California First State to End School Segregation

(Sacramento) – School history books across the country detail the U.S. Supreme Court's school desegregation ruling, Brown v. Board of Education ,but few realize the case hinged on a previous court ruling in California. State Assemblymember Mary Salas (D-Chula Vista) says the case of Mendez v. Westminster, which ended school segregation in California seven years before the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, paved the way for similar cases in other states and eventually the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision. Assembly Bill 531 will include the study of Mendez v. Westminster in public education. The bill has been approved by the legislature and awaits the Governor's signature.

Historic Mendez v. Westminster Court Case to Be Included in the Next State Board of Education Curriculum Framework Update

Sacramento -- Assemblymember Mary Salas (D-Chula Vista) announced on April 1, 2009, that the State Board of Education has moved closer to adopting the Mendez v. Westminster court case into the approved guidelines for the history-social science curriculum framework update for the year 2010. Ms. Salas authored AB 531 last year which would have required that the Mendez case be included in the framework, but that bill was vetoed by the governor.

 “I believe this case marks an important point in our history,” said Salas. “It teaches us all that if we allow an injustice to one group it is an injustice to all groups. This is a lesson that should not be forgotten.”

The court case came about in the 1940s, when Gonzalo and Felícita Mendez wanted their three children to attend the school nearest their farm, which was the 17th Street Elementary School in Westminster. The school was cleaner and had better facilities than the dilapidated schools that Mexican children had to attend.  The children were denied entry.

The case of Mendez v. Westminster challenged racial segregation in Orange County schools.  In March of 1945, Gonzalo Mendez, William Guzman, Frank Palomino, Thomas Estrada and Lorenzo Ramirez, all Latino parents in Orange County, filed a lawsuit against four local school districts for segregating their children into separate schools.

In February of 1946, the United States District Court in Los Angeles ruled in favor of Mendez and his co-plaintiffs, finding segregated schools to be an unconstitutional denial of equal protection.  On April 14, 1947, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's ruling.  As a result of this case, the Legislature passed and then Governor Earl Warren signed legislation that repealed segregation laws. This case helped set a precedent for Brown v. Board of Education seven years later.

The curriculum frameworks provide a blueprint for curriculum and instruction by describing the scope and sequence of the knowledge and skills all students need to master in a specific subject area.  The frameworks provide direction to publishers through evaluation criteria that are used to select and adopt instructional materials for kindergarten through grade eight (K-8).

The final guidelines document will go to the State Board of Education for final approval in May 2010.

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Thank you,
Mary Salas