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The Fight for Equal Schooling in Mendez v. Westminster

Season 1 Episode 3 | 3m 23s

After Sylvia Mendez was denied school enrollment due to her darker skin, her family – and other Mexican families who had faced the same discrimination – brought a lawsuit against the Westminster School District of Orange County, California. Represented by civil rights attorney David Marcus, they won the case, which established a crucial precedent for the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case.

Funding for American Historia is provided, in part, by PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Anderson Family Charitable Fund, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, The WNET Group’s Chasing the Dream initiative, the Ford Foundation/JustFilms, and Seton J. Melvin.
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