Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/587184
"For some kids," says De Leon, "this is the first thing they have ever written. It's very empowering." D e L e o n ' s h i s t o r y c l a s s e s a re a required subject, so student authors are an academically diverse group. "I have students who would do well in AP [Advanced Placement] classes," he explains, "and some who have IEPs [Individualized Education Programs for special education]." A book blossoms in Boyle Heights The idea for the book began to take shape when education profes- sor Jennifer McCormick, California Faculty Association, CSU Los Angeles, contacted the Echo Park-based writing and tutoring center 826LA to suggest the Mendez case as a focal point for its annual Young Authors' Book Project. She had done research on the case and thought it would be a good subject. Every spring 826LA, whose mission is to support students in developing their creative and expository writing skills, recruits and trains volunteers to work with students at a selected school, which culminates in the publication of a book. "It is very unusual for us to approach a school with such a spe- cific project," says Marisa Urrutia Gedney, director of education at 826LA and coordinator for the volunteers at target Eastside schools. But when she heard McCormick's suggestion, "I just knew we had to do this at Mendez High School." De Leon's response to the pro- posal was emphatic: "Absolutely!" McCormick's colleague, history p r o f e s s o r C h r i s E n d y, c a m e o n board to help with lesson plans. Emilie Coulson, project director for 826LA, was the fifth member of the team. The educators met to work out details at the end of summer break. Endy felt the development of lesson plans for the unit was a per- fect research project for his Honors College students in the fall, and asked De Leon what would be useful for his class. D e L e o n s u g ge s te d re - e n a c t m e n t s . "A c t i n g c a n l ive n u p a classroom and connect with those students who learn more kines- thetically. When kids have to dress up and speak in the vernacular of the day, acting is a fantastic way to bring history alive." So Endy's students read the Mendez trial transcripts and pared the material down to its essential points. "One of the best ways to truly learn history," says De Leon, "is to work with primary source material. Everything from descrip- tions to emotions, and even tone and word choice, can bring Hoover School at the time was the school for Mexican-American children. I N S E P T E M B E R 1 9 4 3 , 9-year-old Sylvia Mendez and her two brothers went with their aunt and three cousins to enroll at the 17th Street School in Westminster, their neighborhood school. School officials allowed her aunt's children, who were half-Mex- ican, fair-skinned and had a French surname, to enroll. But the dark- skinned Mendez children were turned away and told to go to Hoover, the "Mexican" school, 10 blocks away and in another district. Mendez's parents, Gonzalo and Felicitas, hired civil rights attorney David Marcus to sue the district. Mar- cus made a bigger case, and in March 1945 filed Mendez v. Westminster, a class-action lawsuit against four Orange County school districts, seek- ing an injunction that would order the schools to integrate. A Groundbreaking Case Sylvia Mendez was lead plaintiff in Mendez v. Westminster. Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez sued for the right for their children to attend school without segregation. Photos courtesy Sylvia Mendez 51 V O LU M E 2 0 I S S U E 3 Learning