American author, Deborah Wiles once said, “This is how it works. Everything is connected. Every choice matters. Every person is vital, and valuable, and worthy of respect.” It is for this reason that the Supreme Court decision in the Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954 does not deserve to be considered the start of the Civil Rights Movement. The event that truly set off this famous movement was the decision in the Mendez v. Westminster case in 1947, because this case acted as a precedent for all other court cases regarding equal rights in education and provided hope for change. In the early and mid-twentieth century, America was operating based off of the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that “separate but equal” was perfectly legal. This …show more content…
Westminster case set a precedent for other court cases by introducing the equal protection clause. David Marcus, the lawyer on the case, used the argument that segregating students based off their nationality was unconstitutional because it went against the 14th Amendment. More specifically, it violated the equal protection clause by limiting them to a lesser learning environment and, therefore, not providing them with equal protection of the law. Marcus also brought in specialists who argued that segregation inhibits students’ abilities to learn by creating psychological problems and making them feel inferior. Based upon this argument, Judge Paul J. McCormick ruled that the equal protection clause had been violated and declared that separate could never be considered equal. This was the first time that the equal protection clause was used to combat segregation, and it proved itself to be utterly effective when the court ruled in favor of integration. Within months of this ruling, Governor Earl Warren had repealed the remaining school segregation statutes in the California Education Code. This included those of both Asian American and Native American students as well as Hispanic American students. While these races aren’t often thought of when it comes to the Civil Rights Movement, they certainly played a prominent role. Mendez v. Westminster is often overlooked because it was a state case and it did not involve African Americans, whom of which the …show more content…
In response to the ruling in Mendez v. Westminster, civil rights activists in Texas, including the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) leaders, began preparing for court. Despite previous failed attempts in cases such as Salvatierra v. Del Rio, their hope had been renewed by the success of Mendez. The lawyers in Delgado v. Bastrop used the violation of the equal protection clause as the foundation of their argument just like Marcus did in Mendez v. Westminster, and once again, it received a favorable ruling. In 1948, District Judge Ben Rice determined that the segregation of Hispanic American students did, in fact, violate the 14th amendment and could not be justified by Texas Law. In addition to Delgado v. Bastrop, Brown v. Board of Education, one of the most famous supreme court cases in U.S. History, also used the equal protection clause to argue against segregation in public schools. Thurgood Marshall, the famous lawyer on this case, had participated in the Mendez appeal and collaborated with David Marcus during the case, and his inspiration is evident in his Brown v. Board of Education arguments. In Brown v. Board, the argument was made that, “in the field of public education, the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ [had] no place” and that “separate educational facilities [were] inherently unequal”. Another point that was brought up,