Who is Sylvia Mendez and why is she important?
In 1944, her parents, Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez, filed a federal, class action lawsuit against Westminster School District in Orange County that helped end segregation in California public schools.
In the case Mendez v. Westminster School District of Orange County, Gonzalo Mendez and four other plaintiffs—William Guzman, Frank Palomino, Thomas Estrada and Lorenzo Ramirez—contended that Mexican-American students in the cities of Westminster, Garden Grove, Santa Ana, and Orange were being discriminated against by being forced to attend separate and inferior "Mexican" schools, instead of being allowed to enroll in the same public schools that white students in their neighborhoods were attending.
Mendez v. Westminster School District of Orange County paved the way for the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, in which the U.S. Supreme Court found that segregation in all public schools was unconstitutional.
On September 15, 2023, Sylvia will speak at the Latino Leaders Coalition of the Bay Area's (LLCBA) inaugural Hispanic Heritage Month Speaker Series at the San Mateo Performing Arts Center located at 600 N. Delaware Street in San Mateo.
The speaker series celebrates and showcases the diversity of the Bay Area's Latino community and continues on September 22, October 6, and October 13 with additional appearances by former San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent (SFUSD) Richard A. Carranza and Sarahi Espinoza-Salamanca, founder of DREAMer's Roadmap, a mobile app platform that helps undocumented students find scholarships for higher education.
LLCBA is a newly formed organization of San Mateo County Latino school board members and superintendents, which was established to educate, engage, and empower Latino students, families, and educators throughout San Mateo County.