Submitted by: San Jose/Evergreen Faculty Union, AFT Local 6157,

Mendez v. Westminster (1947): School Desegregation Should Be Taught in Our Schools

Whereas, Mendez v. Westminster was a desegregation case involving Mexican Children segregated in Orange County Schools taken to Federal Court by a group of parents and succeeded in desegregating schools throughout California and the Southwest in 1947, seven years before Brown v. Board of Education,

Whereas, the case was argued by Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP on appeal and decided unanimously by the 9^th Circuit Court of appeals, saying for the first time that separate schools were a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution,

Whereas, the Mendez case represented the first true multi-ethnic coalition, with groups such as the NAACP, the American Jewish Congress, the Japanese American Citizens League, the ACLU and the National Lawyers Guild,

Whereas, Earl Warren, then Governor of California, signed a repeal of remaining segregation statutes for Asian American and Native Americans just months after the decision, and then went on to author the Brown decision seven years later,

Whereas, PBS has produced an Emmy Award winning documentary on the case and the US Postal Service to honor the 60^th Anniversary of the case,

Therefore be it resolved that we endorse AB 531 introduced by Assembly member Mary Salas and currently pending in the California Senate, which would require that the Mendez case be taught in public schools in California and included in the text books for 2011.

Therefore be it further resolved that the CFT will commit to the following: Publish articles educating the membership on the historical significance of the Mendez case; a letter to be sent by the CFT President in support of AB 531, and CFT will sponsor a workshop in 2009 addressing the importance of the Mendez case.

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