Separated, We Are Not Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Integration

When her family moved to Westminster, California, young Sylvia Mendez was excited to enroll in her neighborhood school. But she and her siblings were turned away and told they had to attend the Mexican school instead. Sylvia couldn’t understand why—she was an American citizen who spoke perfect English. Why were children from Mexican families being forced to attend a different school? Unable to get a satisfactory answer from the school board, the Mendez family decided to take matters into their own hands and organize a lawsuit.

Ultimately, the Mendez family’s efforts helped to end segregated education in California in 1947, seven years before the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education ended segregation in schools across the United States.

With his distinctive illustration style and incorporating his interviews with Sylvia Mendez as well as information from court records and news reports, award-winning author and illustrator Duncan Tonatiuh tells the inspiring story of the Mendez family’s fight for justice and equality.

ISBN: 9781419768040