Photo courtesy the City of Phoenix Mayor Red Shupe

As Arizona makes national headlines for its controversial immigration law, history points us to an earlier time when community leaders and politicians were calling for “Pan-Americanism” to welcome commonalities shared by all countries in the Americas.  

President Franklin Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy of the 1930s sought to strengthen ties between the United States and Latin America. World War II sparked a renewed interested in Pan-Americanism as returning veterans and local leaders organized to fight discrimination, according to the Hispanic Historic Property Survey by the Phoenix Historic Preservation Office.

In Phoenix, Mayor Red Shupe declared April 14, 1942, as Pan-American Day and called on businesses and schools to promote it. There were patriotic speeches, special events – even a high school Pan-American Club.

But activists wanted more and leapt to fight discrimination in the Valley. In one case, Spanish-language newspaper El Sol called segregation at Phoenix’s public swimming pools a violation of the “spirit of social equality” promoted by the Good Neighbor Policy, according to the Phoenix survey.

In another move, a group headed by a state lawmaker tried to ferret out rumors that “persons of Spanish language origin” wouldn’t be considered for certain jobs, possibly those related to national defense at a manufacturing plant in Goodyear. The group appealed publicly for “true American unity” to start at home.