What is Sylvia Mendez ethnicity?

Civil rights activist Sylvia Mendez is the oldest daughter of Gonzalo Mendez, a Mexican immigrant, and Felicitas Mendez, a Puerto Rican, who challenged segregation so that she and other Latino children could be provided the same quality education provided to white students.

What school did Sylvia Mendez sue?

This article is part of Entangled Inequalities: Japanese Incarceration and Mendez, et al. v. Westminster School District of Orange County, et al. In 1944, a public school in California denied entry to Sylvia, Gonzalo Jr, and Jerome Mendez based on their surname and skin color.

Did Thurgood Marshall represent Sylvia Mendez?

Thurgood Marshall represented Sylvia Mendez and Linda Brown. Marshall used some of the same arguments from Mendez to win Brown v. Board of Education.

Why did Sylvia Mendez get the Medal of Freedom?

A young Mexican-American girl named Sylvia Mendez was at the center of the famous Mendez v. Westminster case from 1947, which led to the desegregation of schools for Latino children on the U.S. West Coast.

What is the book about Sylvia Mendez?

Seven years before Brown v. Board of Education, the Mendez family fought to end segregation in California schools. Discover their incredible story in Separate Is Never Equal, a picture book from award-winning creator Duncan Tonatiuh.

Voices of History: Sylvia Mendez

Is Sylvia Mendez Hispanic?

In the mid-1940s Mendez's family successfully sued the school district to end the segregation of Hispanic children in the state. Mendez was born on June 7, 1936, in Santa Ana, California. Her father, Gonzalo, was from Mexico, and her mother, Felicitas, was from Puerto Rico.

Where is Sylvia Mendez parents from?

Mendez's father, Gonzalo, was from Mexico, and her mother, Felicitas, was from Puerto Rico. When Sylvia was a child, her family moved to Westminster in Orange county, California.

Where is Sylvia Mendez today?

Mendez became a nurse and retired after working for thirty years in her field. She adopted two girls and lives in Fullerton, California. She travels and gives lectures to educate others on the historic contributions made by her parents and the co-plaintiffs to the desegregation effort in the United States.

What country is Sylvia Mendez from?

Sylvia Mendez was born in 1936 in Santa Ana, California. Her family consisted of her mother, Felicitas Mendez, who was from Puerto Rico, her father, Gonzalo Mendez, a naturalized American citizen from Mexico, and three younger siblings.

How many kids does Sylvia Mendez have?

She adopted two daughters and has four grandchildren. She spends her retirement traveling abroad. She has visited all 7 continents. Sylvia enjoys spending time with her family and educating others on the Mendez v Westminster case.

Was Thurgood Marshall black or white?

Johnson nominated distinguished civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall to be the first African American justice to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. Marshall had already made his mark in American law, having won 29 of the 32 cases he argued before the Supreme Court, most notably the landmark case Brown v.

Why is Sylvia Mendez famous?

Her family's case, Mendez v. Westminster, paved the way in 1947 for the famous Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education which led to desegregation of schools across the country eight years later. Their story demonstrates how a small group of citizens can and have changed the course of history.

How long was Sylvia Mendez a nurse?

Board of Education (1954) and ended school segregation in California. Miss Mendez, who still resides in Orange County, attended Cal State Los Angeles, earning a BS in Nursing. She worked 33 years as a nurse at the Los Angeles USC Medical Center, becoming Assistant Nursing Director of the Pediatric Pavilion.

How did Sylvia Mendez help the civil rights movement?

When her parents mounted a legal challenge to the school district's segregation practices, she found herself at the center of Mendez v. Westminster School District of Orange County. The lawsuit helped bring about the end of school segregation in California. It also paved the way for the Brown v.

What was Sylvia Mendez awarded in 2010?

President Obama presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Sylvia Mendez for her Civil Rights activism and continued impact on education.

Who was Gonzalo Mendez?

Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez, who successfully ran an agricultural business, are American civil rights activists. In 1940, the Mendez family resided in the city of Westminster where at the time the school district mandated schools in Orange County to be segregated campuses for Hispanics and Whites.

What medal did Sylvia Mendez win?

2/16/2011. Sylvia Mendez was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama on February 15, 2011. This video of Mendez was created by the Obama White House to mark the occasion and highlight Mendez's activism and role in the landmark case Mendez v. Westminster School District.

Where did the Mendez family live?

The farm was located in Westminster, a small town in Southern California's Orange County. Mendez moved his family to the farm, which was near an elementary school designated for white children by the Westminster school board.

What nationality is Jasmine Mendez?

Jasminne Mendez is an Afro-Latino American author, poet, playwright, performer and educator.

What did the Mendez family do?

The Mendez family (Puerto Rican and Mexican American) recruited similarly aggrieved parents from local school districts for a federal court case challenging school segregation.

Did the Mendez case end segregation in California?

In 1947, a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision in Mendez et al. v. Westminster School District of Orange County, et al. brought an end to school segregation in California and supported later civil rights struggles to end all segregation nationally.

When was Gonzalo Mendez born?

Gonzalo Mendez was born in Mexico in 1913. Mendez, his mother, and her other four children moved to Westminster, California, in 1919. In 1943, at age 30, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States and was a relatively well-off vegetable farmer.

Who was the girl who tried to enroll in a segregated school?

At the tender age of six, Ruby Bridges advanced the cause of civil rights in November 1960 when she became the first African American student to integrate an elementary school in the South.

Who won the Mendez case?

Senior District Judge Paul J. McCormick, sitting in Los Angeles, presided at the trial and ruled in favor of Mendez and his co-plaintiffs on February 18, 1946 in finding that separate schools for Mexicans to be an unconstitutional denial of equal protection.