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By: Elizabeth Guerrero
8 years before the infamous Brown v. Board of Education, another historic case took place. Mendez v. Westminster School District of Orange County was a court case based on the racial segregation in the California public school system. In 1946, Mexican-Americans in Orange County, California set to dismantle the segregated school system after 9-year-old Sylvia Mendez and her brothers were rejected by the all-white Westminster Elementary School District.
Mendez and her brothers were not allowed to enroll at the 17th Street School in Westminster because of their Mexican heritage. Their Mexican last name and ethnic features set them apart from their half-Mexican cousins who were allowed to enroll.
The initial plan was to simply sue the Westminster school district. Instead and rightfully so, civil rights attorney David Marcus was able to make a bigger case by filing a class-action lawsuit. Mendez and other families were able to sue 4 other school districts within Orange County; a decision that would forever impact education in the US.
When the court ruled in favor of the Mendez family, a foundation was formed for Brown v. Board of Education (1954). The ideas founded in Mendez v. Westminster were fuel for the Supreme Court’s vote against racial segregation in public schools just under a decade later. Justice Thurgood Marshall who participated in the Mendez case would hold the same stance and fight for Brown v. Board as well.
Although Mendez v. Westminster is not widely known, its ever-lasting impact is striking. It was the first case to acknowledge school segregation as unconstitutional and as a violation of the 14th amendment. We can hope for progress in this aspect and one day the case will be discussed within California classrooms and beyond.
“When you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on.”
Thurgood Marshall
1908 - 1993