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Garza / Appointment to the Tri-Ethnic Committee

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Interviewer-"I really want to talk about your appointment to the Tri-Ethnic Committee, can you talk about how that came about, the Tasbe case, the Estes case?" Mr. Garza-Well, there was recently one of my [?] sort of called on Raymond Martinez and Zan Holmes [?] due to a court order, so Judge Taylor ended up appointing a Tri-Ethnic Committee to try and represent the different [?] and of course, [?] and the school board before that [?] Zan Holmes was the leader of that group and Rene Martinez and I ended up being shared the committe towards [?] at that time and the hope of that committee was to advise a judge on the implementation of a court order that was the basic purpose of the Tri-Ethnic Committee. Interviewer-"So, it was five from the white community and five from the Hispanic community and five from the black community, right? Do you ever worked with African Americans before you were appointed in that committee?" Mr. Garza- Well, yes when I was in the school board [?] Well, when I got elected to the school board to the black community in South Dallas, I remember when, during that 1970, I was endorsed by Tom Harold [?] cause that time [?] and when the final vote was taking place on election night [?] had won the election thats before the boys from South Dallas had come in, lol! And, that turned the, the results around and I didn't win it in 1970. So, like I said, I wouldn't [?] in 1970 [?]. So, [?] all along [?] in 1991 after[?] was replaced when we[?] school board member had [?] two or three times been Hispanic on the school board and Rene Castilla wanted to be president of the board. The vice president that had been Evan Yewl and everybody was expecting me to support Evan Yewl as vice president for next president cause as an Hispanic and Rene Castilla being an Hispanic never had a Hispanic of the school board, I had to support Rene Castilla, so that sort of created a feeling of not appreciated the Hispanic community and African American community, but you know, I had my prioities, lol! Interviewer-"You had to have some kind of solidarity?" Mr. Garza-Yea, yea, well I still had some good friends with me. You know, there still was community centers [?] which I'm still in the board of directors with the community centers and other friends were [?] African American community, we all maintained good relationship. So, although, at that point, we had just different ways, I still considered us, all of us on the same boat, trying to get in. Interviewer-"Right." Mr. Garza-And.....

Interview Interview with Trini Garza
Subjects Race Relations › Anglo-Mexican Race Relations
Race Relations › Black-Brown Race Relations
Court Cases › School Desegregation Cases
Quantitative Questions › First Interracial Contact
Tags Tasby v. Estes (1976)
Holmes, Zan
Martinez, Rene
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Interview date 2015-06-11
Interview source CRBB Summer 2015
Interviewees Garza, Trini
Interviewers Bynum, Katherine
Locations Dallas, TX
Duration 00:04:25
Citation "Appointment to the Tri-Ethnic Committee," from Trini Garza oral history interview with Katherine Bynum,  June 11, 2015, Dallas, TX, Civil Rights in Black and Brown Interview Database, https://crbb.tcu.edu/clips/1434/appointment-to-the-tri-ethnic-committee, accessed September 22, 2025