A decade earlier than the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case ended racial segregation in colleges throughout the nation, a Mexican household in California paved the way in which for equality in colleges.
At the middle of the 1946 case was Sylvia Mendez, an 8-year-old lady in Westminster, California, who dreamed of going to the “beautiful school” white youngsters attended and never the Mexican college down the street.
Her household ultimately received the Mendez v. Westminster case, which outlawed using particular colleges for Spanish-speaking youngsters in Westminster, ultimately ending segregation as a complete throughout California.
“This is the history of the United States, the history of California,” Mendez informed the Los Angeles Times in 2016. “Mendez isn’t just about Mexicans. It’s about everybody coming together. If you start fighting for justice, then people of all ethnicities will become involved.”
The first occasion of discrimination got here when the varsity turned the Mendez youngsters away
The Mendez household’s combat began in 1944 after transferring to the world to lease a farm from a Japanese American household who had been compelled into an internment camp. When Mendez and her siblings tried to register for the 17th Street School, which white youngsters attended, they have been turned away whereas their cousins with fairer pores and skin and a French final identify have been allowed to register.
Mendez’s aunt refused to face for the discrimination and left with all the children. When Mendez’s dad, Gonzalo, tried to treatment the scenario and was once more denied, despite the fact that he had attended the varsity in his youth, the farmworker determined to combat again.
It wasn’t simply the racial discrimination that bothered the Mendez household. The Mexican college didn’t have the identical facilities as the opposite and have been used to Americanize the kids. The college consisted of two wood shacks crammed with second-hand books, defective desks and little stimulation. Mendez recalled to the Los Angeles Times how the scholars weren’t taught to learn and write, however as an alternative, the boys have been prepped for labor work and the ladies instructed on housekeeping duties like knitting and stitching.
The Mendez household then drew different individuals to the trigger
While Mendez’s mom, Felicitas, took over the working of the farm, Gonzalo employed a lawyer who had beforehand received a desegregation case and began making the rounds in California in search of different dad and mom prepared to face up for his or her youngsters.
Gonzalo and David Marcus, a civil rights legal professional, ultimately discovered 4 different households from totally different districts to construct a stronger case.
The 5 males filed a lawsuit in federal courtroom towards the 4 Orange County college districts they got here from, which might go on to be generally known as the Mendez v. Westminster case. It represented about 5,000 Mexican American youngsters within the districts. While the lads argued their youngsters weren’t given the identical studying alternatives because the white youngsters within the districts, Mendez remembers not understanding what was taking place.
“We went to court every day, I listened to what they were saying, but really I was dreaming about going back to that beautiful school,” she recalled to the Los Angeles Times.
Their arguments received, with the judges and civil rights group siding with the households
On February 18, 1946, lower than a 12 months after they filed, Judge Paul J. McCormick ruled in strong favor of the Mendez family and their co-plaintiffs.
“The proof clearly reveals that Spanish-speaking youngsters are retarded in studying English by lack of publicity to its use due to segregation, and that commingling of the whole scholar physique instills and develops a standard cultural angle among the many college youngsters which is crucial for the perpetuation of American establishments and beliefs,” McCormick wrote in his ruling.
Though the varsity districts appealed, the ruling was held a 12 months later and Mendez was allowed to enroll in 17th Street School, the place she endured racial bullying from classmates.
“I used to be crying and crying, and informed my mom, ‘I don’t wish to go to the white college!’ And she stated, ‘Sylvia, you were in court every day. Don’t you realize what we have been combating? We weren’t combating so you could possibly go to that lovely white college. We have been combating since you’re equal to that white boy,’“ Mendez later recalled.
While geographically small, the case had lasting ramifications
Mendez v. Westminster would go on to depart an enduring legacy on the essential individuals round it. Future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, then an NAACP legal professional, wrote an amicus temporary on the case supporting the Mendez trigger. He would go on to use some of the same arguments in Brown v. Board of Education lower than a decade later whereas serving because the lead legal professional on the case.
It additionally impacted then-California Governor Earl Warren, who entirely outlawed school segregation in the state after the Mendez ruling was upheld by federal courtroom. In a fateful twist of occasions, Warren had grow to be Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court by the point Marshall argued Brown v. Board of Education in entrance of him in 1954. Warren wrote the unanimous choice formally declaring college segregation legal guidelines unconstitutional throughout all states.
President Barack Obama awards Sylvia Mendez the Medal of Freedom in 2011
Photo: Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post through Getty Images
Mendez continues to honor her father and mom’s work to at the present time
Though the ruling immediately influenced the choice within the more-famous Brown case, the Mendez household was seldom talked about in the identical reverence. Gonzalo died in 1964 at age 51, unaware of how his combat would go on to alter the nation. When Felicitas later fell ailing and died in 1998, she requested her daughter to proceed bringing consideration to what their household achieved.
Mendez, now in her 80s, has devoted her life to her household’s reminiscence since. After working as a nurse for 30 years, Mendez retired and now provides talks throughout the nation to focus on how her household’s combat paved the way in which for desegregation.
The 12 months her mom died, the Santa Ana college district named a college the “Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez Fundamental Intermediate School” to honor her and her husband. On the 60th anniversary of the case, the household was commemorated with a particular stamp from the U.S. Postal Service.
In February 2011, Mendez was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom below President Barack Obama, cementing her household’s legacy.
“When I bought it I couldn’t cease crying, as a result of I used to be pondering lastly my mom and father are getting the thanks they deserve,” Mendez informed the Los Angeles Times. “This is theirs, not mine. They stood up against the establishment.”
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