Bill Text: CA ACR146 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Enrolled

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Civil rights: Roberto Alvarez v. Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 49-26-1)

Status: (Passed) 2016-05-05 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Res. Chapter 33, Statutes of 2016. [ACR146 Detail]

Download: California-2015-ACR146-Enrolled.html

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BILL NUMBER: ACR 146	ENROLLED
	BILL TEXT

	ADOPTED IN SENATE  MAY 2, 2016
	ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 7, 2016
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 7, 2016

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Weber
   (Principal coauthors: Senators Anderson, Block, and Hueso)
   (Coauthors: Assembly Members Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen,
Atkins, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke,
Calderon, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh,
Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia,
Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Grove,
Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer,
Kim, Lackey, Linder, Lopez, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty,
Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen,
Patterson, Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Steinorth,
Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Wilk, Williams, and
Wood)

                        FEBRUARY 29, 2016

   Relative to commemorating the 85th anniversary of Roberto Alvarez
v. Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   ACR 146, Weber. Civil rights: Roberto Alvarez v. Board of Trustees
of the Lemon Grove School District.
   This measure would commemorate March 30, 2016, as the 85th
anniversary of the historic ruling in the case of Roberto Alvarez v.
Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District, which
invalidated that district's attempt to restrict its pupils of Mexican
heritage to an inferior, segregated educational experience.



   WHEREAS, The history of the struggle for school desegregation in
the United States is not often associated with the Mexican community
in southern California, and is usually thought to have begun with the
landmark 1954 United States Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of
Education of Topeka (1954) 347 U.S. 483; and
   WHEREAS, The earliest court cases concerning school desegregation
actually occurred in the Southwest and California in the 1930s; and
   WHEREAS, In these early school desegregation cases, Mexican
immigrants and their communities were the groups targeted for
segregated treatment by school officials; and
   WHEREAS, A case of particular importance, which has begun to take
a special place in the social history of civil rights, took place in
San Diego County during the 1930s, in the then-rural community of
Lemon Grove; and
   WHEREAS, This important case is Roberto Alvarez v. Board of
Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District, which was the first
successful case challenging school segregation in the United States;
and
   WHEREAS, The Alvarez case is important because it was an historic
first, and because it was an example of a community taking action and
establishing the rights of their children to equal education,
despite the local, regional, and national sentiment of that era that
favored not just segregation, but the actual deportation from the
United States of persons of Mexican heritage; and
   WHEREAS, In January 1931, the principal of the Lemon Grove Grammar
School, acting under instructions from the school district trustees,
stood in the schoolhouse door and refused to admit Mexican pupils,
who had previously constituted almost half of the school's student
body; and many of the excluded children were American citizens by
birth who came from families that had lived in Lemon Grove for many
years; and
   WHEREAS, The school district trustees directed the Mexican pupils
to attend school in a substandard, two-room building; and
   WHEREAS, The parents of the excluded pupils refused to accept this
injustice, and organized themselves into the Comite de Vecinos de
Lemon Grove (the Lemon Grove Neighbors Committee), sought help from
the local Mexican community at large, and eventually obtained the
professional services of distinguished San Diego attorneys Fred C.
Noon and A.C. Brinkely; and
   WHEREAS, A petition for a writ of mandate was filed in the San
Diego County Superior Court challenging the actions of the Lemon
Grove School District in segregating the Mexican pupils, and a young
pupil named Roberto Alvarez was chosen as the lead plaintiff because
he was an outstanding student with excellent proficiency in English;
and
   WHEREAS, The actions of the Lemon Grove School District, and the
policy of segregating Mexican and Mexican American pupils, had
significant support in San Diego County as well as other parts of the
state; and in January 1931, a bill was introduced in the State
Assembly by a member from Santa Barbara County that would have
legalized the segregation of Mexican and Mexican American pupils in
California schools; and
   WHEREAS, Ultimately, however, the Honorable Claude Chambers',
Judge of the San Diego County Superior Court, issued a ruling
granting the writ of mandate sought by the parents of the excluded
pupils; and
   WHEREAS, Judge Chambers' order, issued on March 30, 1931, deemed
the separation of the children to be an illegal segregation that had
no basis in California law, and he ordered the school district to
immediately reinstate the pupils who had been excluded; and
   WHEREAS, The Lemon Grove School District did not appeal Judge
Chambers' order, and it duly readmitted the excluded pupils; now,
therefore be it
   Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That the Legislature of the State of California
recognizes and commemorates March 30, 2016, as the 85th anniversary
of the historic ruling in the case of Roberto Alvarez v. Board of
Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District, which invalidated that
district's attempt to restrict its pupils of Mexican heritage to an
inferior, segregated educational experience; and be it further
   Resolved, That schools and community organizations throughout the
state are encouraged to acknowledge this historic anniversary with
appropriate activities; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.