in the 1950s.Wilson, Steven H., Law and History Review Vol. 21, Issue 1
"Brown over 'Other White': Mexican Americans' Legal Arguments and Litigation Strategy in School Desegregation Lawsuits
," Spring 2003

Death

DeAnda died of prostate cancer at his vacation home in

Traverse City Traverse City ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Grand Traverse County, although a small portion extends into Leelanau County. It is the largest city in the 21-county Northern Michigan region. The population was ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, on September 7, 2006, aged 81.

References

Sources

* ''Austin American-Statesman'', "Retired judge fought to defend Hispanics civil rights in Texas", 10 September 2006 * ''Houston Chronicle'', "James deAnda" (editorial), 8 September 2006 * Ruiz, Rosanna, ''Houston Chronicle'', "Houston judge had a major role in a landmark ruling on Hispanic rights", 8 September 2006

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:DeAnda, James 1925 births 2006 deaths People from Houston Texas A&M University alumni Texas lawyers American judges of Mexican descent Activists for Hispanic and Latino American civil rights Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas United States district court judges appointed by Jimmy Carter 20th-century American judges Deaths from prostate cancer Deaths from cancer in Michigan United States Marines American lawyers and judges of Italian descent United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II Hispanic and Latino American judges