Websites and Documents

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)

Mendez v. Westminster (1946) 64 F. Supp. 544
Decision: 1946 verdict

Westminster School Dist. of Orange County et al. v. Mendez et al., No. 11310, United States Circuit Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
1947 verdict upholding McCormick’s ruling.See in particular portions between the last paragraph of page 5 through page 7.
(PDF download)

Mendez v. Westminster: Paving the Way to School Desegregation
Constitutional Rights Foundation Bill of Rights in Action, summer 2007 (volume 23, no. 2).
A background article about the development of school segregation in California.

A Tale of Two Schools
A short history of Mendez et al. v. Westminster et al.
Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

We Always Tell Our Children They Are Americans: Mendez v. Westminster and the California Road to Brown v. Board of Education
By Vicki L. Ruiz
(PDF download)

A Piece of History Forgotten…
An article about the Mendez family

Mendez v. Westminster: A Look at Our Latino Heritage
Bibliography, interviews, newspaper articles

Giving It Back...Passing It On: Service Learning in Your Classroom
A detailed lesson plan with five key steps for conducting a successful service-learning project.
RaceBridges for Schools.
Supports the exhibit’s postvisit lesson 8, “Seeing a Need and Helping Others.”

Teaching Strategies
From Facing History and Ourselves.
Helpful teaching strategies on how to approach sensitive topics and open dialogue.

Oral Histories in MP3 Format

Being Mexican-American: Caught Between Two Worlds–Nepantla
by Latina storyteller Olga Loya

Before Brown v. Board of Education: In 1947 Orange County, Families Sued for Desegregation—and Won
by Claudio Sanchez
NPR radio broadcast
(10:22 minutes)

Videos

Mendez v. Westminster
Phillipa Strum, author of Mendez v. Westminster: School Desegregation and Mexican-American Rights, gives a lecture about her book (University Press of Kansas, 2010) on CSPAN, August 18, 2010
(52 minutes)

Mendez v. Westminster: Desegregating California’s Schools
Video and background essay with questions
(8 minutes)

Vista L.A.: Mendez Desegregation Case
A segment from a Los Angeles-based television show, telling the story of the court case from the perspective of Sylvia Mendez and her niece.
Video supports the exhibit’s previsit lesson 2.
(5:55 minutes)