Week of Sept. 19, 2016: Hispanic Heritage Month
This Week's Words You Should Know
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Mendez vs. Westminster
Mendez, et al v. Westminster School District of Orange County, et al, was a 1946 federal court case that challenged racial segregation in Orange County, California schools. Five Mexican-American fathers from Orange County (Thomas Estrada, William Guzman, Gonzalo Mendez, Frank Palomino, and Lorenzo Ramirez) challenged the practice of school segregation in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. They claimed that their children, along with 5,000 other children of "Mexican" ancestry, were victims of unconstitutional discrimination by being forced to attend separate "schools for Mexicans" in the Westminster, Garden Grove, Santa Ana, and El Modena school districts of Orange County. The plaintiffs were represented by an established Jewish American civil rights attorney, David Marcus.
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