(soft music) - [Narrator 8] On a busy street corner in the Orange County community of Westminster, you'll find a tribute to one of the most impactful civil rights cases you may never have heard of.

(soft music) - Mendez versus Westminster case is a landmark civil rights case that created desegregated schools in California.

- [Narrator 8] Before Brown versus Board of Education led to the desegregation of schools throughout the United States, Mendez versus Westminster did the same thing in California, lifelong resident, Sergio Contreras couldn't believe this case that set the precedent for well-known federal legislation was virtually unknown.

- I grew up in Westminster.

I'm born and raised in Westminster.

I'm a first generation American, English learner, and I went through the school system in elementary school, middle school, high school, and had never heard of the Mendez case.

- [Narrator 8] Contreras is a former city council person and school board member who made it his mission to help the community learn about this important piece of their history.

Today, students from around the region learn using interactive tools that introduce them to the case and pay tribute to the Mendez family.

- The first one, the Mendez family.

- [Narrator 8] On this particular day, for this high school ethnic studies class, there's an extra treat.

- [Announcer] This is Sylvia Mendez.

- [Narrator 8] At 89 years old, Sylvia Mendez lights up when she meets students.

Sharing her experience as an 8-year-old arriving at a new school and being turned away is something she has dedicated her life to as a way to honor her parents.

- My father, Gonzalo, asked my Tia Sally to bring us to school, and when we arrived, the clerk told them, we don't take Mexicans here.

- [Narrator 8] School officials barred Sylvia and her brother from the all-white school and demanded they attend the school for Latino students instead.

- The bus would come and drop us off in front of the school and they would walk into the school, all my friends, 'cause it was in the white neighborhood we lived in, and we had to walk all the way to that Mexican school.

- [Narrator 8] Her parents, Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez hired an attorney, who suggested a class action lawsuit.

It took them a year to convince four other families to join them in this fight.

In 1947, the federal court ruled that this kind of ethnic segregation violated the 14th Amendment.

A monumental decision made seven years before the more famous Brown ruling.

Sylvia said it was her first of many lessons in perseverance, lessons she shares with students as they stand next to a statue of her parents.

- Literally sitting in the same like premises as her.

And you're like, this is real.

This wasn't even like that long ago that schools were segregated and people couldn't like be equal, you know?

- As an educator, you know, we can teach so much curriculum, but one thing that we cannot teach is students how to care.

So we would listening to her speak or reading articles and not to see it come to life.

It's just, it's a beautiful moment to see.

- And she would say, Sylvia, nobody saw Mendez versus Westminster, nobody knows about how we fought.

- [Narrator 8] Sadly, in the years that followed Mendez versus Westminster, not many people knew about the struggle in what was once a small farming town.

Sylvia says her father died penniless and without the recognition he deserved for this groundbreaking fight for equality.

- My mother always wanted to make sure that my father got at least a gracias, Gonzalo.

- [Narrator 8] Sergio Contreras says, the new Mendez Tribute Monument Park is the result of years of fundraising as well as working with the community, and the same board of education that once denied Sylvia and other children the right to attend their local public school.

- We're literally in my dream, which was to create a space where we have students from all over Orange County to visit and learn about this groundbreaking civil rights case.

That really was the birth of the Civil Rights movement.

- I am lucky to be able to have that freedom to go to whatever school I want, not having to be like segregated just because of my color.

- Yeah, this probably is a story of history that I'm going to remember because it goes back to me.

If this didn't happen, I would've been in a different school than I am right now.

- [Narrator 8] Today the case of Mendez versus Westminster is part of California's public school curriculum.

And in 2011, Sylvia Mendez was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a moment of recognition she thinks her father also deserved.

- When Obama gave me the Medal of Freedom, I knew that that was his gracias, Gonzalo, he had finally gotten his gracias, Gonzalo for what you did for all the students.

(soft music) - [Narrator 8] Sylvia loves to remind students that ordinary people can do anything including change history.

- You just have to persevere and not give up.

It might be a long struggle, it was a struggle, but if I could do it, I know that anybody can do it.

So that's what I wanna make sure that the students know that they can do anything they want to do.

(soft music) - [Narrator 8] The statues featured in the Mendez Tribute Monument Park, were designed and sculpted by artist and muralist Ignacio Gomez.