Collection Guide
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Latino Community Justice Center Records,
1987-1991
MSS 079
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Table of contents
Title: Latino Community Justice Center Records,
Date (inclusive): 1987-1991
Collection number: MSS 079
Creator:
Latino Community Justice Center
Extent:
3 legal document boxes;
1 linear foot
Repository:
Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research
Los Angeles, CA 90044
Abstract: This is a collection of case files from the Latino Community Justice Center. Each of the case files documents a complaint
regarding misconduct/abuse on the part of police or sheriffs department personnel or misconduct/abuse on the part of the Immigration
and Naturalization Service (I.N.S.). This collection also contains one administrative file from the Center.
Language:
English.
The collection is available for research only at the Library's facility in Los Angeles. The Library is open from 10 a.m. to
4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. Researchers are encouraged to call or email the Library indicating the nature of their research
query prior to making a visit.
Copyright has not been assigned to the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research. Researchers may NOT make
any copies of any portion of the collection and no names of individuals appearing in the records may be recorded, noted or
published until the year 2040. Publication of other material from the collection will be allowed only with the express written
permission of the Library's director. When the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research gives permission
for publication, it is as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright
holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.
[Identification of item], Latino Community Justice Center Records, Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research,
Los Angeles, California.
Cynthia Anderson, an employee of the Latino Community Justice Center, donated these materials to the Library in 1993.
The Latino Community Justice Center was formed by Antonio H. Rodriguez, Father Greg Boyle, S.J. and other community activists
in 1987. It was established with the mission to provide amnesty and other legal services to the East Los Angeles community
in general, and immigrant workers in particular. From their offices on Brooklyn Avenue in East Los Angeles, Antonio H. Rodriguez,
Executive Director of the Center, and his staff conducted legal aid clinics for members of the community who had been victims
of police misconduct or abuse.
Antonio H. Rodriguez, both lawyer and activist, began practicing law in 1972, representing various community activists, who
had been charged with failure to disperse, in a series of trials. That same year he also took over the appeal of one of the
three community activists known as "Los Tres del Barrio". In 1974 Antonio traveled to Kansas to represent one of the Leavenworth
Brothers, a group of inmates charged with several counts of kidnapping prison guards during a prison strike for better prison
conditions. Antonio Rodriguez practiced public interest law exclusively, working at various times for Legal Aid, the Mexican-American
Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice, before joining with Father Boyle and others
in 1987 to form the Latino Community Justice Center.
Father Greg Boyle, S.J., once pastor of Dolores Mission, has devoted his time, energies and influence to the Pico/Aliso District
community of East Los Angeles. Nicknamed G-Dog by the gang members he ministers to, Father Boyle joined the Jesuit Order in
1984 because of its social-activist bent. He has spent his years serving both his community's religious needs and its economic
and social needs as well. In 1994 Father Boyle received the assignment to concentrate exclusively on job development and related
ministries with neighborhood gangs. Through Jobs For a Future (JFF), Father Boyle has begun Homeboy Industries, Homeboy Bakery,
Homeboy Landscaping, Homeboy Cleaning Service and Homeboy Artesania.
These two men, along with local community activists, recognized their impoverished community's desperate and vital need for
legal services. Being men accustomed to action, they discovered a solution and worked together to form the Latino Community
Justice Center, which served the communities of East Los Angeles and beyond from 1987 until 1991.
The Latino Community Justice Center Records are comprised of 175 case files from the Center, dating from 1987-1991. Each file
contains documents relating to a claim of misconduct/abuse on the part of either a police or sheriffs department in the Los
Angeles area or the Immigration and Naturalization Service (I.N.S.). Most files contain a citizen's complaint declaration,
a questionnaire and a description of the incident(s) of misconduct or abuse. Some files contain correspondence from the Center
and from the various police or sheriffs departments involved. One administrative file containing correspondence regarding
a copier machine lease is also included in this Collection.
Arrangement
The collection is divided into 2 series:
1. Case Files, 1988-1991 and
2. Administrative Files, 1987-1989.
Arrangement
The collection has been arranged alphabetically according to clients' last names.
No items have been removed from this Collection.
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