EDF 525

1. A B R I E F B I O O F
S Y LV I A M E N D E Z
P R E S E N T E D B Y : N I C K F L Y N N
C C S U : E D F 5 2 5

2. ABOUT SYLVIA MENDEZ
• Born in Santa Ana, California in 1936
• Daughter of father Gonzalo Mendez, an immigrant from
Mexico who had a successful agriculture business, and mother
Felicitas Mendez, a native of Juncos, Puerto Rico
• American Civil Rights Activist of Mexican-Puerto Rican
heritage
• Played an instrumental role in the Mendez v. Westminster
case
• Grew up during a time when most southern and southwestern
schools were segregated
• Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United
States’ highest civilian honor, on February 15, 2011

3. CALIFORNIA
• The late 1930s to 1940s was a period of widespread racial discrimination against Hispanics and
other minorities in the United States
• Orange Country schools were segregated, which included the Westminster school district
• Hispanics were not allowed to attend schools that were designated for “Whites” only
– Sent to “Mexican Schools”
– Separate campuses for Hispanics and Whites
• Mendez was denied enrollment to a “Whites” only school
– Her father wanted to enroll her in 17th Street Elementary, a “Whites” only school with better looks and
educational benefits
– Accompanied her aunt Sally Vidaurri, her brothers and cousins
– School officials told her aunt 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
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIMWdfSxoh8

4. MENDEZ V. WESTMINSTER
• Sylvia’s denial of entry to the 17th Street School prompted her parents to organize various
sectors of the Hispanic community and file a lawsuit in the local federal court
• Set an important legal precedent for ending segregation in the United States
• Gonzalo and four other Mexican-American fathers from the Gomez, Palomino, Estrada, and
Ramirez families filed a lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles
– Filed 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
• The Westminster school board insisted that there was a “language issue”
• On February 18, 1946, Judge Paul J. McCormick ruled in favor of Mendez and his co-
plaintiffs
• School district appealed
• The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s ruling in favor of the
Mexican families.
• Governor Earl Warren moved to desegregate all public schools and other public spaces

5. AFTERMATH
• Mendez family allowed to attend 17th Street Elementary
– One of the first Hispanics to attend an all-white school in California
– Sylvia treated poorly by peers
• Thurgood Marshall, who was later appointed a Supreme Court justice in 1967, became
the lead NAACP attorney in the 1954 Brown case
– Several organizations joined the appellate case in Mendez v. Westminster as amicus curiae,
including the NAACP represented by Thurgood Marshall
– Marshall’s amicus brief filed for Mendez on behalf of the NAACP contained arguments he
would later use in the Brown case
• The Mendez case deeply influenced California governor Earl Warren, who had become
chief justice at the time the Brown case appeared before the high court

6. PAVING THE WAY
• 1946 - In the case of Mendez
v. Westminster, the U. S.
District Court in Los Angeles
ruled that educating children
of Mexican descent in
separate facilities is
unconstitutional, thus
prohibiting segregation in
California schools
• The Mendez case made
California the first state of the
nation to end segregation in
school
• Paved the way for Brown vs.
Board of Education

7. NOT AS WELL KNOWN
• The Mendez case is not as well
known because it did not make
the Supreme Court's docket
• It did not need to since the lower
federal courts decided in favor of
Sylvia's case at the state level in
1945.

8. RELEVANCE IN EDUCATION TODAY
• The case is relevant to the continuous
struggle against the ongoing de-facto
discrimination of young people of color at
all levels of our nation's educational system
– Extends to other groups discriminated
against, including LGBT
• Sylvia grew up to become a nurse, but
currently works to convey the importance of
obtaining an education by encouraging
students to stay in school
– Speaks at schools and other educational
forums on how to fight for civils rights and
equality
– Fights for all children to have access to a
quality education

9. WORKS CITED
• http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/er/cm_brown.html
• http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-
language/2014/05/sylvia_mendez_and_californias_.html