In the 1930s, Mexican families helped dismantle segregation in the California school system. Education advocates now want to create greater awareness of that effort.

Although Latinos played a crucial role in the American civil rights movement, their stories often go untold. Much of this history is missing from textbooks, leaving many Americans unaware of the significant contributions Latinos made in the fight for equality and justice. This Hispanic Heritage Month, UnidosUS is uplifting the contributions that Latinos have made in the fight toward a more just and equitable education system.

One widely recognized milestone on the road to equal education access was the 1947 case Mendez, et al v. Westminster School District of Orange County, et al, which marked the first time that school segregation was struck down in federal court, in favor of Latino students. This landmark decision prohibited segregation in California public schools and paved the way nine years later for Oliver Brown, et al v. Board of Education of Topeka, et al, which led to the end of legal racial segregation in U.S. schools. 

Over time, some cases have come to be more widely referenced than others, but all have contributed to greater civil rights protections in schools. Consider this lesser-known case that took place on Olive Street in San Diego County between 1930 and 1931, when a group of parents of Mexican heritage successfully sued the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District for trying to build and place their children in a separate “Americanization” school. 

What was the Lemon Grove Incident

For much of the American public, desegregation in schools began in 1960 in the South. What comes to mind for most is the moment federal troops escorted a six-year-old Black student named Ruby Bridges into a formerly whites-only elementary school in the U.S. South, marking the first time the U.S. government was able to enforce the Oliver Brown, et al v. Board of Education of Topeka, et al ruling. The images of angry white crowds hurling objects and insults at Ruby captured the deep-seated vitriol against Black Americans.

However, the history of racism and xenophobia extends far beyond the South and has played out across the entire country.  The Lemon Grove Incident highlights how this played out in California. 

During westward expansion, Black, Indigenous and Asian people in California were banned from enjoying the same rights as whites to vote or attend school. Latinos, on the other hand (at the time mostly of Mexican origin) fell into a gray area because they had been classified as white but were rarely allowed to leverage the rights that came with that classification. In fact, in parts of the state with large Mexican and Mexican American populations, students from these backgrounds were allowed to attend school but were segregated under the guise of first improving their English and learning white cultural norms for greater assimilation. 

The tiny southern Californian town of Lemon Grove chose to implement this practice in the summer of 1930 after noting a rapid increase in the number of Mexican and Mexican American residents, a demographic shift that many whites saw as a threat to their lifeways and jobs. The all-white Lemon Grove School District Board of Trustees voted to build a two-room school building within the predominantly Mexican American part of the town, without first consulting residents in that area about what kind of education they wanted for their children. 

The board made the then-classic argument that the children needed special attention and were better attended to among themselves, noting that these students needed more assistance in learning the English language and in American socialization. But many of the Lemon Grove School District students were U.S.-born and already spoke fluent English. In any case, they and their parents weren’t buying arguments they could see were steeped in discrimination.

A 1986 documentary of the Lemon Grove Incident uses reenactment to depict how one board member asked a young Mexican American student, Roberto Alvarez, to deliver a note informing parents of the decision. The film also features the real-life Alvarez and other students in their elder years recalling how the situation unfolded when Alvarez delivered the news to his uncle. 

“He just took the paper and tore it up,” an elderly Alvarez said. 

But ignoring the problem didn’t make it go away. When the families opted out of sending their children to the new school, the board of trustees convinced immigration officials to start deporting them, even those with U.S. citizenship. 

“You spend half your life in the states and your young kid life in the states, and now they throw you back to a country you haven’t lived in much and you don’t know which country you have to belong to first,” lamented an elderly David Ruiz, another Lemon Grove student from that era who came from a mixed-status family. 

Angry and desperate to claim their right to live, study, work and flourish in Lemon Grove, the Mexican and Mexican American families formed The Neighbors of Lemon Grove Committee and sought support from the area’s Mexican consul Enrique Ferreira. He put them in touch with San Diego attorneys A.C. Brinkley and Fred Noon and helped cover some of the financial costs of hiring them. The committee decided to file the case under the young Alvarez’s name, while inviting 10 other students to give testimony. 

Together, they made the case that the school board was attempting to engage in racial segregation and was offering an inferior educational experience to a group of children who were entitled under the current laws to receive the same education as the other students at the original Lemon Grove School. 

For its part, the Board denied these claims, stating that the new school–which was built like a barn and later became a feed store–was fully equipped for education and recreation, was within walking distance to the children’s homes and would provide a comfortable space for “backward and deficient” children to be fully “Americanized.” 

That qualifier led to the undoing of a school facility that Mexican American students would come to call la caballeriza, meaning the barnyard. And while the judge ruled that there was some precedent for separating a few students in need of special educational attention, “to separate all the Mexicans in one group can only be done by infringing the laws of the State of California.” He also ruled that these students could not be separated by race, ethnicity or origin since, under the laws of that time, they were classified as Caucasian. And finally, he said integrating these students with their peers was the best way for those who were English learners to improve their understanding and use of the English language.

“They were happy because their children had just as many rights as everybody else, and it made me feel good too that we weren’t that dumb–like they said we were,” Former Lemon Grove Grammar School student Mary Smith said in the film. 

The impact of the case

While it’s clear that the case resulted in a victory for the Mexican and Mexican American community of Lemon Grove, the incident certainly leads to questions about why the plaintiffs didn’t fight all forms of racial discrimination and segregation, seeing that many of their peers were not even allowed to attend school. Dr. Vernon Damani Johnson, a veteran Black civil rights activist, interracial organizer and political scientist from Washington state says that from a historical context, that is to be expected.

“That’s not what marginalized and oppressed people do when they first take on their struggle,” he explained to ProgressReport.co. “When they’re a population under siege, they’re only dimly aware of the oppression others are suffering, and they use the legal tools available to them.” 

At that time, Black, Asian and Native populations faced a more complex fight for equal rights, due to their non-white classification, but Johnson notes that these situations all informed and influenced each other, and led to greater interracial organizing later down the road. The success of Roberto Alvarez vs. the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District helped pave the way for the success of Mendez et al v. Westminster et al, which once again found the separation of Mexican Americans in the school system to be illegal and set the stage for banning all forms of school segregation in the state of California. As a result, the NAACP filed an amicus curiae brief using Mendez et al vs. Westminster et al in several school desegregation cases in the 1940s and 1950s, including in Oliver Brown, et al v. Board of Education of Topeka, et al. 

Johnson says the Civil Rights Movement was expanded and fomented through the evolution of this legal trajectory and a growing interest in identity politics that could merge around the basic right to identify with one’s race and culture, while enjoying equal access to all aspects of the U.S. legal system, including public education. 

Dr. Maria Armstrong currently serves as a Board Member of the Horace Mann League and Storyland: The Bronx Book Haven, and as CEO of the Pacific, Atlantic, Caribbean (PAC) Partnership Advisors. She is also a retired superintendent of schools and Scholastic Mentor, Raising Voices: Elevating Latino Stories.

“The Lemon Grove Incident is very personal to me. My in-laws still reside on Olive Street. My children attended Lemon Grove schools.” However, she explained that even though she attended a high school nearby, she did not learn about the case until she took a community college class in Chicano studies.

“There are so many intriguing facets to this case,” said Armstrong, remembering how confused and shocked she was as a child when she saw that she had been classified as Caucasian on her birth certificate, despite being raised in a Chicano/Native Indigenous household.

“It took years to get different options on forms — to be able to assert, no, I identity as this or no, I don’t wish to disclose,” she said. Dr. Armstrong explained that as a young Chicana in the 1970’s, facing the complexities of identity the challenges that come with being a Latina with darker skin fueled her advocacy for greater representation and equality in school systems across the country.

A message of empowerment

Taken in this historical context, Armstrong believes it is essential to honor the bravery of the families involved in the Lemon Grove case, who found a way to leverage the legal system and stand up for their rights in the face of great societal odds. 

“These families had very little to their name, yet they possessed the determination and foresight to protect their children,” she noted.

This lesson is one she hopes educators will share with today’s students. Throughout her three-decade career in education, she made it a point to instill this message. During her first year as a teacher, she referenced the Lemon Grove Incident as a way to get a group of students to understand that while they had a right to a free public education, they also bore a responsibility to respect that right.

Since her class was focused on media and technology, she proposed a week-long collaborative effort in exchange for a screening of the 1986 documentary on the Lemon Grove Incident. This was not just a reward, it was an opportunity for her students to see themselves reflected in the struggles of those brave families who sought the best for their children. 

Both the students and Armstrong upheld their end of the bargain, marking an early lesson in her journey to incorporate history into all aspects of teaching.

“Every class is an opportunity to emphasize core subjects — history, English, science, mathematics and yes, technology.” She addressed concerns from a few skeptical school officials who questioned her approach to historical narratives. 

“Everything we do here connects. We just need to take the time to research and think critically about our respective subject matter, and integrate the other core subject matter on how to relate the past to the present, so we can forge a better future. It is our job to connect the dots, life is not in the abstract. The beauty and love of teaching and learning lie in the abstract. That is our responsibility as educators and students.”

To learn more about the Lemon Grove Incident, click here.