A story lost from history books prompted an evening coffee house mix of three dozen college students and curious capital professionals — nearly all females — to listen intently as author Philippa Strum revisited the events behind Méndez v. Westminster, a California Ninth Judicial Circuit Court decision that preceded Topeka's landmark Brown v. Board of Education by eight years.

Strum's PowerPoint presentation was a revelation for several Latino students unaware of the Mexican-American family that ended California's schoolhouse segregation in 1946.

Gonzalo and Felícitas Méndez were farmers who tried to enroll their children in a "white" school just over 100 miles north of the Mexican border. The children were turned away and told to attend a nearby school for Mexican Americans. As Strum describes in her book, Méndez v. Westminster: School Desegregation and Mexican-American Rights, the children were seen as "visibly darker," as the admissions advisor noticed their last names were "all too clearly Mexican."

   Judge Paul McCormick concluded that Spanish-speaking students are unable to learn English if segregated, a paralleled opinion during the Brown case..

   At Q&A time, a Latina law student rose to the mike and admitted she never heard about the case. She asked Strum if she would consider bringing the historic trial to the attention of lecturers at law schools.

   Strum, national secretary of the American Civil Liberties Union and a teacher of constitutional law for 35 years in New York City, added that the case isn't even mentioned in constitutional law books.

Strum, there to promote and sign copies of her book, published this year by the University Press of Kansas, said she discovered the case by accident.

   "One day in 2007, I read an article about a postage stamp that had just been issued called Méndez v. Westminster, Having taught constitutional law for all those years, I said, 'Something is wrong here,' I had never heard of this case. How is this possible?"

   While engaged in research, she found it "a very important part of American history."

   It set legal precedent at the California Supreme Court level by ruling segregation in California's schools was unlawful.

   California Governor Earl Warren agreed with the court's decision that "separate but equal" wasn't really equal. He pushed for state desegregation statutes in 1947.  President Dwight Eisenhower appointed him Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1953, a year before the Brown decision.

   The California case provided a test run for lawyers in the Topeka case.

   Aside from legal language, Strum brought the Méndezes' struggle to life, highlighting facts and photos that depicted their school environment and living conditions.

   "I was really impressed by the vibrancy of these maltreated communities,…homes they build themselves out of wood lacked refrigeration and flush toilets…There was lots of labor organizing in Latino communities...These were not people who would be satisfied being treated as second-class citizens, and that was a wonderful thing to see."

   TeachingforChange executive director Deborah Menkart found the lecture inspiring. "When students learn from this and other cases about the role ordinary people can play, it gives them a sense they can, too," she reacted. "They don't have to wait for a hero to come along."

   Sylvia Méndez, 74, one of the family's daughters who was turned away from the segregated school, remembered how it marked her life.

   She didn't want to pursue college, but her mother Felícitas  reminded her of significance of their struggle.

   Twelve years ago, Sylvia promised her mom she would promote the story into California's history. Now, as she accepts speaking engagements in public schools, she notices a surprising enthusiasm, "The students — especially Latinos — are so excited, they ask, "Why don't we know about this history? Why don't we know it was Latinos who desegregated California?"

   Sylvia introduced legislation in Sacramento to include the Méndez case into California's school textbooks, but it was vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. With a different governor in November, she hopes the lost story that shattered California's segregated past will inspire all children.

   (Raisa Camargo, of Washington, D.C., is a reporter with Hispanic Link News Service. Email; [email protected])

   ©2010