As the daughter of a Mexican immigrant and a Puerto Rican immigrant, Sylvia Mendez was expected to go to a segregated school for Mexican students as a child. But when Mendez was in the third grade, her parents sued the all-white Westminster School District after they denied entry to Mendez and her siblings. The landmark case, Mendez v. Westminster, was settled in 1947, successfully desegregating public schools in California.
The case was the first ruling in the U.S. to rule in favor of desegregation, becoming an example for future cases like Brown v. Board of Education. After successfully completing her education, Mendez worked in nursing for 30 years. She’s gone on to become a civil rights activist in her own right, speaking publicly on her historic case and advocating for Hispanic student rights in the U.S.
