Police Brutality and Mexican American Families in Texas, 1945–1980

• Author: Brent M. S. Campney
• DOI: 10.1177/00027162211006016
• Published date: 01 March 2021
• Date: 01 March 2021

108 ANNALS, AAPSS, 694, March 2021

DOI: 10.1177/00027162211006016

Police Brutality

and Mexican

American

Families in

Texas, 1945–

1980

By

BRENT M. S. CAMPNEY

1006016ANN The Annals Of The American AcademyPolice Brutality and Mexican American Families in Texas

research-article2021

Scholarly literature on racist violence has typically

focused on the experiences of young males who suffer

a disproportionate share of the police violence directed

at their communities. This study widens our view of the

effects of racist violence by examining the experiences

of the family members of these men, and particularly

the wives, children, parents, and siblings. The article

shows that family members often witnessed the abuse

of their loved ones, endured feelings of helplessness in

the face of these acts of violence, confronted threats (or

worse) from these officers at the time or subsequently,

and experienced firsthand the injustice of the justice

system. The article builds on a recent scholarship on

racist violence—primarily lynchings—that focuses on

the effects of this violence on the families and commu-

nities of the victims.

Keywords: Mexican Americans; Texas; family; racist

violence; police brutality

In 1952, Federico Gutiérrez, a Mexican

American resident of Beeville, Texas, died

after the local sheriff, Vail Ennis, beat him with

a chain and shot him during an arrest. When he

perished, Gutiérrez left behind a devastated

family, including “several children who now

have no father” (La Verdad 1952, 1). After the

Gutiérrez killing, Mexican Americans, along

with some Anglos, organized to defeat the ree-

lection bid of Sheriff Ennis, who had killed

three other Mexican Americans seven years

earlier. They focused on the propensity of the

officer to slay husbands and fathers. “The same

day word of Ennis’ intent to run for re-election

ran,” the Houston Chronicle recalled, an

Brent M. S. Campney is a professor in the Department

of History at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

He is the author of This Is Not Dixie: Racist Violence

in Kansas, 1861–1927 (University of Illinois Press

2015) and Hostile Heartland: Racism, Repression, and

Resistance in the Midwest (University of Illinois Press

2019).

Correspondence: brent.campney@utrgv.edu