As a girl, Sylvia Mendez and her brothers were barred from the local “white” school in Westminster because their family was of Mexican descent.
How times have changed.
Today, the Mendez family name is featured prominently in a sign outside the Westminster School District headquarters, and similar honors of their civil rights legacy are in the works.
This month, district officials unveiled the monument outside their office, reading “In Honor of La Familia Mendez” to commemorate a lawsuit that challenged racial segregation in Orange County.
Meanwhile, the City of Westminster is pushing ahead with its own honors: a historic, interactive trail and a monument that will pay tribute to the Mendez family and serve as a learning tool for future generations. And, in classrooms across the county and the state, the Mendez saga increasingly is being discussed as a significant moment in U.S. history.
“It’s one of the most important civil rights cases in Orange County history and California history,” said Jeff Hittenberger, chief academic officer with the Orange County Department of Education.
“It illustrates where we’ve been, who we are now, and where we’re going.”
Mendez v. Westminster
In 1943, Sylvia Mendez and her two brothers tried to enroll at the 17th Street School in Westminster. They were turned away and told to attend a nearby “Mexican” school. Their father, Gonzalo Mendez, and four other Mexican American fathers, challenged that decision and similar segregation policies in the school districts of Westminster, Garden Grove, Santa Ana and what was then known as El Modena in East Orange.
Their win, four years later, in a class action known as Mendez vs. Westminster, led to the repeal of segregation laws in California. The ruling also helped pave the way for the landmark case known as Brown vs. Board of Education, in Topeka, Kansas, which ended the concept of “separate but equal” classrooms nationwide.
But as important as the Mendez case was, it also was, for many years, rarely discussed. Ironically, that was true in Westminster itself.
Sergio Contreras, who serves on the Westminster City Council, said he managed to graduate from his city’s public schools without hearing a peep about Mendez.
“I didn’t learn about the Mendez case until I was a student at Cal State Long Beach and came across it at the library,” Contreras said. “For years, the city had not recognized the case.”
A school board member before he was elected to the council, Contreras set out to change that.
Mendez Freedom Trail
The city and the Orange County Department of Education have since teamed up to create a “Mendez Historic Freedom Trail,” which will run along Hoover Street, between Garden Grove Boulevard and Bolsa Avenue. The 2.5 mile trail, featuring a bike path, will end at a small park with a monument honoring the Mendez family on the northeast corner of Westminster Boulevard and Olive Street – near the site where the 17th Street School once stood.
Fundraising is ongoing for statues to honor Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez, Sylvia Mendez’s parents. Artist Ignacio Gomez has been hired to create the statues, and a $2.3 million grant from the California Natural Resources Agency is paying for the bike path, which will feature four stations with interactive panels. The city is pursuing another $1.3 million grant to pay for the small park and additional interactive panels with augmented reality technology and Wi-Fi along the trail.
“I envision school buses stopping here filled with kids who walk the path and learn about Westminster’s historical importance,” Contreras said.
The new trail and monument will offer children and adults a site “to reflect on how far our nation has come” and the inspiration to think: “I too can accomplish great things,” he continued.
The trail is in pre-construction phase and the project is expected to be completed by next summer, Contreras said.
Earlier this month, the Westminster School District dedicated its central office in honor of the Mendez family.
The Mendez name also is featured prominently at Johnson Middle School. The gymnasium was renamed this month after Sylvia Mendez, and the school district’s board room is now called the “Mendez Board Room.”
“We all owe a debt of gratitude to the Mendez family and their fight for all the children,” Westminster Superintendent Cindy Paik said during a dedication ceremony on Oct. 2 outside the district office at 14121 Cedarwood Avenue.
Through the years, the Mendez v. Westminster case has been featured in an Emmy-winning documentary and a 2007 U.S. Postal Office commemorative stamp. And in 2016 the State Board of Education added the Mendez case to its history and social science framework guidelines for several grades.
One of the family’s greatest honors came in 2011, when President Obama awarded Sylvia Mendez the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
But having her former hometown of Westminster pay tribute is especially sweet, Mendez said.
“I’m so grateful that they have done this,” said Mendez, a retired nurse who lives in Fullerton and has told her story around the country.
“I promised my mother 20 years ago that I would go out and start talking about the case… And I wanted Westminster to acknowledge that it happened there.”
At 83, she still talks about the case to students, teachers and others. She’s grateful that her parents’ contribution also is getting local recognition.
It could be just a start. Mendez said she hopes future generations will look at her family’s case as a symbol that anyone can help right a wrong – and make a difference.
