Sylvia Mendez

Sylvia Mendez (born June 7, 1936) is an American civil rights activist of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage. At age eight, she played an instrumental role in the Mendez v. Westminster case, the landmark desegregation case of 1946. The case successfully ended de jure segregation in California and paved the way for integration and the American civil rights movement.

Sylvia Mendez in 2018

Quotes

• We weren’t being taught to be smart. We were being taught how to be maids and how to crochet and how to quilt
  • in article (2017)

• What I tell my students is that they must persevere, and my mother always told me we are children of god and we deserve to be treated equally,” Mendez said during her speech. “Yes, we still have racism and prejudice, but we must persevere.
  • in article (2017)

Interview with Teen Vogue (2018)

• I was seeing this beautiful [white] school, large concrete courtyard, a beautiful playground,” she says. “I thought, ‘I know what they’re fighting for. They’re fighting so I can go to that beautiful school and have a playground.’

• We are more segregated now than we were in 1945, with de facto segregation. As you well are aware, Mendez and Brown found that de jure, by law, we cannot be segregated. Now we have de facto segregation

• They’re not given the same curriculum [in segregated schools] that they get in a white school. I try and push forward to make sure that these schools that are segregated are getting the same critical thinking classes and AP classes so they can proceed to go on to a college and proceed to get their education.

• It’s so important that students know that this kind of bigotry has been here forever, and there is no reason why we cannot stand up against it. And there’s no reason why we should let things like this that we see in the media, things that are happening, deter us from continuing our plight to make sure that all our students get an equal education. Mendez v. Westminster was not just about education; it was for civil liberties, for social justice.

• If you stand up for social justice or something that is right, people will stand up and fight for you, and they will help you try to reach your goals