When I peeked at my inbox this morning while brushing my teeth, I found that someone (Rod Davis) pointed out something we had missed this week – Frank Hernandez, Dallas County’s first hispanic judge, passed away last Thursday of a heart attack at the age of 73.
Since the obit is behind a Dallas Morning News paywall, I’ll give the Reader’s Digest condensed version. Hernandez was known nationally as a civil rights attorney. As the DMN points out:
“He helped desegregate the Dallas schools, school board and city council. His far-reaching victories included helping persuade Children’s Television Workshop, the producers of PBS’ Seasame Street, to included (sic) Spanish-surnamed Americans on the show. He also founded the Vistas Latin Film Festival in Dallas.”
1976, he was appointed by the commissioner’s court to fill a vacancy at Dallas County Court-at-Law No. 3, and he was sworn in early the next year. He lost his election bid in 1978.
He continued to practice law until the week before he died, his family told the News. The family will receive friends beginning at 6 p.m. tonight at Restland Funeral Home in Dallas, with a rosary being recited at 7:30 p.m. Services will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at Restland.
