Vicente T. Ximenes
Vicente T. Ximenes (December 5, 1919 – February 27, 2014) was an American civil servant active in advocating for the civil rights of Mexican Americans. Early life Ximenes was born in 1919 and raised in the town of Floresville, Texas, where he, along with the Mexican American community, were subjected to racial segregation. After graduating from Floresville High School in 1939, Ximenes became a chief clerk in the Civilian Conservation Corps. Ximenes also enrolled in the University of Texas at Austin where he became friends with Dr. Hector P. Garcia, who would later organize the Mexican American civil rights organization the American GI Forum. Accomplishments in civil rights In February 1957, Ximenes was made aware of a racist incident in Colorado, where a local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow a Mexican-American boy to carry the flag in that year's President Lincoln Day ceremony. As the national chairman of the American GI Forum, Ximenes took the lead in publicizing this incident with local and national press. Ximenes also sent telegrams to the national office of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the American GI Forum. UNM Professor, and Ximenes biographer, Michelle Kells explains that,