by Alonso Yánez
Photo is the 1934 1st Grade Class at the “Mexican” Wilson School in Orange County, Calif.
Legislation requiring the Mendez v. Westminster School District case be included in the state’s future history and social sciences courses has been passed by California’s Assembly and Senate. It has not yet been forwarded to the governor’s office.
The bill AB531, introduced by Assemblywoman Mary Salas (D-Chula Vista) references an Orange County case filed in 1945 by five Latino parents challenging public school segregation.
The parents claimed that their children, along with other 5,000 others of Mexican ancestry, were forced to attend segregated schools in the Southern California communities of Westminster, Garden Grove, Santa Ana and El Modena. The Ninth Circuit Appeals Court ruled in their favor.
The case preceded the 1954 landmark U.S. Supreme Court desegregation ruling in Brown v. Board of Education in Topeka~ Kans.
“All Californians should be proud that we were the first state in the nation to desegregate,” said Salas. Hispanic Link.
