SMU Names First Human Rights Scholar To Honor Santos Rodriguez
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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – SMU has awarded the first recipient of the Santos Rodriguez Memorial Scholarship in honor of a 12-year-old whose 1973 shooting death by a Dallas police officer briefly imprisoned for the crime remains one of the nation's most troubling civil rights incidents.
It goes to sophomore human rights and anthropology major Karly Zrake, who SMU says has been active in community service since childhood.
"I'm immensely grateful for the financial support at SMU," says Zrake, who was raised in a single-parent household. "It's helped me see that if you want to dedicate your life to others, there are ways to make it happen."
The endowed scholarship, funded by Dallas' Latino Center for Leadership Development in partnership with the Embrey Human Rights Program, will help Zrake and future students earn an undergraduate degree in human rights at SMU.
And as they celebrate the award to Zrake, the Embrey program also helped Santos' mother, Bessie Rodriguez, attend a Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) tribute to her son in Seattle Monday, Nov. 2.
"Karly's passion for human rights will help drive positive change in our society, which is the goal of this scholarship – to educate people while honoring the memory of Santos," says Dallas businessman and SMU alumnus Jorge Baldor '93, who launched the Latino CLD in March with Miguel Solis, Dallas ISD school board vice president.
"As the scholarship's first recipient, Karly will be an ambassador for human rights education at SMU, which is one of only seven universities in the country to offer such a program," says Bradley Klein, assistant director of the Embrey Human Rights Program in Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. "She'll have many opportunities to create dialogue on racial, economic, gender and cultural differences."
Since joining SMU in 2014, Zrake has been a Dedman Scholar, maintaining a 4.0 grade point average while working part-time for the Embrey Human Rights Program, assisting Roberto Corona with Latino community outreach initiatives and helping coordinate the program's first 10-day study trip in June focused on past and present human rights struggles of Native Americans.
Zrake plans "to enlighten others about Santos' story, especially those in my generation who may not know about the tragedy," she says. "My hope is for his name to live on and be associated with change and justice."
Santos and his 13-year-old brother, David, were illegally taken from their Dallas home July 24, 1973, handcuffed, and put in a police car. In an effort to elicit information on a recent burglary of less than $10 from a soft-drink machine, one of the officers in the car placed a revolver against Santos' head and killed the boy in a forced game of Russian roulette. Physical evidence discovered at the burglary site supported the brothers' innocence.
The incident sparked national public outcry and led to the only race riot in Dallas history. Officer Darrell Cain was sentenced to five years in prison, but released after half that time. In 2013 – 40 years after the incident – Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings issued an official apology on behalf of the city of Dallas to the Rodriguez family.
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