Mendez V. Westminster School District Case Study

In the 1900’s, education for minorities had key goal towards the benefit of society as a whole, to assimilate immigrants into American culture and language. To do so, the school system had to grant access to Mexican students and other minorities to education, even if they were not granted quality education compared to Anglo students. Mexican-Americans were placed in “Mexican Classrooms” defending the separated-but equal law. Anglo officers argued that this was necessary due to English language deficiencies, even if most Mexican students did speak English (McDonald). These schools were shacks or barns rather than equal institutional structures to that of Anglo Schools. Newspaper articles such as the one chosen as my artifact, exposed how segregated

Westminster School District case in 1946. This suit was driven by Mexican parents whose kids were denied enrollment in an Elementary school in Westminster School District just because this elementary school was an Anglo school and not an integrated one. The Mexican students were then sent to a Mexican school that was further away, which caused these families to come together to sue the district. The Mendez v. Westminster School District (1946) case was a monumental step forward to end segregation of Mexican American school children in California. After the Plessy V. Ferguson case in 1896 where racial segregation became legal, public facilities would be separated by race but equal on all counts. This ruling was implied in school facilities as well, where all Anglos and minorities were separated by their race into different school facilities. The Mexican facilities, for instance, did not have the appropriate materials like books, desks, writing materials, and the classes were overpopulated by different grade levels. The defense claimed that the Mexican American children possess contagious diseases, have poor moral habits, are inferior in their personal hygiene, speak only Spanish and lack English speaking skills. Thus, the children are unqualified to attend Anglo schools and facilities (Regua). Furthermore, this mentality was not only applied towards Mexican students only, but also to

Although this case was pursued by Mexican families, the desegregation of schools actually helped all minorities. The language used to describe the categorization of minority students and the approaches of school segregation are disturbing. The article stated, “The evidence clearly shows,” the opinion states, “that Spanish-Speaking children are retarded in learning English by lack of exposure to its use because of segregation…It is also established by the record that the methods of segregation prevalent in the defendant school districts foster antagonisms in the children and suggest inferiority among them where none exists” (Ruling Gives Mexican Children Equal Rights). Mexicans and other minorities were treated with inferiority by their looks and lack of knowledge as if it was their fault that they were not assimilating into American culture. The lack of exposure to the English language in the Mexican schools was due to having classrooms were all the students spoke spanish and the teacher would not instruct much of the syntac and grammar of the language due to the mentality that the students would just not ‘get it’. When it comes to the education of other minorities, one of the biggest issues for the lack of assimilation was the overcrowded classrooms with a mix of different grade levels. Teachers could not focus on essential skills and language due to the various