IV 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 721 

Recognizing the 60th anniversary of the Mendez v. Westminster decision 

which ended segregation of Mexican and Mexican American students 

in California schools, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

OCTOBER 9, 2007 

Mr. GONZALEZ (for himself, Mr. HINOJOSA, Mr. BECERRA, Mr. GRIJALVA, 

Mr. SERRANO, Mr. BACA, Mr. GUTIERREZ, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Mr. 

RODRIGUEZ, Mr. SALAZAR, Ms. LINDA T. SA ́NCHEZ of California, Mr. 

HONDA, Mr. PASTOR, Ms. VELA ́ZQUEZ, and Mr. WU) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

RESOLUTION 

Recognizing the 60th anniversary of the Mendez v. Westminster decision which ended segregation of Mexican and 

Mexican American students in California schools, and 

for other purposes. 

Whereas Mendez v. Westminster was a 1947 Federal court 

case that challenged racial segregation in California 

schools; 

Whereas in its ruling, the United States Court of Appeals for 

the Ninth Circuit, in an en banc decision, held that the 

segregation of Mexican and Mexican American students 

into separate ‘‘Mexican schools’’ was unconstitutional; 


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•HRES 721 IH 

Whereas on March 2, 1945, a group of Mexican-American fathers (Thomas Estrada, William Guzman, Frank Palomino, and Lorenzo Ramirez), led by Gonzalo Mendez on 

behalf of his daughter Sylvia, challenged the practice of 

school segregation in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles; 

Whereas the fathers claimed that their children, along with 

5,000 other children of ‘‘Mexican and Latin descent’’, 

were victims of unconstitutional discrimination by being 

forced to attend separate ‘‘Mexican’’ schools in the Westminster, Garden Grove, Santa Ana, and El Modena 

school districts of Orange County; 

Whereas Judge Paul J. McCormick ruled in favor of Mendez 

and his co-plaintiffs on February 18, 1946; 

Whereas the Westminster school district appealed the decision of the district court; 

Whereas when the district appealed Judge McCormick’s decision, several organizations joined the appellate case as 

amicus curiae, including the NAACP, represented by 

Thurgood Marshall; 

Whereas more than a year later, on April 14, 1947, the 

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal affirmed the district 

court’s ruling; 

Whereas the Ninth Circuit ruled only on the narrow grounds 

that, although California law provided for segregation of 

students, it only did so for ‘‘children of Chinese, Japanese or Mongolian parentage’’ and did not provide for 

‘‘the segregation of school children because of their Mexican blood,’’, therefore it was unlawful to segregate the 

Mexican children; 


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•HRES 721 IH 

Whereas later in 1947, California Governor and future Chief 

Justice of the United States Earl Warren signed into law 

a repeal of the last remaining school segregation statutes 

in the California Education Code and thus ended ‘‘separate but equal’’ in California schools and with it school 

segregation; 

Whereas seven years later, Brown v. Board of Education held 

‘‘separate but equal’’ schools to be unconstitutional, ending school segregation throughout the United States; and 

Whereas on April 14, 2007, the Mendez family celebrated the 

60th anniversary of the Mendez v. Westminster decision: 

Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, that the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) recognizes the 60th anniversary of the 

3 Mendez v. Westminster decision which ended seg4 regation of Mexican and Mexican American students 

5 in California schools; 

6 (2) honors the Mendez family and congratulates 

7 Sylvia Mendez for her continued efforts to keep alive 

8 the importance of this case and the impact it had on 

9 her future; and 

10 (3) encourages the continued fight against 

11 school segregation and the education of the people of 

12 the United States of the civil right implications of 

13 the Mendez v. Westminster case. 

Æ 


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