Latina Activist Awarded Medal Of Freedom

Sylvia Mendez, the subject of what’s commonly called the “Latino version” of the Brown vs. Board of Education case in California, was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama this week. The recognition is meant to highlight people who have made, “especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”

The Orange County Register reports:

Mendez was just 8 years old when her parents, Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez, sued Westminster School District for turning their children away from an all-white school.

The children were sent instead to the “Mexican” school, a two-room wooden shack with worn, wobbly desks and chairs, and tattered textbooks – hand-me-downs from other campuses.

In 1947, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in deciding the case, ordered an end to segregation in California schools.

Mendez v. Westminister was later cited in the historic 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case by Thurgood Marshall, lawyer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who would later join the Supreme Court.

The ruling meant that Mendez could attend the formerly segregated white campus, and she endured taunts from white classmates after enrolling. With her parents behind her, she stuck it out, and eventually began to educate others about the need for racial tolerance.

The award is much deserved, felicidades Sylvia.