{"id":483983,"date":"2026-10-03T15:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T15:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/483983\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T15:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T15:00:08","slug":"sylvia-mendez-gets-her-own-holiday-in-california-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/483983\/","title":{"rendered":"Sylvia Mendez gets her own holiday in California \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

From now on, April 14 will officially be \u201cSylvia Mendez Day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill<\/a> from Assemblymember Tri Ta, R-Westminster, to honor Mendez and her family\u2019s fight<\/a> to end school segregation in Orange County and, subsequently, California.<\/p>\n

A Westminster park<\/a> already bears the name of Mendez, whose family was behind the landmark civil rights court case after she and her brothers were denied entry to a school in 1943.<\/p>\n

Mendez, now 90, said she is \u201cdeeply honored\u201d that Newsom signed the bill into law.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents and the other families who stood with them fought so that every child would have the same opportunity to receive an education, regardless of their background. I have spent much of my life sharing the story of Mendez v. Westminster so future generations understand what these families accomplished,\u201d she said. \u201cI hope this day helps keep that history alive and reminds young people that they can stand up for what is right.\u201d<\/p>\n

After their children were denied admittance into the Seventeenth Street School in Westminster, the Mendez parents, along with four other families, filed a class-action lawsuit against four Orange County school districts in 1945. Instead of accepting the students, district officials told the children to attend a \u201cMexican school.\u201d<\/p>\n

The families were successful, and the decision led to the repeal of segregation laws in California in 1947. The federal case is considered to have set the stage for the landmark U.S. Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education case seven years later, which said segregation in public schools is unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up in Westminster and later having the honor of serving as its mayor, I have seen firsthand how important the Mendez v. Westminster story is to our community,\u201d said Ta.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case helped change California and contributed to the broader fight for equal education across our country. Sylvia Mendez has spent decades making sure this history is remembered, and I am proud that California will now recognize April 14 as Sylvia Mendez Day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It will not be a judicial holiday or a new paid day off for state employees, nor will schools close on the day. Instead, the state holiday will serve \u201cas a day of recognition honoring the Mendez family\u2019s legacy and the historic fight for educational equality,\u201d Ta\u2019s office said in a news release.<\/p>\n

This is not the first bill Ta has worked on and had signed by Newsom to honor Mendez.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Newsom signed into law a requirement for California\u2019s public schools to teach the court case<\/a>, an effort led by Ta and Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana.<\/p>\n

\u201cOrange County was at the center of a civil rights victory that helped change American history,\u201d Ta said. \u201cSylvia Mendez Day will help ensure future generations know that story and remember the courage of the families who stood up for equal opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From now on, April 14 will officially be \u201cSylvia Mendez Day.\u201d Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,1843,8,457,100,611,13,1997,136],"class_list":["post-483983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-legislature","tag-california-news","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-politics","tag-schools","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}