During the mid 1940’s, California school districts had segregated Mexican-American schoolchildren. In 1947 Sylvia Mendez went to court for the case of Mendez v. Westminster. This led to the Brown v. Board Supreme Court decision to end segregation in schools across the country. Sylvia worked very hard to end segregation and became a human rights activist. She was one of the first to take the Board of Education in California to court and introduced evidence the court needed to change how the school district treated Mexican-American schoolchildren. 

The heroic trait Sylvia possesses is perseverance. This was shown when the school district tried to shut her down and tried to tell her just to leave it be, but she still brought them to court. Even when the court was skeptical and wasn’t sure, Sylvia managed to get the evidence she needed to win the case. I personally admire her because she ended segregation as only a little kid, proving that kids' points do matter. Even if at first they are underestimated they can still make a big difference. This makes Sylvia a role model to all kids facing injustice. 

I used my art to illustrate Sylvia Mendez's story by choosing to do a painting in the courtroom. The case and the decisions that were made were very important for desegregation in the schools at that time for Mexican Americans. This also helped lead the way for future desegregation in America. 

An artifact that I used for this project is the newspapers from the court case, which I stacked on each other. I made the important elements of the story stand out by creating a painted background and then adding the stacked up newspapers. I also put Sylvia in the judge's seat because she was judging the system from the beginning. During the course of this project I came to learn what contributions Sylvia made to desegregation in the school district of California, which then led to the desegregation of all counties in the US. Something that I especially found interesting about her story was the fact that she was just a kid when this took place. Sylvia Menendez's story is relevant today because even though she helped California's school districts, many school districts remain segregated.