Dr. Julian Samora (March 1, 1920 – February 2, 1996) was an American teacher, scholar and community activist who helped to pioneer the field of Latino Studies.
[1] Samora was the first Mexican-American to ever receive a doctorate in sociology; and, by the end of his academic career, he was named Professor Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame.
When asked how he felt about this discriminatory event he said, “Oh, it hurt so much.” He ran for student body president his senior year in college and lost by one vote.
Julian was one of twenty-nine students that were selected, allowing him to go to Adams State Teacher's College in Alamosa, Colorado where he graduated in 1942 with a degree in history and political science.
During his career he served on the board of or was a consultant to the following: He was co-founder, with Ernesto Galarza and Herman Gallegos, of the Southwest (now National) Council of La Raza, and was instrumental in the founding of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund.
His greatest accomplishment, he told an interviewer, was his Mexican-American Graduate Studies Program at Notre Dame, which was funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation in 1971.
He served as mentor and trainer of at least fifty-seven students who went through the program from 1971 to 1985, most of them graduating with advanced degrees in law, political science, psychology, history, government, sociology and economics.
When he received the news that he had progressive supranuclear palsy, a terminal neurological disorder, he thanked the neurologist, Dr. Neal Hermanowicz, for telling him what was wrong, for there was relief in finally having the correct diagnosis, and then he cried.