![]() ![]() “I was crying and crying, and told my mother, ‘I don’t want to go to the white school!’ And she said, ‘Sylvia, you were in court every day. Though the school districts appealed, the ruling was held a year later and Mendez was allowed to enroll in 17th Street School, where she endured racial bullying from classmates. "The evidence clearly shows that Spanish-speaking children are retarded in learning English by lack of exposure to its use because of segregation, and that commingling of the entire student body instills and develops a common cultural attitude among the school children which is imperative for the perpetuation of American institutions and ideals,” McCormick wrote in his ruling. McCormick ruled in strong favor of the Mendez family and their co-plaintiffs. On February 18, 1946, less than a year after they filed, Judge Paul J. Their arguments won, with the judges and civil rights organization siding with the families “We went to court every day, I listened to what they were saying, but really I was dreaming about going back to that beautiful school,” she recalled to the Los Angeles Times. While the men argued their children were not given the same learning opportunities as the white children in the districts, Mendez remembers not understanding what was happening. It represented about 5,000 Mexican American children in the districts. The five men filed a lawsuit in federal court against the four Orange County school districts they came from, which would go on to be known as the Mendez v. Gonzalo and David Marcus, a civil rights attorney, eventually found four other families from different districts to build a stronger case. While Mendez’s mother, Felicitas, took over the running of the farm, Gonzalo hired a lawyer who had previously won a desegregation case and started making the rounds in California looking for other parents willing to stand up for their children. The Mendez family then drew other people to the cause Mendez recalled to the Los Angeles Times how the students weren’t taught to read and write, but instead, the boys were prepped for labor work and the girls instructed on housekeeping duties like knitting and sewing. The school consisted of two wooden shacks filled with second-hand books, faulty desks and little stimulation. The Mexican school didn’t have the same amenities as the other and were used to Americanize the children. It wasn’t just the racial discrimination that bothered the Mendez family. When Mendez’s dad, Gonzalo, attempted to remedy the situation and was again denied, even though he had attended the school in his youth, the farmworker decided to fight back. Mendez’s aunt refused to stand for the discrimination and left with all the kids. When Mendez and her siblings attempted to register for the 17th Street School, which white children attended, they were turned away while their cousins with fairer skin and a French last name were allowed to register. The Mendez family’s fight started in 1944 after moving to the area to lease a farm from a Japanese American family who had been forced into an internment camp. If you start fighting for justice, then people of all ethnicities will become involved.” The first instance of discrimination came when the school turned the Mendez children away “This is the history of the United States, the history of California,” Mendez told the Los Angeles Times in 2016. Westminster case, which outlawed the use of specific schools for Spanish-speaking children in Westminster, eventually ending segregation as a whole across California. Board of Education case ended racial segregation in schools across the country, a Mexican family in California paved the way for equality in schools.Īt the center of the 1946 case was Sylvia Mendez, an 8-year-old girl in Westminster, California, who dreamed of going to the “beautiful school” white children attended and not the Mexican school down the road. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |