California students soon may start learning the story of the Mendez family and how their response to being turned away from a school in Westminster led to the repeal of segregation laws in the state.
Legislators, just ahead of the deadline, OK’d a bill that would incorporate the Mendez v. Westminster case into the history and social science curriculum standards for public schools in California. That bill now awaits the governor’s signature or veto.
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The Mendez ruling, in 1947, is considered to have set the stage for the 1954 landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education, that said segregation in public schools is unconstitutional.
It all started in 1943, when Sylvia Mendez and her brothers attempted to go to Seventeenth Street School in Westminster. Instead of admitting them, school officials turned the Mendez siblings away, telling them to instead attend a “Mexican school.”
Their parents, Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez, 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 education-oriented segregation laws in California.
The state bill, which received broad bipartisan support, would ensure the Mendez case is taught in California’s schools.
Assemblymember Tri Ta, R-Westminster, said the bill’s success can be tracked back to testimony given earlier this year before the state legislature by Sylvia Mendez and her sister, Sandra Mendez Duran. As part of that testimony, in March, Duran told legislators that she didn’t know what her parents had accomplished until she was a student at UC Riverside and saw her parents’ names in a book that described the landmark case. Duran said her mother didn’t know their experience was being used in the book.
“Their story really helped the bill to be passed in the committee,” Ta said.
Though the siblings’ attempt to attend the Westminster school was some eight decades ago, Ta noted that many people still aren’t aware of its importance and the change it helped bring about. The former Westminster mayor pointed to local efforts to bring attention to the Mendez case, including the decision to name a park and trail in Westminster after the Mendez family.
“The fight for civil rights in our schools took place right here in Orange County,” said Ta. “Sharing the legacy of Sylvia Mendez and the other families will help inspire generations about the importance of human dignity, civil rights and the fight for justice.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom has until the end of September to take any action on the bill. Ta is confident the governor will sign it.
Even still, Ta, along with a handful of bipartisan Assemblymembers, have signed a letter to the governor imploring him to sign the bill, and incorporate Mendez into a bill signing.
“On behalf of Californians, particularly our Latino population, it would be a wonderful gift to Sylvia Mendez if you could invite her to the bill signing,” the legislators said.
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