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García V. The City Of Taft - The Struggle For Representation, Joseph J. Garcia

Chicano, Hispano, Latino Library Program

The case for this paper is based on García v. Taft, which was heard in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Corpus Christi Division, Civil Action NO. C-84-230, in 1985. The final decision was made in 1989. The case addresses a gerrymandered, at-large election system in the City of Taft, which was used to keep African-American and Mexican-American residents from taking part in city elections. The gerrymandered city boundaries did not include a large portion of the city inhabited by the Mexican-American voting block. To this day, a large part of this voting block is …