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Sylvia Mendez (born June 7, 1936) is an American civil rights activist and retired nurse. At age eight, she played an instrumental role in the Mendez v. Westminster case, the landmark desegregation case of 1946.
The Mendez family move was prompted by the opportunity to lease a 60-acre (240,000 m 2) farm in Westminster from the Munemitsus, a Japanese family who had been relocated to a Japanese internment camp during World War II. The income the Mendez family earned from the farm enabled them to hire attorney David Marcus and pursue litigation.
On February 15, 2011, President Barack Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Sylvia Mendez, [11] the daughter of Gonzalo Mendez, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. She, along with her two brothers, Gonzalo, Jr. and Jerome, were some of the Mexican-American students who were denied admission to their local Westminster school, which ...
In 1945, Mendez v. Westminster was filed in the California Supreme and Ninth District Court. [ 4 ] The plaintiffs were Mexican and Latino fathers, who claimed that their children, like Sylvia Mendez , were being unconstitutionally discriminated against when they were forced to join segregated Mexican schools in several California school districts.
Sylvia Mendez: Civics Native of Santa Ana; helped end forced segregation of Mexican American students in the state of California via Mendez v. Westminster: 2024 Richard Nixon: Civics Native of Yorba Linda; served as the 37th President from 1969 to 1974; served as the 36th Vice President from 1953 to 1961 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower: 2024
Sylvia Mendez well remembers being sent to a "Mexican school" in Orange County. Her parents' landmark lawsuit challenged segregated schools in California.
In a statement Tuesday, Sylvia Mendez said: “It is an immense honor that Congressman Jimmy Gomez is working to memorialize the work of my parents, and all the families involved in this case, by ...
The case was initiated when Sylvia Mendez (pictured) was turned away from enrolling at a "white school." Mexican American children, especially of darker skin , were only permitted to learn manual skills education, while white schools taught academic preparation.