Mendez has lived long enough to witness her parents’ legacy and that of four other families over the last 70 years since a lawsuit gave children of color access to the same education as white students. The Sweatt v. Painter case made clear that the separate but equal law established by Plessy v. Ferguson was unattainable in state-supported higher education. If you choose to handwrite your responses, PLEASE WRITE LEGIBLY, in black or blue ink. En Español. The Mendez family joined with others in Orange County, California, to sue four school districts.

Brown v. Board differs from these two cases because instead of focusing on a single university, it declared that all segregated public schools were unconstitutional. And with the help of Sylvia Mendez, the daughter of the plaintiffs in the case, she’s doing just that. In March of 1945, five families in Orange County, California, brought a class action lawsuit against four school districts on behalf of their own children and five thousand other children who were forced to attend segregated schools for Mexican children. We just join together and fight it,” said Mendez. Mendez vs. Westminster was the first big court case that stopped segregation in all the schools systems of the state of California. Restaurants posted signs in their doors reading, “No dogs or Mexicans." This incident eventually served as a catalyst for the mobilization of thousands of Mexican-American families who came together to challenge segregation in four Orange County school districts. Why? Four other families would face the same rejection. She’s tirelessly advocated for including the story behind this case in California’s history textbooks. This was the first time in American history that courts ruled the segregation of schools itself to be in violation of the 14th amendment.

The court ultimately ruled in favor of desegregation and mandated the integration of the elementary schools in those four districts. Learn about the Méndez et al vs. Westminster et al, the 1940s lawsuit that helped end segregation for Latinx children attending California schools. Based specifically on the assigned readings on Mendez v. Westminster and Brown v. Board of Education, please respond to the following questions. The young person’s guide to conquering (and saving) the world. I believe that Houston had a better approach to the issue of school integration because his approach was accepted by more individuals. Houston fought for black civil rights through the legal system. Teen Vogue may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Because of this, Latinx parents have mobilized to fight for their children’s futures on countless occasions throughout history. A few months prior, California governor Earl Warren had signed a bill that ended nearly 100 years of legal school segregation in the state. “Don’t you realize that’s what we were fighting all those years?” her mother asked. Cal. Serving the Santa Ana College Community Since 1923. He argued that the segregation of young children would be detrimental to their educational and mental stability. In 1945, 8-year-old Sylvia Mendez and her two brothers were denied enrollment in the Westminster School District because of a “whites only” policy. (Seventy years later, Sylvia recalled that her only motivation for wanting to go to an all-white school was getting to play in a beautiful playground.). Prior to the Mendez decision, some courts, in cases mainly filed by the NAACP, held that segregated schools attended by African American children violated the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause because they were inferior in resources and quality, not because they were segregated. “When I learned about Mendez, so many of life’s truths became apparent to me, and one of the things was, the truth is that history takes time,” Robbie said. Sorry, but downloading is forbidden on this website. DuBois offended more people by saying that blacks needed to create a change amongst themselves in order to be accepted more in society.

If you see an injustice, there is no reason why we can’t fight it. Eventually, the Supreme Court would cite the case as a precedent to vote in favor of ending racial segregation in classrooms across the nation. They provide the legal foundation and rhetoric by which to challenge school segregation today. With the backing of civil rights attorney David Marcus, the Mendez family joined four other Mexican-American families in filing Méndez et al vs. Westminster et al, a class action lawsuit against four different boards of education, on behalf of 5,000 Mexican-American children attending substandard elementary schools in those Southern California districts. Brown v. Board of Education, at the level of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Fourteenth Amendment became key to the decision. 544 (C.D. Mendez, et al v.Westminster School District, et al, 64 F.Supp.

How about make it original at only $13.9/page? When James L. Kent, the superintendent of one of the school districts being sued, took the stand, he argued for his belief that people of indigenous Mexican descent were intellectually, culturally, and morally inferior to Americans of European descent. Public swimming pools had “Mexican Mondays” after which the pool was drained and cleaned before Anglo residents would step foot in it again. To avoid the hassle of fighting the lawsuit, the school agreed to allow … Like Robbie, Sylvia Mendez says the fight is not over.

1) How did the majority opinion in the Supreme Court’s 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision legally shape race relations in the U.S. over the next half-century? Working-class Latinx immigrants in this country, however, have consistently viewed education as the single most important tool for achieving upward social mobility. Warren went on to become chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, and to write the opinion for Brown v. Board of Education, the case that effectively overturned Plessy v. Ferguson. Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez were appalled by this treatment of their kids. You will be graded on the thoughtfulness of your response and your effort to support your argument. 1946), aff'd, 161 F.2d 774 (9th Cir. Both worked as migrant farmers, moving between Texas, Arizona, and California as the seasons changed. Alice and Virginia shared a light complexion and white features, while her brother’s children — Sylvia, Gonzalo Jr, and Geronimo Méndez — had darker skin and a more indigenous appearance. “What happened was that I didn’t realize what they were fighting for,” Mendez said.

This handout will be graded on a scale of 1-25, with 5 possible points for each question.