Reynoso Speaks at U.S. Stamp Unveiling for Civil Rights Case
The stamp was unveiled at three different ceremonies Friday, one at the Secretary of State's courtyard in Sacramento, another at the National Hispanic University in San Jose, and the other at the Mendez Intermediate School in Santa Ana.
The case is called Mendez et al v. Westminster et al Board of Education and was filed in 1944 when an elementary school forced U.S. citizen children of Mexican-immigrant descent to attend a "Mexican school" instead of the "white" one near their home.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the lower court decision in 1947 that the law did not authorize segregation of public schools and that the Westminister School District could not establish "Mexican schools."
"This was the precursor to Brown v. Board of Education," said former California Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso. "The same theory that was used in this case for the first time was then used in the argument for the Supreme Court."
That 1950's decision outlawed school segregation throughout the United States.
Gov. Earl Warren signed a bill outlawing segregated schools in 1947 following the 9th Circuit decision in the Mendez case.