Part of Hispanic Heritage Month we want to honor Felicitas and Gonzalo Méndez. In the 1940s, the Méndez family mounted a legal challenge to the school district’s segregation practices so that their daughter Sylvia, a Mexican-American, could attend what was an “all-white” school in California’s Westminster District.
Their legal battle changed California and set an important legal precedent for ending segregation in the United States. The landmark 1947 case, known as Mendez v. Westminster, paved the way for meaningful integration and public school reform. Seven years later, the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which found segregation in public schools unconstitutional.
Sylvia Mendez was awarded the 2010 Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama at the White House on Feb. 15, 2011.
would have been great if it were 1847 though. 