PANCHO MEDRANO

1920-2002

A major Texas labor figure in organizing and civil rights, Pancho Medrano worked successfully to improve the status of minority workers and voters in Texas, often under harsh criticism from political foes. 

In 1943, Medrano helped organize UAW Local 645 (now Local 848) at North American Aircraft (now Vought) in Grand Prairie. He worked locally until UAW president Walter Reuther tapped him in the early 1950s as a special representative for civil rights. 

In the coming decades, when the nation saw landmark developments in the rights of minorities, Medrano stood tall for union involvement, working with the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez. This was an era in which Medrano’s recruitment of workers to the union in Spanish produced objections, but Medrano always stood his ground. Medrano later became lead plaintiff in a U.S. Supreme Court case that ended Texas Rangers’ activities aimed at busting the United Farm Workers union. 

National Democratic political figures spanning half a century knew Medrano as a reliable advocate in Texas. The Medrano family, several of whom went on to hold public office, remains a mainstay ally of the labor movement.