Mendez was born in 1936 in Santa Ana, California. Sylvia and her two brothers, Gonzalo Jr. and Jerome Mendez, attended Hoover Elementary, a two-room wooden shack in the middle of the city's Mexican neighborhood, along with the other Hispanics. Senator Hillary Clinton of New York. As a girl, American civil rights activist and nurse Sylvia Mendez was forbidden to attend a public elementary school in Orange county, California. Wikifamouspeople has ranked Sylvia Mendez as of the popular celebs list. Several organizations joined the appellate case as amicus curiae, including the ACLU, American Jewish Congress, Japanese American Citizens League, and the NAACP which was represented by Thurgood Marshall. Why I like this book: Duncan Tonatiuh’s compelling book brings Sylvia’s important story to life in a manner children will easily understand. Children read a lot of books about the civil rights era, so it is important to introduce this important piece of Latino history into Black History month. There was no beautiful playground, just dirt. Mendez was denied enrollment to a "Whites" only school, an event which prompted her parents to take action and together organized various sectors of the Hispanic community who filed a lawsuit in the local federal court. She met with President George W. Bush, who shared her story with key Democrats, including U.S. Sylvia Mendez is a well known Activist. David S. Ettinger, The History of School Desegregation in the Ninth Circuit, 12 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 481, 484-487 (1979). By 1954, when the Brown case appeared before the high court, Warren had become the chief justice.[9]. [5] Felicitas Mendez lived another 3 decades and died of heart failure at her daughter's home in April 1998. Initially, Gonzalo received little support from the local Latino organizations, but finally, on March 2, 1945, he and four other Mexican-American fathers from the Gomez, Palomino, Estrada, and Ramirez families filed a lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles against four Orange County school districts — Westminster, Santa Ana, Garden Grove, and El Modena (now eastern Orange) — on behalf of about 5,000 Hispanic-American schoolchildren.[7]. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Gonzalo Mendez died in 1964 at the age of 51, unaware of the impact that the case for which he fought would have on the nation. Mendez grew up during a time when most southern and southwestern schools were segregated. v. Mendez et al., Ninth Circuit opinion", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sylvia_Mendez&oldid=979774835, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Our calendar of class visits, lending policies, and library resources are linked at the top of this page. On September 9, 2009 a second school opened in the Los Angeles community of Boyle Heights bearing the name "Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez Learning Center." You don’t belong here!”. Her hair was perfectly parted in two long trenzas. Sylvia Mendez and her family helped bring an end to segregation in California, which led to the 1947 Supreme Court ruling for equality for all children in America.
Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Sylvia and her two brothers, Gonzalo Jr. and Jerome Mendez, attended Hoover Elementary, a two-room wooden shack in the middle of the city's Mexican neighborhood, along with the other Hispanics. All rights reserved. They were shiny-new. That fall Sylvia and her brothers attended the small run-down, inferior Mexican school where the teachers didn’t care about teaching. There would be no “Brown vs. Board of Education” Supreme Court ruling without Sylvia’s original lawsuit. [13][14] of Orange County et al. Sylvia was confused because she wasn’t Mexican. She was an American citizen and spoke perfect English. The testimony proved that most of the children spoke English and showed that Hispanic-American students had the same capacity for learning as their white counterparts. The district mandated separate campuses for Hispanics and Whites. [5], Realizing that the 17th Street Elementary school provided better books and educational benefits, Gonzalo decided that he would like to have his children and nephews enrolled there. Sandra Robbie wrote and produced the documentary Mendez v. Westminster: For all the Children / Para Todos los Ninos, which debuted on KOCE-TV in Orange County on September 24, 2002 as part of their Hispanic Heritage Month celebration. They significantly contribute to Sylvia’s story and emphasize the theme of separatism and inequality. They filed a lawsuit against the school district to integrate the schools. He cleverly weaves Sylvia’s inspiring story with factual information. An exhibit honoring Mendez v. Westminster was scheduled to open in September 2011, at the Old Courthouse Museum in Santa Ana. She adopted two girls and lives in Fullerton, California. And, there was no place for the children to eat their lunch.
Ms. Mendez spent the day with our students, many of whom read about her story in class, and were able to ask her questions about her life. But she and her brothers were turned away and told they had to attend the Mexican school instead. In 2004, Mendez was invited to the White House for the celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month. Her aunt was told by school officials, that her children, who had light skin would be permitted to enroll, but that neither Sylvia Mendez nor her brothers would be allowed because they were dark-skinned and had a Hispanic surname. Thus, in 1943, when Sylvia Mendez was only eight years old, she accompanied her aunt Sally Vidaurri, her brothers and cousins to enroll at the 17th Street Elementary School. Sylvia could not understand why—she was an American citizen who spoke perfect English. DESCRIPTION OF THE BOOK: When her family moved to the town of Westminster, California, young Sylvia Mendez was excited about enrolling in her neighborhood school. This page was last edited on 22 September 2020, at 18:37. Sylvia Mendez (born June 7, 1936) is an American civil rights activist of Mexican-Puerto Rican heritage. His amicus brief filed for Mendez on behalf of the NAACP contained the arguments he would later use in the Brown case. This took place during a period in history when racial discrimination against Hispanics, and minorities in general, was widespread throughout the United States. When they went to enroll at the school, her parents were told their children couldn’t attend the white school.
Welcome back. [3] She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor, on February 15, 2011. Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation, Abrams Books for Young Readers, Biography, May 6, 2014, Awards: 2015 Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor Book; 2015 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book, Themes: Mexican-Americans, Sylvia Mendez, Segregation in Education, Racial persecution, Mendez vs. Westminster School District, Multicultural, Opening: Sylvia had on her black shoes. In 1998, the district of Santa Ana, California honored the Mendez family by naming a new school the "Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez Fundamental Intermediate School", after Sylvia Mendez's parents. The true story of the Mendez family's successful fight against desegregated schools in post-World War II California is a rich source for conversations in the classroom about fairness, justice, prejudice, and historical chapters in our country's checkered past. Refresh and try again.
On January 19, 1948, Mendez and her siblings were finally allowed to attend the 17th Street Elementary school, thus becoming one of the first Hispanics to attend an all-white school in California. She travels and gives lectures to educate others on the historic contributions made by her parents and the co-plaintiffs to the desegregation effort in the United States. [17], On May 23, 2018, the board of Berkeley Unified School District voted unanimously to rename Le Conte Elementary School, located at 2241 Russell Street, as Sylvia Mendez Elementary School. Mendez became a nurse and retired after working for thirty years in her field. On February 15, 2011, Sylvia Mendez was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Tonatiuh’s bold and unique illustrations are done in muted tones with a Latino flare. On February 18, 1946, Judge Paul J. McCormick ruled in favor of Mendez and his co-plaintiffs. [12], On April 14, 2007, the U.S. The success of their action, of which Sylvia was the principal catalyst, would eventually bring to an end the era of segregated education. [6], Mendez's father Gonzalo and his wife Felicitas took on the task of leading a community battle that changed California, and set an important legal precedent for ending segregation in the United States. [8], Mendez v. Westminster set an important precedent for ending segregation in the United States. The dual school campus commemorated the efforts of the Mendez and other families from the Westminster case. Separate is Never Equal by Duncan Tonatiuh, Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, The Case of the Bad Apples by Robin Newman, Lulu the One and Only by Lynnette Mawhinney, Black Brother, Black Brother by Jewell Parker Rhodes.