Gustavo C. Garcia

Who was Gustavo C. Garcia?

Gustavo "Gus" C. Garcia was a Mexican-American civil rights attorney.

Garcia worked with fellow attorney Carlos Cadena in the landmark case Hernández v. Texas, arguing before the US Supreme Court for the end of a practice of systematic exclusion of Hispanics from jury service in Jackson County, Texas. Even though Mexican-Americans composed more than 10% of the county's population, no person of Mexican ancestry had served on a jury there and in 70 other Texas counties in over 25 years. The high court, led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, ruled that United States citizens could not be excluded from jury duty based on national origin, because such exclusion denied the accused a jury of his peers.