SR0750 93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0750 LRB093 23915 CSA 54001 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, 2004 commemorates the 50th anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, that in 1954 sounded the death knell for an era in which white and non-white schoolchildren attended "separate but equal" schools; and

WHEREAS, Mexican Americans have been at the forefront of the struggle against public school segregation; and

WHEREAS, Roberto Alvarez v. the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District in 1931 was the first successful desegregation case in the United States; and

WHEREAS, In 1944, Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez moved to the predominantly Anglo town of Westminster, California, and their children were denied enrollment in the neighborhood school because the school district did not allow children who appeared to be Hispanic to integrate with Anglo students; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Mendez and four other Mexican-American families launched a legal battle March 2, 1945, against four Orange County school districts, that ultimately resulted in the dismantling of school segregation laws in California and throughout the Southwest; and

WHEREAS, Mendez v. Westminster School District in 1947 was the first federal case to find that segregation based on national origin was a violation of the 14th Amendment's equal-protection clause, and it would be the catalyst for a ripple-effect that would open broad opportunities across the nation for U.S. Hispanics and other minority groups; and

WHEREAS, These cases were filed by Mexican Americans in California, with representatives from the NAACP, American Jewish Congress, Japanese-American Citizens League, ACLU, and the National Lawyers League; and

WHEREAS, Both of these cases laid the groundwork for the Brown decision in 1954; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we acknowledge the efforts of the Mexican American community in the United States to combat public school segregation through the judicial system and lead the fight for equality and justice in the educational opportunities that this country offers; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Ms. Sylvia Mendez, a daughter of Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez, as an expression of our utmost esteem for her tireless efforts against school segregation.