Lesson 3

Separate and Totally Not Equal

The Chicano Movement

Sorting Hat

Class Chat
What

do you know of School Segregation?

Where did it occur? California?

Who were affected by this?

What

does Separate but Equal mean?

How accurate is it? What are the
ramifications of such a statement?

What

were the conditions of segregated

schools?

The Status of Education

As early as 1855, California laws made state

funding for education available only to white
students.

Educational codes specifically denied African

American, Asian American, and Native American
equal education.

Laws didn't name Mexican Americans, but it was

customary to segregate them in separate classes
or more often in separate schools.

About 80% of California school districts had

segregated schools for Mexican American

School boards gave various reasons for segregation:

English language handicaps
Needed to be trained for appropriate vocations
Require Americanization

Conditions in Mexican American schools were vastly

inferior to those in white schools.
Mexican American teachers and principals were uniformly paid less

than their white counterparts for doing the same job

Less money went to building Mexican American schools than
toward building white schools
Classes in Mexican American schools were overcrowded
Curriculum disproportionately focused on vocational skills

Sharing is Caring
What

are some of the issues that

segregation creates?
How does it affect both sides of the
segregation line?
How does it make you feel?
Segregated students:
You were only segregated for a few
minutes, but imagine what it would
be like for weeks or years. What
would your future look?

A Sour Incident in Lemon

Grove
In

1930, the Lemon Grove school board attempted to

create a segregated school for Mexican American
students in the district.

The

school board claimed Lemon Grove grammar

school was overcrowded with sanitary and moral
issues due to the integration of Mexican children.

The

Mexican American school built was known as la

caballeriza (the horse stable)

Parents

were not notified that their students were

going to be moved to la caballeriza

Kind of fun reenactment

clips

Parent meeting
clip

School line up clip

Court interview of
witness clip

Ruling clip

Lets chat
What

were some of the reasons brought up

by the school board members for their
decision?

How

were both sides affected?

What

was something that surprised you?

Why?
What

were some important ideas made

during the ruling?

The Mendez Family

In

the mid-1940s, a tenant farmer named Gonzalo

Mendez moved his family to the predominantly white
Westminster district in Orange County
His children were denied admission to the public schools

there
The

Mendez Family were able to lease a 60-acre farm

in Westminster from the Munemitsus, a Japanese
family who had been "relocated" to a Japanese
internment camp during World War II.

The

Mendez Family earned enough from the farm to

hire an attorney and pursue litigation.

The Case
In

1945, Mendez and four other parents filed a class

action lawsuit on behalf of 5,000 Mexican American
families to integrate the schools in four Orange County
school districts.

Plessy

v. Ferguson(1896) focused on racial discrimination

Mendez

v. Westminster (1947)

Plaintiffs argued students were segregated based solely on their

national origin
Defendants argued schools were segregated due to the handicap
of language barriers and non-English-speaking pupils should
attend separate schools until they had acquired some proficiency
in the English language

The Ruling and

Aftermath
In

1946, the judge ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment pertained to

equal access to education and segregation based solely on national
origin was unconstitutional.

California

governor Earl Warren lobbied the California state legislature

to enact legislation repealing the state's educational codes that
allowed for segregation in public schools.
Governor Warren would go on to become the Chief Justice of the United States

Supreme Court and write the opinion inBrown v. Board of Education (1954).
TheMendezcase

represented the first successful challenge to

"separate but equal" and established an important legal precedent.

In

1948 and 1950, federal courts in both Texas and Arizona ruled that
segregated schools for Mexican Americans were unconstitutional.

Lets chat a bit more

What

story from the video segment do you

remember? Why did that story stay with you?

Why

were the Vidaurri children, but not their cousins,

the Mendez children, allowed to attend the
Westminster school? When did this occur? Why do
you think it happened at that time?

On

what basis did the court decide that the Mendez

children had been treated unfairly?

Why

do you think that this case is not as well known

asBrown v. Board of Education?

Dear State Legislature

Imagine

you are living in 1946

(One Year

before to Mendez):

Write a letter to the State Legislature asking

for a law ending school segregation.

Pick at least one reason to focus on.
Describe reason
Explain
Elaborate

Dont forget to sign it!