But the vast majority of segregated schools were not integrated until many years later. In 1993, black and Latino students were in schools with 52% and 58% poor children, respectively, and . Roads were normally unpaved and dusty. In this context, Gonzalo Mendez and four other Mexican-American parents sued four Orange County, California, school districts on behalf of their children and 5,000 other children of Mexican and Latin descent, arguing that segregation violated their constitutional rights. More specifically, within each of these types of areas, we compare outcomes for birth cohorts that started school before the Mendez ruling to birth cohorts that started school after the Mendez ruling. The median home price in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif., is more than $1 million. In Garden City, the streets are well-paved and shaded with trees. They were American citizens. Thus, our analytical strategy compares what happened in areas where Hispanics comprised a relatively large share of the local population (where segregation was more likely to occur) to what happened in areas with a smaller share of Hispanic residents. What was the ultimate outcome of the lawsuit? He became the first African American student to attend the white Bogalusa Junior High School in 1967 and remembers how he had one foot in each world, but was increasingly alienated from both: And I caught a lot of slack, like, from the black community, because they used to say, Oh, you think youre something because youre going to the white school. They didnt know I was catching holy hell at the white school. Lawrence Guyot, who later became a leader in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, grew up in Pass Christian, a city on the Mississippi Gulf Coast that was influenced by the strong labor unions in the shipyard industry and the Catholic Church. A half-century of desegregation research shows the major costs of segregation and the variety of benefits of schools that are attended by all races. Earl Warren to sign legislation repealing a state law calling for the segregation of American Indian and Asian-American students. The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University says that desegregation of US public schools peaked in 1988. hide caption. hide caption, "There is just as much ability and talent in our urban schools as there is in more affluent school districts," says New Britain Superintendent Nancy Sarra. Dedicated on September 6, 1935, the Westminster School in Orange County is a one-story complex, designed by J. E. Allison and constructed of stucco with a composition tile roof. hide caption. By now, the Mndez lawsuit was drawing national attention. Former California Gov. Considering those precedents, local school boards decided to create separate schools for Mexican children as well. Most of these schools have a majority of low-income students, which a 2016 government report concluded harmed students educational opportunities. The justification for segregating Mexicans and Mexican-Americans (regardless of citizenship) was largely rooted in racial discrimination. hide caption, Given a head start: Football fields at Mountain Brook High School (left) and Pinson Valley High School in the Jefferson County School District. A focus on desegregating schools and classrooms may be especially beneficial to closing the opportunity gaps experienced by many Hispanic students today. But over seven years earlier, five Latino families fought and won a case that helped integrate schools in California. In a recently released study, we present the first quantitative analysis of the effects of the Mendez ruling on long-run educational attainment for Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites in California. Perhaps the greatest difference between the schools, however, was in their curricula. Though the state of Alabama allocates more money almost $1,000 more per student to schools in Jefferson County, it's not enough to make up the difference in funding between the two districts. In 1964, Gonzalo Mndez died of heart failure. He also pointed out there was no sound educational basis for the segregation of Anglo and Mexican students since research showed segregation worked against language acquisition and cultural assimilation. How did you invigorate young people to believe that they could make a difference even when the white world said that they couldnt?, a group interview with these former students, Collecting and Presenting the Freedom Struggle at the Library of Congress, CRHP National Survey Database of Civil Rights Collections. Board of Education, 8-year-old Mamie Tape of San Francisco, and her persistent parents, did the same for Chinese-American students. Gonzalo took a year off work to organize Latino men and women and gather evidence for the case. Weve had nuances here in the United States regarding how white (do) people have to be in order to be treated equally, said Orange County Superior Court Judge Frederick Aguirre, who has written several articles on the Mendez case. Sylvia Mendez . Understanding the impacts of the Mendez decision is critical to understanding the experience and present circumstances of the Latino/Hispanic community, which now makes up about one-fifth of the U.S. population and an even larger share of the U.S. public school population. Another element of the program simply allowed minority students from low-income South Los Angeles to take buses to schools in the whiter and more prosperous San Fernando Valley. If a man has very much sense or education either, he is not going to stick to this kind of work. At this point, the court order is something of a legal fig leaf that protects the magnet program, giving it a legal right to continue. As one school superintendent in Texas told his fellow educators, You have doubtless heard that ignorance is bliss; it seems that it is so when one has to transplant onions. Among large school districts in California, some are far more integrated than others, which demonstrate that a pattern of segregation is not inevitable and offers models for other communities. He took photos of Jefferson County Schools and Mountain Brook City Schools in black and white, he says, "because I wanted the viewer to study the photos to really see the differences in the schools. They were used to being told in restaurants, We dont serve Mexicans here, and being informed by store clerks that they would have to wait to make their purchases until all the white customers had been served. Employment opportunities for Mexican Americans were severely limited. And that little girl was me, Harris said in the first Democratic debate to candidate Joe Biden. As a result, segregation in the education system affected Mexican American children. For Marcus, the key would be to prove not that segregation was wrong, but that Latino students were white and being discriminated against. He says he has benefited from his school: "They have a lot of resources to prepare the students really well for college." Hey! Select the Teacher Version to print the text with labels, Text Dependent Questions and answers. If a man has very much sense or education either, he is not going to stick to this kind of work. Instead, the curriculum at the Mexican schools was designed, as one district superintendent put it, to help these children take their place in society. Get the latest from KCRW in your inbox 3x a week. Here's a very abbreviated timeline of the history of school segregation in the United States. California has had an extremely dramatic increase in the segregation of Latinos, who on average attended schools that were 54 percent white in 1970, but now attend schools that are 84 percent nonwhite. hide caption. In the civil rights era, nearly 80% of public school students were white, and African American students were the largest group among students of color. The 5-4 Supreme Court ruling in 2007 specifically struck down magnet-school programs in Seattle and Louisville, Ky. Seattle was never under a court order to desegregate; Louisvilles court order was dissolved. Some workers feared that their Anglo bosses might fire them if they testified. At that time, the . hide caption, Differences in Long Island: "You know immediately when you've left Garden City (right) and you're in Hempstead," Elaine Gross, who leads a local nonprofit. "We had cleaners, cab companies, insurance offices, drug stores, grocery stores. I learned firsthand that institutions can really have an impact on social policy.. How did you deal with complicated situations? Discrimination prevented them from getting jobs in restaurants, department stores and even many factories, making it extremely difficult for them to advance economically. A Tale of Two Schools was published by Teaching Tolerance as an article detailing the events leading up to the historic Mendez v. Westminster case, a forerunner of Brown v. Board of Education in the fight for school integration. Yet Oakland schools have less to spend, per pupil, than nearby Piedmont. Discrimination prevented them from getting jobs in restaurants, department stores and even many factories, making it extremely difficult for them to advance economically. We have to act swiftly.. The Westminster School District was not alone in discriminating against Chicano students. In 2016, more than half of black students were in such segregated schools. In spite of its stellar reputation, fewer than 3% of the students at the Bravo High magnet, in Boyle Heights, are white; about 82% are Latino. Yet, the typical black or Latino student attends a school in these suburban areas that has just over 25% white students. As is evident in the South, the U.S. did make considerable progress in the past. Segregation is hardly a Southern legacy alone. During the trial, defense attorney Joel Ogle pointed out the 1896 Supreme Court decision inPlessy v. Fergusongave legal sanction to racial segregation, provided the separate facilities for different races were equal. Jan. 27, 2022 5 AM PT. In 1954, the Supreme Court unanimously strikes down segregation in public schools, sparking the Civil Rights movement. And this wave also included avowed racists and opportunists who, in their opposition to busing, hid behind self-righteous platitudes. Jesse Neider for NPR He recently retired Deadline L.A., a past honoree for best public-affairs radio program, which he produced and co-hosted on KPFK-FM (90.7) for 15 years. In California, school desegregation was part of broader integration efforts, including the elimination of redlining, which kept black people and members of other minority groups from living in white neighborhoods. Even if it would not rewrite the law of the land,Mndez v. Westminsterstill had a significant regional impact. But over seven years earlier, five Latino families fought and won a case that helped integrate schools in California. Black and Latino students are strongly concentrated in schools that have far lower quality, according to state Academic Performance Index (API) ratings. They won in 1947. This is considerably higher than white students national share of the enrollment. We are member-supported, so your donation is critical to KCRW's music programming, news reporting, and cultural coverage. 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