Brown and Blue: Mexican Americans, Law Enforcement, and Civil Rights in the Southwest, 1935-2025

by Brian D. Behnken

Overview

This sweeping history tells a story of fits and starts of Mexican Americans' interactions with law enforcement and the criminal justice system in the US Southwest. Looking at primarily Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas, it tells a complex story: that violent, often racist acts committed by police against Mexican American people sparked protests demanding reform, and criminal justice authorities frequently responded positively to these protests with reforms such as recruiting Mexican Americans into local police forces or altering training procedures at police academies.

Brian D. Behnken demonstrates the central role that the struggle for police reform played in the twentieth-century Chicano movement, whose relevance continues today. By linking social activism and law enforcement, Behnken illuminates how the policing issues of today developed and what reform remains to be done.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469683775
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	12/02/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352

About the Author

Brian D. Behnken is professor of history at Iowa State University and author of Borders of Violence and Justice: Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and Law Enforcement in the Southwest, 1835–1935.
Brian D. Behnken is professor of history at Iowa State University. He also holds affiliate faculty positions in the U.S. Latino/a Studies and African and African American Studies Programs. He is the author of Fighting Their Own Battles: Mexican Americans, African Americans, and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Texas and the editor of Civil Rights and Beyond: African American and Latino/a Activism in the Twentieth-Century United States.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“A vitally needed study of the relationship between law enforcement, violence, and Chicano civil rights activism across the Southwest.”—Max Felker-Kantor, author of DARE to Say No: Policing and the War on Drugs in Schools

“A tour de force account of police brutality against Mexican and Mexican American people in the US Southwest. This important book places police brutality against Mexican and Mexican American people at the very center of carceral histories.”—Robert T. Chase, author of We Are Not Slaves: State Violence, Coerced Labor, and Prisoners’ Rights in Postwar America

Editorial Reviews

“A vitally needed study of the relationship between law enforcement, violence, and Chicano civil rights activism across the Southwest.”—Max Felker-Kantor, author of DARE to Say No: Policing and the War on Drugs in Schools

“A tour de force account of police brutality against Mexican and Mexican American people in the US Southwest. This important book places police brutality against Mexican and Mexican American people at the very center of carceral histories.”—Robert T. Chase, author of We Are Not Slaves: State Violence, Coerced Labor, and Prisoners’ Rights in Postwar America

From the Publisher