LEMON GROVE, Calif. (KGTV) — San Diego's Latino community has been at the forefront of the fight for social justice for decades, and one of those historic moments happened in Lemon Grove.
To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, 10News reporter Adam Campos takes you through the history of a case that helped lead to desegregation across the United States.
Alvarez v. the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District is a case that dates back nearly 95 years. Laura Hook from the Lemon Grove Historical Society calls it one of the most unique she has learned of.
"We also have gone back and found the surviving members of the families, and we have oral histories from these people," Hook said.
In 1931, 75 Mexican American students were attending Lemon Grove's only school at the time. Parents of white students felt the Latino students were holding their children back.
"They were under the false pretenses that they didn't speak English and that they were slowing down the other students and taking resources," Hook said.
The parents took action, pushing the principal to send a message to the Latino families.
"They told the principal of the school to tell the children that they were supposed to go home and not come back to the school," Hook said.
When the students returned to classes after Christmas break, only white students were allowed in. The remaining students were told to go to another building for classes. The building was called La Caballeriza — the stable.
"The families were terribly upset, of course, and so they all got together they met together and they decided they were going to keep their kids from school completely," Hook said.
To fight back, the parents formed "El Comité de Vecinos de Lemon Grove" — the Lemon Grove Neighbors Committee. The committee went on to sue the district and won. The judge ruled the students couldn't be separated.
"There was all of these fallacies that were brought against these families and things that were untrue and they were proven in court. It finally came down to Mexican Americans are white," Hook said.
The lead plaintiff in the case was 12-year-old Roberto Alvarez.
"He did a fantastic job of being on trial, and all the questions were correct," Hook said.
The case is the first successful challenge to school segregation, 23 years before Brown v. Board of Education.
The landmark ruling is remembered in several ways. At Lemon Grove Academy Middle School, the auditorium is named after Alvarez. A mural was made on a building on Main Street in the city, honoring the families who pushed for the change. And it's being added to school curricula.
"Now it is going all over, not just the county but all over the country," Hook said.
The case marks a monumental change here in San Diego and etches Lemon Grove as one of the first places in the country where equality was fought for and won.
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