Mendez Vs Westminster Case Study

Plessy v. Ferguson , a very important case of 1896 in which the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the legality of racial segregation. At the time of the ruling, segregation between blacks and whites already existed in most schools, restaurants, and other public facilities in the American South. In the Plessy decision, the Supreme Court ruled that such segregation did not violate the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. This amendment provides equal protection of the law to all U.S. citizens, regardless of race. The court ruled in Plessy that racial segregation was legal as long as the separate facilities for blacks and whites were “equal.”

The most crucial part of this case, comes down to one word: reaction. Furthermore, Los Angeles Police Officers, Christopher Conley and Jennifer Pederson, did what their instincts told them to do- which was react. Angel Mendez and Jennifer Lynn Garcia were hiding out in a shack, and Mendez was holding a gun. Both officers felt threatened, and they did what trained police officers are told to do, along with what anyone that knows how to react, would have done. If one feels threatened, one is going to whatever it takes to protect one’s self. The United States Supreme Court should rule in favor of the Los Angeles Police Department because officer’s Christopher Conley and Jennifer Pederson had every right to react the way the did,

Valenica (2008) notes that many scholars believe that Independent School District v. Salvatierra (1930) was the first Mexican-American desegregation case, however Romo v. Laird (1920) was the first case of its kind. Since the case was not a class action case it only benefited the Romo family.

In Philippa Strum in Mendez v. Westminster, Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez were farmers who initially had tried to enrol their children in a white school which happened to be a hundred miles north of Mexican border. Upon requesting their enrolment, they were turned away and asked to attend to a nearby Mexican Americans school. In response, Mendez and other distressed parents from the neighbourhood went to federal court in order to challenge the segregation where they did not claim it as racial discrimination since Mexicans were legally considered white. The aggrieved parent rather referred their claims as discrimination based on ancestry, therefore, proposed it as language deficiency which denied their children their 14th Amendment rights to

In 1892 and in the 1950’s two cases were tried to the United States Supreme Court that would forever change black and white segregation in America. There’s amendments set in place so that America could grow from skin color based segregation, and states tried finding loopholes around these amendments. In case of Plessy vs Ferguson took place where the 14th Amendment was violated. Later in the 1950’s a case called Brown vs Board of Education was also violating the 14 Amendment. Both cases were taken to court and tried against the government for unjust violations of the 14th amendment.

Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit who ruled in favor of the Mendez decision that the segregation of non-white students is illegal and students should not be denied the right for equal education because of language or race. However, the Court of Appeals based the ruling on state law which did not specify the segregation of Mexicans rather than basing the decision on the Fourteenth Amendment. This ruling allowed the Court of Appeals to dodge the issue of racial discrimination at that moment. The school districts appealed the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. But The Court of Appeals agreed with Judge McCormick's ruling. (The Court

The landmark case of Plessy v. Ferguson is a Constitutional case in which it had to be decided who the constitution meant when it said "all men are created equal." Brown v. The Board of Education is the reason for diversity in schools. These cases are very important to our constitution and to the people being governed by the constitution because it decided the fate of our nation and of our people. They show the degree of federalism and how much attention the government devoted to it. The amendments in the constitution do not apply to a simple race nor ethnicity. Throughout history laws have been made and destroyed at the cost of colored

Ferguson case of 1896 in which the Supreme Court upheld the legality of racial segregation. At the time of the case, segregation between blacks and whites already existed in most schools, restaurants and other public facilities. In the Plessy v. Ferguson case, the Supreme Court that such of a segregation did not violate the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. The 14th Amendment provided equal protection of law to all U.S. citizens regardless of the citizens race. The court ruled that the Plessy v. Ferguson case was legal as long as black and whites were equal. After this law came to be, public schools, public transportation and other public facilities were made separate; but they never had made these places equal. Equality represents what the United States stands for. We the people work together in marches, protests to oppose discrimination on the basis of race and gender. The Sacco and Vanzetti case showed the world that the how justice system in the United States really was. Sacco and Vanzetti received an unfair trial and were sentenced to death, not due to the evidence being presented, but due to their political beliefs and ethnic backgrounds. As Americans, we tend to be afraid of what happens and due to these fears we forget about what it truly means to be an American. This is the world we live in and quite some times, things are unfair; it’s the way the world

“In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.”

Even though forgotten, the stepping stone of Brown Vs. the Board of Education, Mendez Vs. Westminster was the first step to desegregate the United States of America.

One of the most historical cases in African American history is Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Basically this case is a consolidation of several different cases from Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware. Several black children sought admission to public schools that required or permitted segregation based on race. The plaintiffs alleged that segregation was unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. In all but one case, a three judge federal district court cited Plessy v. Ferguson (an earlier civil rights case that segregated races on trains) in denying relief under the “separate but equal doctrine.” On appeal to the Supreme Court, the plaintiffs contended that segregated schools were not and could not be made equal and that they were therefore deprived of equal protection of the laws. This case broke the first segregation barrier in African American history. The base issue of the case was that: is the race-based segregation of children into “separate but equal” public schools constitutional? The final ruling of this case was: No. The race-based segregation of children into “separate but equal” public schools violates the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment and is unconstitutional. This made lead way for the future black and civil rights activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa parks. Slavery

Morgan v. Virginia in 1946 challenged segregation on interstate bus services. The NAACP wanted african americans to be allowed to ride the bus with whites too. They were already allowed to ride

Just two years after the death of Charles Houston, segregation/Jim Crow was finally put to the test in the historic case of Brown v. Board of Education. The case began when Reverend Brown and various NAACP members fought to put their children in the close white schools, which led to Brown v. Board of Education. On December 9, 1952, the case was in effect and for seventeen months segregation hung in the balance.

Plyler v. Doe was a case in which a Texas statue withheld local and state funding for the education of immigrants who were deemed illegal aliens. In this case, the plaintiffs represented school-aged children of Mexican dissent. These children were just recently admitted to the U.S.A. Since the students were undocumented people the school district asked parents to parents to pay $1,000, which would cover the expenses for the school, and enroll them into school. This case was then brought to the district court which found that the reason for higher admission rates wasn’t because of the increase in immigrants, but the increase of people in the surrounding areas, which were legal residents. Because of this the district court decided that illegal

The Chicano Movement aimed to gear towards equality for Latinos as human beings in the United States. As recently as the 1930’s, Latino American’s were not allowed to attend the same schools as Caucasian American students. This caused major outrage nationwide due to Latino Americans not receiving the same rights as their Caucasian American counterparts. One major case that stimulated protest for educational change for Chicano youth was Westminster v. Mendez in 1947. This case was brought upon after the child of Mr. Gonzalo Mendez named Sylvia Mendez