Full Text of SR0750 93rd General Assembly
SR0750 93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| SENATE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, 2004 commemorates the 50th anniversary of the | 3 |
| landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of | 4 |
| Education of Topeka, Kansas, that in 1954 sounded the death | 5 |
| knell for an era in which white and non-white schoolchildren | 6 |
| attended "separate but equal" schools; and
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| WHEREAS, Mexican Americans have been at the forefront of | 8 |
| the struggle against public school segregation; and
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| WHEREAS, Roberto Alvarez v. the Board of Trustees of the | 10 |
| Lemon Grove School District in 1931 was the first successful | 11 |
| desegregation case in the United States; and
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| WHEREAS, In 1944, Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez moved to the | 13 |
| predominantly Anglo town of Westminster, California, and their | 14 |
| children were denied enrollment in the neighborhood school | 15 |
| because the school district did not allow children who appeared | 16 |
| to be Hispanic to integrate with Anglo students; and
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| WHEREAS, Mr. Mendez and four other Mexican-American | 18 |
| families launched a legal battle March 2, 1945, against four | 19 |
| Orange County school districts, that ultimately resulted in the | 20 |
| dismantling of school segregation laws in California and | 21 |
| throughout the Southwest; and | 22 |
| WHEREAS, Mendez v. Westminster School District in 1947 was | 23 |
| the first federal case to find that segregation based on | 24 |
| national origin was a violation of the 14th Amendment's | 25 |
| equal-protection clause, and it would be the catalyst for a | 26 |
| ripple-effect that would open broad opportunities across the | 27 |
| nation for U.S. Hispanics and other minority groups; and
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| WHEREAS, These cases were filed by Mexican Americans in | 29 |
| California, with representatives from the NAACP, American |
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| Jewish Congress, Japanese-American Citizens League, ACLU, and | 2 |
| the National Lawyers League; and
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| WHEREAS, Both of these cases laid the groundwork for the | 4 |
| Brown decision in 1954; therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-THIRD GENERAL | 6 |
| ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we acknowledge the | 7 |
| efforts of the Mexican American community in the United States | 8 |
| to combat public school segregation through the judicial system | 9 |
| and lead the fight for equality and justice in the educational | 10 |
| opportunities that this country offers; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 12 |
| presented to Ms. Sylvia Mendez, a daughter of Gonzalo and | 13 |
| Felicitas Mendez, as an expression of our utmost esteem for her | 14 |
| tireless efforts against school segregation.
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