Moments in History: Mendez v. Westminster

Sylvia Mendez was just eight when she became part of a landmark school desegregation case that helped pave the way for the famous Brown v. Board ruling a decade later. The story of Mendez v. Westminster is told in a new Moments in History video.

“You have to work hard for it, and you don’t let anybody stand in your way. You will live that American dream,” said Mendez. “I’m living that American dream, because I know that it’s true.”

Mendez’s family moved to a farm in Orange County, California, in 1943, only to learn that Westminster schools would not admit Mexican American students into white schools, and that she would have to attend a school for Hispanic students. Her parents organized and paid for a class-action lawsuit. Five families, including Mendez’s, were plaintiffs.

A federal court ruled in their favor, and that decision was upheld by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in 1947. However, Mendez v. Westminster never reached the U.S. Supreme Court, because then-Gov. Earl Warren signed legislation that outlawed school segregation in California.

Many of the arguments in Mendez were later used by Thurgood Marshall in Brown v. Board, but the Mendez case lapsed into obscurity for many years. At her mother’s urging, Mendez began speaking about the case, and in 2011, she received the presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2019, the city of Westminster opened a sculpture park(link is external) honoring Mendez, her family, and the case they brought.

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