Latino Inaugural Gala 2009

Introduction

The case of Mendez vs. Westminster was a petition be Gonzalo Mendez, Palomino Frank, William Guzman, Lorenzo Ramirez, Thomas Estrada on behalf of all Californian children of Mexican or Latin descent (purportedly 5000 cases) against the school districts of Westminster of Orange County, Santa Ana, El Modeno, Garden Grove and other school districts in California. The essay seeks to examine the history behind the case, the proceedings and judgments made in the case and its impact on education in California. The petition occurred in the year 1946. (San Jose Evergreen Community College District, 2007)

Description of the case

The case was based upon section 24 of the judicial code, amendment 14. According to this code, all persons are entitled to the protection of the law with regard to equal opportunity in spite of their class or race. The complainants asserted that children of Mexican and Latino origin were missing the opportunities in public schools administered by the Orange County school district on the basis of their race. This was a typical class discrimination case.

The plaintiffs asserted that children of Mexican or Latin origin were denied access to school facilities despite the fact that they were all full American citizens. There were certain schools that were reserved for Anglo Saxon or white children alone and others reserved for Latino children. Consequently, the latter group could not gain access to the recreational educational and health facilities found in the former schools. These were rules and regulations that the school district allowed and adhered to despite the fact that some children of Mexican origin were well qualified to attend those specific schools. The complainants asserted that their case was not based on racism as such; they were mostly concerned about the issue of segregation. This severely hampered the lives of the Mexican children even as they continued later on in life.

Some school districts condemned racism but had mandated that all children with limited English proficiency be allocated to ‘Mexican/ minority’ schools where they should stay until they had improved their skills. The plaintiffs claimed that this was institutional segregation because it automatically meant that some schools would be the preserve of children with Latin descent. The petitioners also added that the quality of education in these latter schools was of poor quality. The nature of their curriculum did not respond to the needs of the economy at that time. In addition, their facilities and teachers were inferior to the native-speaker’s schools. (MENDEZ V. WESTMINSTER.COM, 2007)

The defendants on the other hand claimed that there was no basis for the case because the actions of the school district did not infer the State’s position on the matter. If this had been the case, then the supreme court would have intervened in the matter. They asserted that the supreme court should not rule in favor of the plaintiff because the state of California already forbade segregation in schools. The defendants also added that the Anglo Saxon schools’ main goals were to instill quality education. This meant that all the children admitted into the school had to have certain qualifications. The defendants asserted that Mexican children were not qualified to be admitted into those schools and that they were incapable of fitting into that kind of quality education. They also added that Mexican children had poor language skills, were morally inferior, had potentially contagious diseases and their personal hygiene was quite poor.

The presiding judge; Judge Paul McCormick ruled in favor of the plaintiffs despite huge opposition from a number of stakeholders in the field of education. McCormick asserted that denying Mexican American children access to these schools was a violation of the 14th amendment of the constitution, which states that all persons are entitled to equal protection and due process. This judge was responsible for breaking down the issue of segregation in the state of California especially within the field of education.

The defendants went ahead to appeal McCormick’s decisions, however, they did not stand a chance against the firm support garnered by the complainants. Mendez and his colleagues got support from a number of organizations such as American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the advancement of colored people. The Supreme Court upheld McCormick’s decision. (Mendez Fundamental Intermediate School, 2007)

History behind the case

At the time of the case, the Supreme Court had been making rulings in favor of separation. In the well-publicized 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the court ruled in favor of separating schools on grounds that schools could be made separate but equal. This ruling made the issue of segregation became part of US law as it was tolerated. At the time of the Mendez case, numerous schools were tailor made for minority groups such as African Americans or Latin students.

The schools reserved for Mexicans alone were in deplorable conditions. Most of them looked like shacks rather than real schools. As a matter of fact, it would be very difficult to expect the same kind of results from both types of schools. These Mexican schools had few desks and most of them were of poor in quality, they had few books or no teaching supplies. As if this was not enough, the neglected or damaged resources in Anglo Saxon schools were thrown into the Mexican schools. (Nannete Regua, 2007)

Against this background, Mexican parents were dissatisfied with their children’s performance and in 1945 decided to do something different. The Mendez parents were located in the Westminster school district of Orange County California. They decided to take their children to an Anglo Saxon school known as Main Street School. The school administrators denied them entry and instead directed them to the Hoover School, which was a Mexican school.

The parents’ reaction to this act of segregation was to file a lawsuit against the Westminster school district. They did this on behalf of five thousand other Mexican families who had experienced the same form of segregation.

How the case influenced the Brown vs. Board of Education case

The case was based on a complaint by Linda Brown’s parents. She was an African American child in Topeka Kansas. She had to walk for miles in order to attend a colored school because she was not allowed to attend classes in a certain school located in the same county. This principal of the school turned Linda away because she was a black child. This child’s family garnered the support of other black families and the National Association for the Advancement of black people against the Board of education. They hired the same lawyer who participated in the Mendez case known as Thurgood Marshall and his efforts bore fruit. The case was taken to the Supreme Court, which decided that schools could not be separate but equal. The case required that all school implement desegregation as soon as possible. (IDRA, 2008)

How the case influenced education in California

This Mendez case was important in the history of the United States because it set the precedence for passing other laws that protected the rights of minorities in schools. For instance, in the year 1947, the federal state passed the Anderson bill. This bill required all schools to desegregate their policies.

The case was also instrumental in other states such as Arizona and Texas. At that time, those states still had segregationist schools and there was a need to eliminate these through the actions of the state. In the case of Minerva vs. Bastrop schools, the federal judge cited the decisions made in the Mendez case hence passing a similar ruling to McCormick’s.

This case was also instrumental in establishing the African American Civil rights movements. After ruling in favor of the petitioners in the Mendez case, the Brown case followed suit. It required that all schools integrate Blacks and Mexicans into their institutions. However, some schools ignored this ruling and chose to continue with their discrimination policies. The black people felt that there was a need to change the way things were done in the field of education, health and other sectors hence starting the Civil rights movement.

Legacy of the Mendez case

The Mendez case was a legacy because of a number of reasons. First of all, the judge who presided over the case ; McCormick depended upon three important precedents

The legal precedent
The social science precedent
Education research

When the judge was delivering his ruling, he referred to the social and educational theories that would form a backbone for the Brown vs. Board of education case in the year 1954.

Additionally, by making the ruling in favor of the petitioners, Judge McCormick had made history by being the first one to admit that segregating Mexican children in public schools was a violation of the law. This ruling brought out the fact that segregation was indeed a violation of state law and was unconstitutional; this is according to the law of equal protection and due process. (KOCE, 2002)

Conclusion

The Mendez vs. Westminster case was a landmark in the history of education in California. This is because it set the precedence for other similar discrimination cases. Most of them passed in favor of petitioners and were important in integrating schools in California.

Reference

KOCE (2002): TV documentary – Mendez vs. Westminster, retrieved from

http://www.koce.org/prodMendez.ht accessed on 9th July 2008

Nannete Regua (2007): The Case of Mendez et al. v. Westminster (CA) School District, retrieved from http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/calheritage/latinos/mendez.htm accessed on 9th July 2008

Mendez Fundamental Intermediate School (2007): Our History, retrieved from http://www.sausd.k12.ca.us/sitemaster/SITES/Schools/Intermediate/Mendez/Index.htm accessed on 9th July 2008

IDRA (2008): The Legacy of Mendez and Brown, retrieved from

http://www.idra.org/mendezbrown/mendez_case.htm accessed on 9th July 2008

MENDEZ V. WESTMINSTER.COM (2007): A Look At Our Latino Heritage

http://www.mendezvwestminster.com accessed on 9th July 2008

San Jose Evergreen Community College District (2007):

Mendez v. Westminster Blog, from www.mendezwestminstercase.blogspot.com accessed on 9th July 2008

Incoming search terms:

• mendez vs westminster (15)
• westminster vs mendez case (7)
• mendez vs westminster school district orange county (6)
• mendez vs westminster Decision (4)
• mendez v westminster origin (4)
• mendez v westminster (3)
• mendez vs westminster documentary (3)
• mendez vs westminster 1947 (3)
• mendez vs westminster origin (3)
• mendez v minister 1947 (3)