A Promise of Fulfill
Brief look at the Mendez and Brown court cases
In the beginning…
Principles for community advocacy in action
The Court Cases
Mendez vs. Westminster and the California Board of Education
In March of 1945, Latino parents in Orange County, California, confronted the segregation of their children into “Mexican schools.” Gonzalo Mendez, William Guzmán, Frank Palomino, Thomas Estrada and Lorenzo Ramírez, with the help of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), sued four local school districts for segregating their children.
In February of 1946, this landmark case ended segregation in California school districts. Governor Earl Warren signed legislation prohibiting segregation in California, giving equal rights to all students. The Mendez case foreshadowed Brown vs. Board of Education. The Mendez case included the judicious use of social science research, the application of the 14th Amendment, and the involvement of Thurgood Marshall, co-author of the amicus brief filed by the NAACP.
Brown vs. Board of Education
In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that compulsory segregation of races in public schools was unconstitutional. The court held that separate facilities for Black students and White students were “inherently unequal,” and in 1955, ordered states with segregated schools to open them to all races. This ruling struck down the separate but equal doctrine, declared separation of Black students and White students unconstitutional, and ordered desegregation of schools with “all deliberate speed.”
50 years of Desegregation
“In the field of public education,
the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’
has no place.”
— Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
In the Beginning
Mendez and Brown court cases, along with others like Lau and Plyler, transformed the nature of U.S. public education. Yet, the promise of quality education remains an elusive goal for many of our children. This century’s civil rights issue is quality education. Often, the issues of civil rights in education are viewed in the deficit and limiting terms of “Black vs. White,” causing divisions among minority and majority groups to the detriment of our children and the nation’s future.
IDRA designed a series of cross-race, cross-sector community dialogues that gathered African American and Latino community, business and education leaders in various cities throughout the South to address key education issues in each respective community, including equitable funding, quality schooling, ensuring graduation for all, and access to higher education. These local one-day forums were successful in providing a space to set aside differences and create a common vision, engaging education stakeholders, across race and sector, in discussions about key issues and challenges in realizing the spirit of the Mendez and Brown decisions. They also provided information about current initiatives and began to seed new coalitions among groups that seldom have the opportunity to plan positive action for improving education for all children.
Restoring Hope
If we choose to be meaningfully engaged in working together, we can restore hope for a quality education for all children, one that will prepare them for high school graduation, college readiness, and a future filled with promise. We know that community conversations take time to build trust, listen to one another, and create a common vision. But we also recognize that we are at an extraordinary moment in our history that requires us to work together with urgency as never before, recognizing the possibilities and strengths that we share in our common hope for a better future for our children. It is essential for our communities across race and sector to enter into dynamic conversations and joint action on behalf of improving our public schools. Our collective voice and leadership can create the kind of lasting change that will benefit the teaching and learning process.
Martin Luther King, Jr.:
“We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
“Existimos en una red ineludible de la reciprocidad, atados en un solo hilo del destino. Lo que afecta a uno directamente nos afecta a todos indirectamente.”
César Chávez:
“The end of all education should surely be service to others. We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about the progress and prosperity for our community. Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others for their sake and for our own.”
“El final en toda educación debe ser, sin duda alguna, el servicio a otros. No podemos procurar realizarnos nosotros mismos y olvidarnos del progreso y prosperidad de nuestra comunidad. Nuestras ambiciones deben ser suficientemente ámplias para incluir las aspiraciones y necesidades de otros por su bienestar y por el propio.”
Principles for Community Advocacy in Action
This initiative is built upon the belief that there is great power in communities coming together to create change. It is based on core principles upon which communities of action can be created across race and sector to support schools in improving education for all students:
- Coalition building must be inclusive, reflecting the diversity of race and ethnicity in your community, spanning sectors and disciplines, and breaking down traditional barriers and silos to collaboration.
- Each community context is unique; specific action should be responsive to unique local needs, strengths and solutions.
- An education system within a viable democracy must ensure fair and equitable funding for every public school.
- Schools must develop greater school holding power that supports and prepares all students from preschool through high school and college.
- Schools must be better prepared to teach and serve a diverse student body and their families.
- Schools must value and meaningfully engage parents and diverse communities in educational decision making and action.
- Student voice – the pers
