Mendez et al v. Westminster et al website

This website is dedicated to telling the story, along with providing documentation for students and historians, of the Mendez et al v Westminster et al court case. Thank you so much for your time, and please do not hesistate to contact us with questions, suggestions, or information that we can put on this website. We welcome all help and assistance.

History of the Case

In March of 1945, five families in Orange County, California, brought a class action lawsuit against four school districts on behalf of their own children and five thousand other children who were forced to attend segregated schools for Mexican children. The lawsuit was filed as Mendez et al. v. Westminster et al. The five families were: The Estradas, the Guzmans, the Mendezes, the Palominos, and the Ramirezes.

Court Documents

We have several original documents that are freely available to anyone who would like to download them on this website. Our Court Documents page has PDF downloads, as well as zip file downloads for students, researchers, or teachers. In fact, these documents are freely available to anyone who would like them. Additionally, we do our best to provide a short description of each document, and where it was obtained

Media Coverage

There have been many articles and books written about this court case over the years. You can see the Media Links page for links and summaries of these various articles. We cannot bestow any rights to reprint or use these articles for commercial or scholarly research. This site if for information only. If you have any requests to use these articles in a professional or scholarly manner, please contact the authors directly.

OC Forum Video

On October 10, 2019, the OC Forum held an event at Moreno’s Restaurant in Orange. This event shed a light on one of Orange County’s darkest times.

Dr. David-James Gonzales, Beverly Guzman-Gallegos, Mike Ramirez, Harvey Moreno and Gustavo Arellano were the featured panelists. The panel shared their truth and stories of what it was like growing up in Orange County during the 1940s during the Mendez et al v. Westminster era.

Check out the video below:

Recent News

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