Bill to rename courthouse after trailblazing Mendez family marks one year

Latino families have a long history of advocating for their children’s education and overcoming barriers. During this year’s Hispanic Heritage Month, we are celebrating legislative efforts to honor them. 

-Author Julienne Gage is a former UnidosUS staff member and ProgressReport.co editor. She is currently obtaining her PhD in global and sociocultural studies at Florida International University. 

A year ago, UnidosUS and nearly two dozen other civil rights groups hailed U.S. Representative Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) introduction of H.B. 5754 which proposes to rename a U.S. Courthouse in Los Angeles after trailblazing parents Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez. They were the lead plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit that challenged school districts in Los Angeles for trying to force their children to attend segregated schools for non-white children. The bill has received bipartisan support in Congress by passing the U.S. House of Representatives on May 21, 2024. If it passes in the Senate, this piece of legislation would make the building the eighth of 200 federal courthouses recognizing a Hispanic American and the first to honor a Latina. 

Furthering this effort to promote inclusive history, this week California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 1805, a bill requiring that this same piece of civil rights history be incorporated into the state’s history and social science curriculum standards.

A landmark case for education equity

The case, known as Mendez, et al v. Westminster School District of Orange County, et al, began in 1945 when the Mendez’s and four other families representing 5,0000 students sued the Orange County school districts of Westminster, Santa Ana, Garden Grove and the unincorporated area of El Modena for segregating children of Latino origin. 

“When the Mendez family and four other courageous families challenged segregation in California schools 77 years ago, they paved the way for the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling that desegregated schools for all students,” the bill’s sponsor, Representative Jimmy Gomez (D-CA), said in a 2023 press release. 

Recognizing the impact the case could have over the whole of the nation’s school system, iconic NAACP civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall wrote an amicus brief in the case, one he later used to help win the 1954 Supreme Court Case case Oliver Brown, et al v. Board of Education of Topeka, et al, which effectively outlawed segregation in U.S. schools.

Civil rights groups rally for greater acknowledgement of Latinos in U.S. history

During last fall’s Hispanic Heritage Month, Rep. Gomez rallied 21 civil rights organizations including UnidosUS to write letters to Congress on behalf of his bill, H.B. 5754. UnidosUS signed, agreeing it highlighted how Latinos are part of the fabric of America – past, present and future. 

This effort also aligned with a yearlong research project conducted by the UnidosUS Racial Equity Initiative in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University’s Institute for Education Policy. That project culminated in a report titled Analyzing Inclusion of Latino Contributions to the U.S. History Curricula for High School. The study found, writ large, that current Latino-focused content in history and social studies textbooks—and by implication curricula—fall far short of what should be required in a country where the proportion of the Hispanic population is expected to grow to 29% by 2050.

“Our public institutions should reflect the rich diversity that represents the history and strength of our nation. However, of the 200+ named United States courthouses across the country, only 20 are named for people of color and six are named in honor of a woman,” stated UnidosUS’s September 27 letter of support. 

If H.B. 5754’s companion bill passes in the Senate and is signed into law by the president, the courthouse will be the first federal building named for a Latina and just the eighth to commemorate the U.S. Hispanic community. It will also showcase diverse Latino leadership since Felicitas hailed from Puerto Rico and her husband Gonzalo was of Mexican descent. 

Following the House bill’s passage, UnidosUS President and CEO Janet Murguía applauded the bipartisan effort and asked for more of it.  

“We thank Rep. Gomez for his leadership on a bill that would be a timely and fitting addition to the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of Brown versus Board of Education, and the role the Mendez family and Mendez v. Westminster played in laying the groundwork to that landmark decision which ended legal segregation in schools,” she said. “We call on the Senate to act quickly to pass the bill in tribute to the efforts of the Mendez family and many others who fought to give all children a chance at a good education.”

In the same press release from Rep. Gomez’s office, the NAACP reiterated its connection to the five families in the case who laid important groundwork for proving that school segregation was not only unjust but unconstitutional. 

“Nearly 80 years later, we stand by our words and advocacy in the Mendez v. Westminster case and the advocacy of the families who fought for equal protection under the law for all children,” the statement read. “Today, we honor their legacy in supporting this bill. We strongly believe the Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez United States Courthouse will be an enduring testament to the movement for civil rights for all.”

The bill’s passing also resonated with Rep. Judy Chu (CA-28), Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. In the statement she gave for Gomez’s press release, she reminded the public that in the 1940s, the Mendez family had rented a 40-acre asparagus farm in Los Angeles from the Munemitsus, a Japanese-American who had been forced into a World War II internment camp. 

“I thank CAPAC Executive Member Rep. Gomez for his leadership to have Congress highlight how intertwined our stories and fights for justice and equality are and recognize the significance of the Mendez v. Westminster case to California’s and America’s civil rights history,” she wrote.

How Mendez et al v. Westminster et al became a catalyst in the fight against education segregation 

In 1943, Sylvia Mendez was eight years old when her aunt, Sally Vidaurri, walked Sylvia and her brothers to the 17th Street School in Orange County’s Westminster School District. Vidaurri’s plan was to enroll them along with her own children, but upon arrival, a school administrator turned the Mendez children away, saying that their skin was too dark for a “whites-only” school, and that as a result, they would have to go and study at Hoover Elementary, a two-room shack used to house students who weren’t considered white. 

That’s when Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez decided to take legal action, banding together with other area parents including plaintiffs Thomas and Maria Luisa Estrada in Westminster, Lorenzo and Josefina Ramirez in El Modena, William and Virginia Guzman in Santa Ana and Frank and Irene Palomino in Garden Grove.  

“My parents and the four other families in this case refused to give up on their vision for a more equal society for their children, where the color of someone’s skin doesn’t determine their access to education. I am eager to see Congressman Gomez’s bill pass the Senate to preserve this important piece of history,” said Mendez in Rep. Gomez’s press release. 

On January 19, 1948, five years after the Mendez children first tried to enroll, Mendez and her siblings were finally allowed to attend the historically all-white school. Twelve years later, and six years after the ruling of Oliver Brown, et al v. Board of Education of Topeka, et al, on November 14, 1960, six-year-old Louisiana public schoolgirl Ruby Bridges became the first Black student to attend the formerly whites-only William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. She was only able to do so by being escorted by U.S. marshals who walked her past a horde of angry protestors throwing things and shouting racial slurs. 

In both court cases, there was a collective of families of color who stood up for their children’s rights, and in both cases, there were many children who assumed both the opportunity and the risk of desegregating the nation’s school system. And while Bridges’ story gained far greater media attention, both girls went on to become strong women advocates for civil rights because of the bold actions of their families and others. 

Honoring the children who stepped into contentious educational environments 

In a CBS News feature to commemorate last year’s Hispanic Heritage Month, Sylvia told the press how her parents poured all their money into the class action lawsuit, and when the school got word of Thurgood Marshall’s involvement, its administrators said they’d enroll the Mendez children to make the legal proceedings stop. 

“We’ll let your children go to that school. We’ll let them go to that white school and my father said ‘I am not going to stop this. This is not just for my children; this is for all children.’” 

Even as they won their rights, they still struggled to deal with a new educational existence. For example, Bridges was allowed to attend school but not to go out for recess with her classmates on the playground. 

In last year’s CBS interview, Sylvia remembered how a white boy came up to her and said, “Eww, you’re a Mexican. Who said you could be here?” 

She went home crying to her mother asking why she had to go to that nice school, and her mom replied that it wasn’t just about that school, but about the entire system. 

“No Sylvia, it wasn’t about beautiful schools. It wasn’t about beautiful playgrounds,” she says her mother told her. “It was about equality. It was about fairness.” 

In 2001, then U.S. President George W. Bush awarded Bridges the Presidential Citizens medal, and in 2011, then U.S. President Barack Obama honored Sylvia with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 

“The Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez U.S. Courthouse will be a powerful symbol of the enduring Latino American legacy and our nation’s broader struggle for equality,” Rep. Gomez stated in his press release. “I am proud to have worked closely with Felicitas and Gonzalo’s trailblazing daughter, Sylvia, on this legislation and I urge the Senate to pass it quickly and enshrine this important piece of history in our nation’s story.”

“In addition to its ongoing effort to see this bill signed into law and the Mendez family’s name on the U.S. courthouse, UnidosUS is thrilled to see that California Gov. Newsom has contributed to public awareness and education about our Latino civil rights leaders by signing AB 1805,” said UnidosUS Education Policy Project Director Amalia Chamorro. “Including Mendez, et al v. Westminster School District of Orange County, et al in the history and social science curriculum standards of a state like California, which has been so heavily influenced by its Latino residents, is an excellent step toward greater awareness of Latino contributions throughout the nation.” 

At UnidosUS, we seek to commemorate Latino contributions to U.S. history through the naming of public facilities, erecting monuments and memorials, and other forms of public recognition. Our education and racial equity teams are closely collaborating to produce research, reports and curricula to improve the outlook for public awareness and educational equity. 

“A key barrier hindering policy advances for the Latino community is the relative absence of Hispanic perspectives and voices in news coverage of racial equity issues. Honoring the community’s pioneers—like the Mendez family—provides an opportunity for their story to inspire the next generation of advocates and policy makers to advance educational opportunities for all children,” said UnidosUS’s Senior Director for Racial Equity Viviana Lopez Green, co-author of the report Elevating Latino Experiences and Voices in News About Racial Equity.