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Medrano / Pancho Medrano v. A.Y. Allee

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Acuña-Gurrola: Dallas held a few statewide meetings, right, for the Brown Berets? Medrano: Oh sure, sure, well, you know, help Cesar Chavez do the march from the valley to Austin to, they said if you march in here he won't arrest you when you get to Austin or he won't try to stop you before you get here. So the Brown Berets were sort of escorts and get the word back out, we'll be there when, no telling what would happen they would say, but we're there to let you know that the Rangers are arresting picketers which is, you know, based on that right there is where my father was arrested in San Juan because he was picketing. And of course if you know anything about farm roads there's no sidewalks, you know, you have to, and there's gutters, so you have to walk on farm roads picketing like this and if a car came, a car can hit you, I mean, they can hit you right over. And so my father was [marching] and so the Texas Rangers came by and says, "you're obstructing traffic, you're obstructing traffic, buddy." And so they arrested him, of course the United Auto Workers came in, bailed him out and everything, and his lawsuit is in the United States Supreme Court, and he won it, and it's Pancho Medrano vs. A Y Allee. A Y Allee is the captain of the Texas Rangers. Acuña-Gurrola: Ok Medrano: And that's a US Supreme Court ruling that my father is in the books of winning, and it says you allow picketing in farmers areas, because the farmer says "That's my land!" No, that's not your land, where's the property line that says your land? So they were trying to avoid picketing in front of big farms, because if they were doing it in Coachella, in Cesar Chavez doing the picketing out there in the highways, and they weren't doing nothing to them, and major highways, they were out there, then why are you gonna arrest these guys picketing up and down farm roads? So that's why. Acuña-Gurrola: What year was that, that your father was involved in- Medrano: Oh no- Acuña-Gurrola: Do you remember off the top of your head? Medrano: I got that, we got the book of the whole, Acuña-Gurrola: Right, I saw it when I was taking notes and I just didn't put it on here, but I probably should've done- Medrano: Well that needs to be there, A Y Allee, the Supreme Court, Pancho Medrano vs. A Y Allee.

Interview Interview with Robert Medrano
Subjects Citizenship › Political Rights
Work › Labor Unions
Work › Working Conditions
White Resistance to Civil Rights
White Resistance to Civil Rights › Extrajudicial Violence
Court Cases
Police and Law Enforcement
Police and Law Enforcement › Texas Rangers
Police and Law Enforcement › Community Relations and Law Enforcement
Police and Law Enforcement › Political Imprisonment
Direct Action › Picket lines
Direct Action › Strikes
Chicano Power › Brown Berets
People › Chavez, Cesar
Police and Law Enforcement › Federal Law Enforcement
Tags United Auto Workers
Medrano, Francisco "Pancho"
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Interview date 2015-06-10
Interview source CRBB Summer 2015
Interviewees Medrano, Robert
Interviewers Acuña-Gurrola, Moisés
Duration 00:02:43
Citation "Pancho Medrano v. A.Y. Allee," from Robert Medrano oral history interview with Moisés Acuña-Gurrola,  June 10, 2015, Dallas, TX, Civil Rights in Black and Brown Interview Database, https://crbb.tcu.edu/clips/861/pancho-medrano-v-a-y-allee, accessed November 23, 2024