After the Rice Funeral Home in Three Rivers, Texas, refused to grant burial services to Pvt. Felix Z. Longoria Jr., a Mexican American soldier killed in action in WWII, Héctor P. García sent a telegram on behalf of the GI Forum to then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson. In the Western Union telegram, dated January 10, 1949, García asks that government action be taken to prevent future discrimination against any soldier regardless of ethnicity.
