Mendez v. Westminster School District

Mendez v. Westminster School District
School Desegregation and Civil Rights Stories:
Orange County, California
In the Fall of 1944, Gonzalo and Felicita Mendez tried to enroll their children in the Main
Street School, which Gonzola had attended as a child. However, the school district had
redrawn boundary lines that excluded the Mexican neighborhoods. (The school district
also segregated Japanese American children. However, it passed a resolution in
January 1945 allowing these children to attend the Main Street School.) The Mendez
children were assigned to Hoover Elementary School, which was established for
Mexican children. Other Orange County Latino parents faced similar situations with their
children. With the help of the United Latin American Citizens (LUCAC), they joined with
the Mendez family and sued four local school districts, including Westminster and Santa
Ana, for segregating their children and 5,000 others. This suit was heard in both state
and federal courts.
At the state trial, Orange County superintendents used stereotypical imagery (using a
few characteristics to represent a whole group of people) of Mexicans to explain the
basis of school policy. One declared, "Mexicans are inferior in personal hygiene, ability,
and in their economic outlook." He further stated that their lack of English prevented
them from learning Mother Goose rhymes and that they had hygiene deficiencies,(health
problems caused by not keeping clean) like lice, impetigo, tuberculosis, and generally
dirty hands, neck, face and ears. These he stated warranted separation.
The attorney for Mendez, David Marcus, called in expert social scientists as witnesses to
address the stereotypes. He also challenged, based on the 14th Amendment, the
constitutionality of education segregation. He also had Fourteen-year-old Carol Torres
take the stand to counter claims that Mexican children did not speak English. Felicita
Mendez also gave testimony about her family life: "We always tell our children they are
Americans."
It took also almost a year for state Judge Paul McCormick to make his decision. He
ruled that there was no justification in the laws of California to segregate Mexican
children and that doing so was a "clear denial of the equal protection clause of the 14th
Amendment". The school districts filed an appeal, partly on the basis of a states' rights
strategy. In 1947 the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court upheld the state court's ruling and the
Orange County school districts dropped the case.
The case, Mendez v. Westminster School District, landed an important blow to school
segregation in California. The case represents one of the growing efforts of Mexican
Americans in the 20th Century to cast off systematic prejudice, confronting issues of
race, class and citizenship. The Mendez case is also important because it underscored
that the struggle for civil rights in America crossed regional, racial and ethnic lines.
Amicus curiae briefs were filed in this case by NAACP (coauthored by Thurgood
Marshall) and several other civil rights organizations, including the American Jewish
Congress, the ACLU, the Japanese American League and the National Lawyers Guild.
The case resulted in the California legislature passing the Anderson bill, a measure that
repealed all California school codes mandating segregation. The bill was then signed by
the governor, Earl Warren.
Source: http://www.archives.gov/midatlantic/education/desegregation/orange-county.html
Click here to listen to a ten minute interview with Sylvia
Mendez :
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17842
43
Click on View to see an 8 minute narrated slide show about the
case:
http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/osi04.soc.ush.civil.m
endez/
Ruling Gives Children Equal Rights
Historically, the Supreme Court's decision
in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case, racial segregation became the law of the land as the
ruling claimed "separate but equal" public facilities would be established. The
assumption was that public facilities would be separate but equal on all counts. In
education, it was common practice to have separate schools for African Americans or
Mexican Americans and Anglos. The Mendez v. Westminster School District case (1947)
was a monumental step forward to end segregation of Mexican American school children
in California.
At the turn of the century, Mexican American children in the Southwest often were
separated from Anglo school children and segregated into "Mexican" schools. The
Mexican schools were typically shacks or barns rather than equal institutional structures
to that of "Anglo" schools. The Mexican schools were commonly unequal in books, desks,
school supplies, and they were often given the used, damaged and outdated books from
the Anglo schools.
In 1945, Mexican parents tried to enroll their children into the Main Street Elementary
School located in the Westminster School District, Orange County, California. Main
Street School was an Anglo school not an integrated school. The children were turned
away from the school and sent to Hoover School (see photograph above), a "Mexican"
elementary school. One such family was the Mendezes (see photograph below). As the
Mendez parents, Gonzalo and Felicitas, attempted to enroll their children at the Main
Street School their children were refused admission because they were Mexican.
Led by the Mendezes, the parents of the
Mexican American children, united against segregation in their school district and
community. Filing a class action lawsuit on behalf of 5,000 families, the Mexican parents
disputed against four school districts, including Westminster and Santa Ana, in the Los
Angeles federal court for segregating their children. The case became known as the
Mendez v. Westminster School District. The Mendez's counsel, David Marcus, a Los
Angeles attorney was sought and funded by the League of United Latin American
Citizens (LULAC). Marcus argued in court for desegregation of California's schools "on
the grounds that perpetuation of school admissions on the basis of race or nationality
violated the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the National Constitution."2 In
response, the defendants argued that Mexican children were unfit and
incapable to attend the "Anglo" school.
The defense claimed that the Mexican American children possessed
contagious diseases, had poor moral habits, were inferior in their personal
hygiene, spoke only Spanish and lacked English speaking skills. Thus, the
children are unqualified to attend Anglo schools and facilities. Despite much
opposition from the Anglo Orange County community and school districts, in
1946, federal judge Paul J. McCormick ruled in favor
of Mendezes and the co-plaintiffs. McCormick
found that '"the segregation of Mexican Americans in public schools was a
violation of the state law"" and unconstitutional under the Fourteenth
Amendment because of the denial of due process and equal protection.3
Thus, McCormick struck down systematic segregation in public schools in
California.
1 "'Before 'Brown v. The Board of Education.'" Claudio Sanchez. Natl. Public Radio. 22 Mar. 2004, 30 Aug. 2007,
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1784243.
2. "A History of Mexican American Schools in California." Historic Sites. 17 Nov. 2004. 30 Aug. 2007,
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/5views/5views5h99.htm
3 Ruiz, Vicki. "We Tell Our Children They are Americans." The Brown Quarterly. 6:3 (2004) 30 Aug. 2007,
http://brownboard.org/brwnqurt/06-3.
Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez photo source: http://www.chicano.ucla.edu/center/events/052104_mendez.html
School children photo source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?Id=1784243
Source: http://mendezwestminstercase.blogspot.com/
An Interview with Sylvia Mendez
You Asked, ‘Get That Education!’
Photo: Alain Jehlen
A desegregation pioneer speaks out.
Sylvia Mendez made history as an eight-year-old. When local officials refused to admit her to an
all-White California public school in 1943, her parents went to federal court and won at the
Appeals Court level, in a precursor to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court
decision. Now retired from a career in nursing, Mendez devotes much of her time to speaking at
schools.
Melanie Horton, a teacher in Okinawa, asks: How did the White children treat
you?
I walk into the school with all the little White children, and the teacher says, “Welcome, Sylvia!
Children, we have a new person. Her name is Sylvia Mendez. Can everybody say hi?” Everybody
says hi. But [when] the bell rings and we go out to play in the schoolyard, this little White boy
says, “You don’t belong in this school. Mexicans are not allowed.” So I was crying, and I go
home and tell my mother I don’t want to be in that school. They don’t want me. My mother tells
me, “Sylvia, you’re just as good as that little boy.”
But the other children treated you better?
A girl invited me to her party at her home, and then the other children, when they would have
birthday parties, invited us. So when I talk to kids in elementary schools, I say, “You were not
born with this instinct to hate. We don’t have to be that way because we are of one race—the
human race.”
Professor Theresa Montaño of California State University Northridge asks: Your
parents’ dream of equal education—how is that going? Hispanics are the most
segregated group in America.
I can’t believe it: We’re more segregated now than in the 1940s! The two schools named after my
mother and father are almost 99 percent Latino. But we have so many people working towards
righting this wrong again. It can be done.
Faith Mowoe, a teacher in Rialto, California, who has studied your case with her
students, asks: How would you reach Hispanic and African-American students
who do not fully appreciate the importance of getting the education their
ancestors fought for?
I go to schools and say, people have fought for you and will continue to fight for you, but you
need to get that education!
My parents fought. They gave me this fabulous life that we have here in the United States, where
you go to school, get educated, and work very hard at whatever it is you want. Mine was nursing.
You’re not going to get rich as a nurse, but the rewards are wonderful. It’s like teachers: You’re
not going to get rich, but you’re teaching people who are our future—maybe someone who will
become President. As a nurse you’re going to be healing that person who’s going to be
President!
Righting a wrong
Mendez v. Westminster brought an end to segregation in O.C.
schools - and ultimately throughout the state and nation.
By Phillip Zonkel, Press Telegram, Staff Writer
IN SEPTEMBER 1943, Sylvia Mendez, then 9 years old, and her two brothers
went with their aunt and three cousins to enroll at the 17th Street School in
Westminster.
School officials, however, told her aunt that her children, who were halfMexican but had light skin and a French surname, could register at the
"white" elementary school, but the Mendez kids, who were dark skinned and
had a Mexican last name, were not allowed; they had to enroll at the
"Mexican" school 10 blocks away.
Mendez's parents were appalled and sued the school district in what turned
out to be a ground-breaking civil rights case that helped outlaw almost 100
years of segregation in California and was a precedent seven years later for
Brown v. Board of Education.
"I didn't realize registering for school would have such an impact," says
Mendez, 71, who now lives in Fullerton.
Segregation was standard practice in 1940s California (Asian and Native
American children also attended separate schools), but it wasn't always the
case.
When California Constitution was drafted in 1849, Spanish and English were
the state's official languages.
Previous to 1855, Mexican children attended Anglo schools. But after the
Mexican-American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ceded
California, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado to the United States, was
signed, the state legislature changed a few laws.
In 1855, the state legislature said school boards could not use public funds
to educate non-white students. In 1864,
non-white students were educated in segregated schools.
Until the Mendez case, the logic of "separate but equal" facilities, which was
established by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1896 case of Plessy v.
Ferguson, was the law of the land.
The Mendez family (father Gonzalo, mother Felicitas, sons Gonzalo Jr. and
Jerome and daughter Sylvia) moved from Santa Ana, where they owned a
cafe, to Westminster, where they leased a ranch from the Munemitsus, a
Japanese family who was being interned at Poston, Ariz.
When Gonzalo was told his children were barred from the 17th Street School,
he talked with the superintendent and then went to the Orange County
School District. They rejected his requests that his children be allowed to
enroll.
GOING TO COURT
The Mendez family, who had become successful tenant farmers in
Westminster, hired David Marcus, a Los Angeles civil rights attorney, to sue
the Westminster school district.
But Marcus made a bigger case, and on March 2, 1945, filed Mendez v.
Westminster, a class-action lawsuit against four Orange County school
districts (Westminster, Santa Ana, Garden Grove and El Modena, now
Eastern Orange) seeking an injunction that would order the schools to
integrate.
Friends of the court briefs in favor of desegregation were filed by the
American Civil Liberties Union, National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, the National Lawyers Guild, the American Jewish Congress
and the Japanese American Citizens League.
Sylvia says she wasn't surprised by her father's actions. "It was during the
war when people were accused of being a Communist if you didn't follow
what was right, but he wasn't scared," she says. "He knew that what he was
doing was the right thing to do. He was going to right a wrong."
LESSONS NOT LEARNED
Despite the triumphs of Mendez v. Westminster, the case remains largely
unknown and unacknowledged. The California
State Board of Education does not include the case in its K-12 content
standards.
"The horrific part of the story is it's not part of the history books," Arriola
says. "The California State Board of Education
should be ashamed of themselves for not including it. It's remarkable and
frustrating."
But some people are trying to raise the awareness.
Sandra Robbie won a 2003 Emmy for a KOCE-TV documentary "Mendez vs.
Westminster: For All the Children/Para Todos
Los Ninos." The 30-minute documentary is available at www.koce.org. "This
DVD isn't the be all and end all. It's the
beginning of the conversation," says Robbie, who also has co-written a
children's book called "Mendez vs. Westminster."
Sylvia Mendez also spreads the word. Mendez says that her parents were
disappointed no one told them "gracias" for
fighting the good fight. Now, Mendez, who speaks at schools throughout the
region, says it's her mission to tell people.
"This is my legacy," says Mendez, who has been invited to speak at Harvard
University next year. "I told my mom I will
make sure everyone knows what you did."
Education Activist Sylvia Mendez to
Receive Presidential Medal of Freedom
By Mariela Rosario | 11/18/2010 - 11:11 |
Sylvia Mendez learned about discrimination at a very young age. When she was just
eight years old, her parents attempted to enroll her in a local all-White school, but were
refused and told to take their daughter to the all-Mexican school in their California
community. Her parents refused, especially when they witnessed the abundance of
resources at the all-White school. At the time, most schools were segregated and her
father, Gonzalo Mendez, a Mexican who ran a successful agriculture business, and
mother, native Boricua Felicitas Mendez, decided to sue. The Mendez vs.
Westminster
case lead to a landmark decision in the fight against educational segregation and was
won greatly based on little Sylvia's testimony.
So, you could say that Mendez has been fighting for educational equality since she was
in grade school. That's probably why President Barack Obama has decided to bestow
the Presidential Medal of Freedom on the crusading civil rights activist. Mendez
eventually became a nurse, but retired after 30 years. Since then, she has tirelessly
crisscrossed the country giving lectures on the importance of desegregation and
educational equality.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom will be given out in early 2011. Mendez’s fellow
honorees include: Maya Angelou, Bill Russell, Stan Musial, Yo-Yo Ma, and Warren
Buffet among others.
Source: http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/pimW97zwkN/President+Obama+Honors+Medal+Freedom+Recipients/7LTJ_gfHAGp/Sylvia+Mendez