Esther Gonzalez-Arroyo Buckley (March 29, 1948 – February 11, 2013) was an educator in Laredo, Texas, USA, who from 1983 to 1992 was one of the eight members of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

After graduation from Martin High School, she attended Laredo Community College[1] and subsequently pursued an undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin, with concentration in biology and mathematics.

Buckley was considered a conservative member in general agreement with Reagan's social policies while she served on the commission, an advisory and investigatory board originally established through the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

She had no direct experience in dealing with civil rights issues, opposed the defeated Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution and objected to school busing, quotas, and affirmative action as proper methods to level the playing field for minorities in competition with whites in matters of education and employment.

[5] Buckley served under three chairmen, all African Americans: the strongly conservative Clarence M. Pendleton, Jr., from San Diego, California, and after his death, William B. Allen, and, finally, Arthur Fletcher, a liberal Republican allied with President George Herbert Walker Bush.

Her service on the Webb County Commission on Higher Education led to the establishment of a four-year degree-granting public institution now known as Texas A&M International University, from which she received a Master of Science degree in 1975.

As Republican chairman in Laredo, Esther Buckley was an ex officio member of the Webb County Election Board through which she lobbied steadily for the sanctity of the ballot.

According to Martha Cigarro de Llano of the Laredo law firm of Person, Whitworth, Borchers, and Morales, Buckley was involved in local elections for decades in almost every capacity: a volunteer for candidates, the qualifying and counting of votes, numerous recounts petitioned by candidates or ordered by state district court judges, and in ensuring that every vote was counted in a transparent manner, giving effect to every voter's ballot.

She worked very long, grueling hours alongside election officials, candidates, volunteers, and others in a patient yet firm, demanding manner.

She will always be remembered for her incredible, meaningful life and will be missed ....[10]Buckley was killed in a two-vehicle accident in Webb County fifteen miles north of Laredo.

She was the passenger in a 2007 Dodge minivan driven by her son, James Joseph Buckley (born c. 1971), an English teacher at the Vidal M. Trevino School of Communication and Fine Arts within LISD in downtown Laredo.

[11] On the return trip from Austin to Laredo at the intersection of Interstate 35 and the Columbia Toll Road they were struck by a 2007 Mack bobtail tractor headed east on Texas Highway 255.

The truck driver, Rene Gutierrez Elizondo (born c. 1966) of Laredo, escaped the crash with minor lacerations and bruises.