Texas Public Radio and KLRN invite you to attend the FREE world premiere screening of a A Class Apart.

When: Thursday, February 12, 2009 | 7:30 p.m.
Where: The Bijou at Crossroads Theater

Tickets are available by reservation only on a first-come, first-serve basis (limit four tickets per reservation). Click the "Make Reservation" button or call (800) 622-8977.

About the Film

In the tiny town of Edna, Texas, in 1951, a field hand named Pete Hernandez murdered his employer after exchanging words in a gritty cantina. From this unremarkable small-town murder emerged a landmark civil rights case that would forever change the lives and legal standing of tens of millions of Americans. A Class Apart tells the little-known story of a band of underdog Mexican-American lawyers who took their case, Hernandez v. Texas, all the way to the Supreme Court, where they successfully challenged Jim Crow-style discrimination against Mexican-Americans.

In the landmark legal case, prosecution lawyers forged a daring legal strategy, arguing that Mexican-Americans were "a class apart" and did not neatly fit into a legal structure that recognized only blacks and whites. As legal skirmishes unfolded, the lawyers emerged as brilliant, dedicated, humorous and at times terribly flawed men. This film dramatically interweaves the story of its central characters -- activists and lawyers, returning veterans and ordinary citizens, murderer, and victim -- within the broader history of Latinos in America during a time of extraordinary change. This film is not rated.