Educator Resources

Mendez v. Westminster School District

The landmark ruling in Mendez v. Westminster, in 1946, prohibited segregation in California’s public schools. The Mendez family joined with others in Orange County, California, to sue four school districts. The case underscored that the struggle for civil rights in America crossed regional, racial, and ethnic lines.

Related Primary Sources

Links go to DocsTeach, the online tool for teaching with documents from the National Archives.

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Petition Filed by the Parents of the Students

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Witness Testimony from Westminster School District Superintendent Richard Harris, in Which He Explained the Reasoning Behind Segregating Children of Mexican Descent

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Amici Curiae Brief of the National Lawyers Guild and ACLU

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Judgement and Injunction Ruling that the School Districts Could No Longer Segregate Students

Find more documents from Mendez v. Westminster on DocsTeach.

Teaching Activities

The "Rights in America" page on DocsTeach includes other primary sources and document-based teaching activities related to how individuals and groups have asserted their rights as Americans. It includes topics such as school desegregation, slavery, racism, citizenship, women's independence, immigration, and more.

Materials created by the National Archives and Records Administration are in the public domain.