We all understand the monumental impact of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954; this unanimously agreed upon legislation legally ended the segregation of American schools and crushed the doctrine of "separate but equal." Though this ruling didn't automatically desegregate schools, it paved a way for other civil rights legislation, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. However, even before this decision took place, a group of Mexican families from California brought the issue of segregation to federal court in 1946. For background, though Mexican Americans were discriminated against, segregation in California was not dictated in the law. However, as an increasing number of Mexican laborers began to work in California, communities began to enforce segregation on their own. Nowadays, we like to think that California is a forward-thinking and accepting place. Yet during that time, segregation existed throughout California.
Here are some parallels between the segregation and discrimination African Americans experienced in the South and what Mexican Americans experienced in California:
- Restaurants posted signs barring Mexican Americans from entering
- Mexican Americans were forced to sit in the balcony of movie theaters other than closer up on the lower levels
- Mexican American and whites could not use public swimming pools together
- Mexican American children have to keep culturally-based IQ test to determine whether they could go to White schools or not
To complicate matters, “separate but equal” was doctrine many state governments abided by. Hence, Mexican Americans were sent to “special schools” that would help “Americanize” them whereas other kids could go to regular schools. These so-called Mexican schools tended to be more dilapidated and ill-equipped when compared to White American schools. Worst of all, Mexican schools taught students how to work in the farms and do domestic work rather than giving them academic instruction; this is because the majority of the school board members were farmers who used Mexican American labor. Schools were so centered around grooming the next generation of Mexican Americans for labor that these schools were designed to start late and end early so that children could work in the orchards and help harvest crops.
Finally, Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez became fed up of the system. When their children were turned away from enrolling in 17th Street School in Los Angeles neighborhood, they decided to take action against their school district in a lawsuit known as Mendez v. Westminster. Mendez’s attorney, David Marcus, not only fought for Mexican American students, but for Asian American and Native American students. When the case was heard by federal district judge Paul McCormick in 1946, he made the ruling that it was both unenforceable and unconstitutional to segregate California schools.
Thus, thanks to the Mendez family and others who fought to desegregate California schools, marginalized groups of Americans gained the courage and the permission to challenge the unjust nature of segregation.
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This post is very insightful and it has very interesting information about the Supreme Court and segregation before Brown v. Board. Something to note is that Brown v. Board of Education is not just one case. It is actually five cases about segregation in schools from Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, and Washington D.C. When Brown v. Board was passed, all these cases were included in the Supreme Court's verdict. They all centered around segregation in public school's and the question the justices answered was that segregation does violate the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment.
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