Fighting for social justice: Texas RioGrande Legal Aid Executive Director announces retirement

MERCEDES — David Hall admits he came to the Valley in 1969 with the goal to wipe out poverty.

Although that dream was not attained, he certainly made a huge dent helping the underpaid and exploited migrant workers and many others of the Rio Grande Valley and beyond.

“The problems are enormous and all you can do is chisel them down,” Hall said Wednesday about his social justice efforts over the years. “I have broken a few chisels.”

Hall has led the Texas RioGrande Legal Aid from its early days. That’s when it began as a small organization with eight or nine attorneys defending South Texas farm workers.

It has grown into the nation’s third largest legal aid provider, serving 25,000 people annually, with 175 attorneys and in several states.

It’s been 42 years in which he has been part of helping the impoverished and oppressed in Texas who live in colonias, barrios and poor neighborhoods.

Now, at 75, he is ready to retire. Hall said he may spend more time on the sailboat or at his farm outside of Austin that “needs some attention.”

According to his peers, Hall will be missed.

“He’s never shied away from a fight,” said Texas housing expert and 2014 MacArthur Fellow John Henneberger. “David and the people he leads at TRLA are legendary in Texas colonias, barrios and poor neighborhoods for their aggressive, fearless, first rate lawyering for the most impoverished and oppressed Texans.”

Hall called it an honor to work alongside his colleagues and friends who have “such inspiring values, compassion and dedication for justice — siga la lucha.”

“It’s an insurmountable problem, but well worth tackling,” Hall said about his years at the helm of the TRLA.

Hall’s desires have always been to help others less fortunate.

After a stint in the Peace Corps in Venezuela, Hall studied law at the University of Texas at Austin. It was then he watched with concern as underpaid, exploited Rio Grande Valley farm workers began to strike for better wages and conditions in the 1960s.

Years later, he would tell “Texas Lawyer” magazine that he realized, “If I could be a lawyer where I could do some good, it would probably be there.”

After graduating, Hall worked as an attorney in the Valley for the United Farm Workers and ACLU. He later joined the TRLA, which was called the Texas Rural Legal Aid back then.

In 1975, he became its director. Under his guidance, TRLA has merged with four other legal aid organizations in San Antonio, El Pas and the Coastal Bend. The TRLA now serves 68 counties in Southwest Texas and its projects have expanded to serve migrant and seasonal farm workers in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Under Hall’s leadership, TRLA has won “game-changing” lawsuits, including one in against the Federal Emergency Management Agency for people whose homes in the Valley were damaged by Hurricane Dolly.

In 2008, the TRLA defended hundreds of mothers from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints whose children were taken away by Child Protective Services during a raid on the group’s settlement in El Dorado.

“David was fighting the forces of darkness long before many folks even knew that evil existed in Texas,” said Juanita Valdez-Cox, executive director of LUPE. “David leaves a legacy that lives in the hearts of so many people, a positive difference that will not be soon forgotten. We are proud to call David a friend who has never run from a good fight.”

Hall said he hopes to think the years of work and the TRLA have been “effective.”

“It’s had its impact,” Hall said of the TRLA. “I have enjoyed my time.”

A hiring committee will conduct a nationwide, comprehensive search for Hall’s replacement.

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