Eight years before the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, a legal battle began in Orange County that helped set the stage for the Brown v. Board case.

In Mendez, et al v. Westminster School District, et al, five Mexican American families in 1946 challenged school segregation, claiming their children were forced to attend separate schools in the Westminster, Garden Grove, Santa Ana and El Modeno (today Orange Unified) school districts.

They won, ending school segregation in the area...READ MORE