Justice John G. Gabbert Historic Oral Argument and Lecture Series

 

This oral argument reenactment occurred in August 2015 in recognition of National Hispanic Heritage Month, the 50th anniversary of the creation of Division Two of the Fourth Appellate District, and the 70th anniversary of the 1945 filing of the petition in California’s school desegregation case, Mendez v. Westminster School District of Orange County (D. Cal. 1946) 64 F. Supp. 544.

Although not as well known as Brown v. Board of Education because it was resolved prior to reaching the U.S. Supreme Court, Mendez preceded Brown by seven years and in some respects paved the way for its more famous successor. Presiding Justice Ramirez noted that “The heart of the lawsuit was five fathers and mothers who stood up for their children who, because of their Hispanic surnames, were denied access to the quality public education they had been promised as American citizens. Because of the courage and resolve of those parents, California became the first state in this country to legally abolish segregation in public schools.”

 

Program opening by Presiding Judge Manuel Ramirez

Importance of the case

Introduction of counsel

Speaker: UC Dean Erwin Chemerinsky

 

https://youtu.be/nNUEc0CnTSQ?list=PLJZN17NOuDI6WKMcbrxt_hPFbKVxFUJvq