Can the Good Neighbor Commission Work in Texas?

Can the Good Neighbor Commission Work in Texas?

Mexican American Activism

Memo from Texas Governor Allan Shivers addressing the Good Neighbor Commission.

Texas Governor Allan Shivers

Dolph Briscoe Center for American History (Good Neighbor Commission Records, 1949-1950: Box 3W106).

Texas Governor's Office

1950

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Memorandum

English

Still Image

Texas State Government

Here is a list of what you can do in Texas to be good neighbors:
1) You can speak out--with dignity but with conviction-- for the American principle of fair play.
Here is an opportunity for every newspaper, every
radio commentator, for every public speaker, for every teacher, for every citizen. Discrimination against Latin-American people in public places, hostility on the school grounds, refusal to employ Latin-American teachers who can do the job, refusal to pay an equal wage for equal work--all these are not fair. Let us say so. Public opinion is a great democratic monitor. Let's put it to work.
2) You can organize local groups to discuss inter-American problems, to examine relations in your own community, and to act as citizens of good will in adjusting problems in human relations. The Governor of Texas has asked for the formation of local human relations councils for this purpose. If your town does not have one, go to your mayor and ask him about forming one. There are 25 such councils in the state now as the result of the recommendations of Governor Shivers and the efforts of the Good Neighbor Commission. There should be 200.
3) See that your school does its human relations job.Are the Latin-
American children pushed off to one side? Made to feel out of place and un-happy? Find the way to bring them into the group.
Children can be thoughtless and cruel, but children also have a great wealth of friendliness if it is properly exploited. That is your
opportunity--especially if you are a parent or teacher.
Is your local school getting a full attendance of the school children in its district? Our records show that many Texas schools are getting only a little more than half of the registered scholastic population. The Gilmer-Aiken Law has not done the job on school attendance. The law exists. Ask your County Judge to enforce it.
Is Spanish taught in your school? You can also help by seeing that your superintendent includes Spanish in his curriculum. Are our own Latin-American teachers being given an opportunity to teach conversational Spanish as they are so well prepared to do?
How about the teaching of Texas history? Does it create prejudice?
you can bring this up for examination.
4) Finally, if you wish any help or action in any of the fields of opportunity for better inter-American relations, you can write to the Good Neighbor Commission in Austin. We will find the way to help you, for we believe in doing the job that the Legislature of Texas asked us to do. We are at your service. Can we make the Good Neighbor Policy work in Texas? If we can't, how do we expect to make it work in the rest of the world? I think that the natural friendliness and fairness, the optimism, and the principle of free education of the American people will do the job--hard as it is.
I think that if we add a little philosophy, a little spiritual understanding, and even a little laughter from our Latin neighbors, the job will not be hard. I say we can make the Good Neighbor Policy work in Texas!

Memorandum