American GI Forum
date: label: date made
content: ca 2018
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: The American GI Forum is a Latino veterans civil rights organization. It was established in 1948 by Dr. Hector P. Garcia, a veteran World War II Army veteran and civil rights activist, to fight discrimination faced by Mexican American veterans. In 1949, the organization gained prominence when it drew attention to what became known as the Longoria Affair. Private Felix Longoria, who was Mexican American, had been killed in the Philippines during World War II. When his family sought to bury his remains at a cemetery in his hometown of Three Rivers, Texas, the director of a local funeral home refused to allow the family to use its chapel for discriminatory reasons. Thanks to Garcia’s advocacy in the case, Senator Lyndon Johnson arranged for Longoria to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The American GI Forum became a leading organization working on behalf of Latino veterans and Latino civil rights in the latter 1900s and continues to work on these issues in the 2000s.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Philanthropy
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2020.0084.5
label: accession number
content: 2020.0084
label: catalog number
content: 2020.0084.5
objectType: label: Object Name
content: pin
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 cm x 2.5 cm x 1 cm; 1 3/16 in x 31/32 in x 13/32 in