In 1943, Sylvia Mendez and her brothers were turned away from a school in Westminster and told to attend a “Mexican school.”
Now, legislators want to ensure their story — and the subsequent court ruling in Mendez v. Westminster that led to the repeal of segregation laws in California — are taught in schools across the state.
A bipartisan effort, the newly filed legislation from Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, and Assemblymember Tri Ta, R-Westminster, would incorporate the Mendez v. Westminster case into history and social science curriculum standards for public schools. The federal case is considered to have set the stage for the landmark U.S. Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education case that said segregation in public schools is unconstitutional.
“Westminster played an important role in the Civil Rights Movement, and California students should learn about the courageous story of the Mendez family,” said Ta. “People know Brown v. Board of Education, but Mexican Americans were facing similar struggles. This lawsuit moved the desegregation movement forward and helped protect the rights of everyone regardless of their ethnic background.”
After their children were denied admittance into the Seventeenth Street School in Westminster, the Mendez children’s parents, along with four other families, ultimately filed a class-action lawsuit against four Orange County school districts. The families were successful, and the decision led to the repeal of segregation laws in California.
Umberg, who helped secure funding for the Mendez Freedom Trail in Westminster, said he knows “the power of the Mendez v. Westminster story and its importance for Orange County history.”
That history, however, was not…
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