American Constitution Society

Skip to content



The American Constitution Society presents "A Class Apart"

The American Constitution Society and its National Partners present:

A Class Apart

A documentary film chronicling the landmark 14th Amendment case, Hernandez v. Texas


Banner photo credit: Lee (Russell) Photograph Collection, Center for American History UT-Austin; John J Herrera Collection, Houston Public Library; San Antonio Light Collection, UTSA’s Institute of Texan Cultures, Courtesy of the Hearst Corporation.

In the tiny town of Edna, Texas, in 1951, a field hand named Pete Hernandez murdered tenant farmer Joe Espinosa after exchanging words in a gritty cantina. From this unremarkable small-town murder emerged a landmark civil rights case that would forever change the lives and legal standing of tens of millions of Americans. "A Class Apart" tells the little-known story of a band of underdog Mexican-American lawyers who took their case, Hernandez v. Texas, all the way to the Supreme Court, where they successfully challenged Jim Crow-style discrimination against Mexican-Americans.

In the landmark case, defense lawyers forged a daring legal strategy, arguing that Mexican-Americans were "a class apart" and did not neatly fit into a legal structure that recognized only blacks and whites. As legal skirmishes unfolded, the lawyers emerged as brilliant, dedicated, humorous and at times terribly flawed men. This film dramatically interweaves the story of its central characters -- activists and lawyers, returning veterans and ordinary citizens, murderer, and victim -- within the broader history of Latinos in America during a time of extraordinary change.

Join us for our screenings of the film nationwide:

Washington, D.C. – Thursday, February 5, 2009

San Francisco, CA – Thursday, February 12, 2009

New York, NY – Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Kansas City, KS – Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Detroit, MI - Friday, April 3, 2009

Nashville, TN - Thursday, April 16, 2009

Denver, CO - Thursday, April 23, 2009

Dallas, TX - Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Boston, MA - Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Philadelphia, PA - Thursday, September 24, 2009

Newark, NJ - Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Chicago, IL - Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Phoenix, AZ - Thursday, November 19, 2009

Portland, OR - Thursday, January 28, 2010

Come back soon to see if there will be a screening near you!