Tag: Felicitas Mendez

Marking the start of Hispanic Heritage Month, Google honors Mendez, a pioneer in the desegregation of U.S. public schools.

In 1944, Mendez launched a lawsuit after her children were denied enrollment in a California public school due to being Hispanic.

Mendez's daughter, Sylvia, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011 in recognition of her parents' role in Westminster v. Mendez.

Felicitas Mendez is remembered for successfully suing a school district that refused to enroll her children based on their ethnicity, paving the way for the integration of Californian public schools.

The ruling in her 1946 lawsuit paved the way for desegregation in public schools in California years before the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education.