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Westminster launches fundraising website to memorialize the Mendez desegregation case that put it on the map

by in News

Fundraising has started to include a bronze monument in Westminster’s Mendez Tribute Park, a small park breaking ground in January to memorialize to the 1947 ruling with local ties that banned the segregation of Mexican American children in California schools.

The City Council approved the park project in March, committing the $160,000 it will cost to convert a vacant lot at Westminster Boulevard and Olive Street into a pleasant oasis of trees and benches. However, the planned monument will need to be privately funded, officials said.

Last week, Westminster launched the fundraising website, mendeztribute.com, aiming to bring in about $100,000.

  • The City of Westminster launched a fundraising campaign to erect statues honoring the 1947 landmark Mendez v. Westminster desegregation case at small park recently approved for the tribute. Sculptor Ignacio Gomez will create the statues. (Artist’s rendering courtesy of the City of Westminster)

  • The City of Westminster launched a fundraising campaign to erect statues honoring the 1947 landmark Mendez v. Westminster desegregation case at small park recently approved for the tribute. Sculptor Ignacio Gomez will create the statues. (Artist’s rendering courtesy of the City of Westminster)

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  • The City of Westminster launched a fundraising campaign to erect statues honoring the 1947 landmark Mendez v. Westminster desegregation case at small park recently approved for the tribute. Sculptor Ignacio Gomez will create the statues. (Artist’s rendering courtesy of the City of Westminster)

  • Sylvia Mendez, left, Sandra Duran Mendez, center, and Gonzalo Mendez Jr., right, are pictured with a photo of their parents Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez of Mendez vs. Westminster fame. The Mendez children were denied entrance into a “white school” in Westminster. Her father spent all the money he had to fight back in court in Sylvia Mendez’ behalf. The case lead to a landmark ruling that segregated schools, including those in Orange County, violated the 14th amendment. California became the first school in the nation to end school segregation.
    ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Councilman Sergio Contreras said he hopes the park and statues will introduce his hometown’s landmark desegregation case to children at a young age.

Contreras grew up in Westminster. Even so, he was a student at Cal State Long Beach before he ever heard “Mendez et al v. Westminster.”

“I was working on a research paper and came across a blurb about it in a book,” Contreras recalled. “I had no idea.”

Although less famous, the Mendez ruling paved the way for the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision eight years later in Brown v. the Board of Education – which ordered an end to school segregation nationwide.

“Integration of schools started right here in Westminster,” Contreras said. “Ordinary people can make extraordinary things happen.”

Glendale artist Ignacio Gomez, whose sculptures include a large memorial to Cesar Chavez in Riverside, has been hired to design and create a set of bronze statues.

“I went through public schools experiencing prejudice,” Gomez said. “This memorial will raise awareness about the struggle for civil rights.”

The statues will feature a six-foot likeness of Gonzalo Mendez, who fought for his three children to attend a school reserved for whites only. Behind him will be a large book and in front of him two students.

“My parents weren’t doing it for publicity, but for their children,” said Sylvia Mendez, who was 11 years old when the lawsuit on her behalf prevailed. “But I know they would be so proud of this memorial.”

Mendez Tribute Park is the second of two memorials recognizing Westminster’s pivotal chapter in history. In November, the city announced plans for a 2.5-mile bike path named The Mendez Historic Freedom Trail. Running along Hoover Street, the trail’s construction will be funded by a state grant.

Donations will pay for informational plaques along the trail, Contreras said.

“Everything just came together all at once for us to finally commemorate the important case that put us on the map,” Contreras said. “It’s as though this has been waiting to happen all these years and only needed a little nudge.”