Born in Santa Ana, California in 1936 to Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez, Sylvia Mendez is an activist and retired nurse. In the third grade, Sylvia was denied enrollment from an Orange County elementary school due to her Mexican-American ethnicity. Her family was told to enroll at a different school for Mexican-Americans. Her family found this unacceptable. Alongside four additional Mexican-American families, the Mendez family took action through the California legal system.
In 1945, Gonzalo Mendez hired civil rights attorney David Marcus. Marcus filed a class-action federal lawsuit that went to trial in Mendez v. Westminster. He argued that the segregation of schools based on ethnicity violated the 14th Amendment. The judge ruled in favor of Mendez, ordering the school to desegregate. The decision was later upheld in the appellate court system. In 1947, the state of California outlawed segregation in public schools, making it the first state to take action in desegregating public schools.
Sylvia Mendez went on to be a successful student, earning an associate’s degree and a bachelor’s degree in nursing. In 2011 President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in honor of the work her family did to ensure the desegregation of schools. Cases like Mendez v. Westminster helped guide the way for landmark court cases like Brown V. Board of Education, which changed legislation nationwide. She inspires activism in new generations by sharing her story.
