BILL ANALYSIS Ó ACR 146 Page 1 ASSEMBLY THIRD READING ACR 146 (Weber) As Introduced February 29, 2016 Majority vote ------------------------------------------------------------------ |Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------| |Judiciary |10-0 |Mark Stone, Wagner, | | | | |Alejo, Chau, Chiu, | | | | |Gallagher, | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Cristina Garcia, | | | | |Holden, Maienschein, | | | | |Ting | | | | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------ SUMMARY: Commemorates the 1931 San Diego County Superior Court ruling that invalidated an attempt by the Lemon Grove School District to segregate students of Mexican-American descent. Specifically, this measure: 1)Makes findings and declarations detailing the historical ACR 146 Page 2 background to, and historical significance of, the decision in the case of Roberto Alvarez v. Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District (Case No. 66625, San Diego County Superior Court, March 30, 1951). 2)Resolves 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. the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District, which invalidated a school district's attempt to restrict its pupils of Mexican heritage to an inferior, segregated educational experience. 3)Resolves that schools and community organizations throughout the state are encouraged to acknowledge this historic anniversary with appropriate activities. 4)Resolves that the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution. EXISTING LAW provides that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law or denied equal protection of the laws. (California Constitution Article I, Section 7.) FISCAL EFFECT: None.COMMENTS: It seems safe to say that when most people think of successful legal challenges to racial segregation in the United States (U.S.), the first case that comes to mind is Brown v. the Board of Education, the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling finding that racial segregation in public education violated the equal ACR 146 Page 3 protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S Constitution. Brown did not emerge in a vacuum, but rather it reflected a decades-long litigation strategy by the NAACP and others to challenge the infamous "separate but equal" doctrine set forth in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). Finding that separate schools were "inherently unequal," in part because they imposed a badge of inferiority on students forcefully segregated by the political majority, a unanimous Court overturned nearly 60 years of precedent by holding that the doctrine of "separate but equal" had no place in the field of public education. The Brown decision grew from the struggles of African-Americans and their allies to challenge racial segregation in the Jim Crow South, and it justifiably holds a privileged position in the history of the Civil Rights movement in the United States. This resolution, however, turns our attention to a lesser-known history of school desegregation efforts in California and the Southwest during the 1930s. Specifically, on March 30, 1931, Judge Claude Chambers of the San Diego County Superior Court issued a writ of mandate ordering the Lemon Grove School District to cease its effort to force Mexican-American students to attend a separate and, by all accounts, inferior school. Judge Chambers' order was, according to a history of the Lemon Grove case, "the first successful school desegregation decision in the history of the United States." (Robert Alvarez, Jr., "The Lemon Grove Incident: The Nation's First Successful School Desegregation Court Case," Journal of San Diego History Vol. 32 (Spring 1986).) This resolution commemorates the 85th anniversary of the court ruling in Alvarez v. Lemon Grove School District (1931). Twenty-three years before the United States Supreme Court found school segregation unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Judge Claude Chambers of the San Diego County Superior Court issued a writ of mandate ordering the Lemon Grove School District to cease its effort to force Mexican-American students to attend a separate and, by all accounts, inferior ACR 146 Page 4 school. Judge Chambers' order was apparently the first successful legal challenge to racial segregation in the United States. Because this decision was never appealed, the case was not precedent setting and was largely omitted from the state's historical narrative until Robert Alvarez, Jr., professor emeritus of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego, and the son of the named plaintiff, recovered the story. Not only does the case illustrate California's leadership in promoting equal access to education, it also illustrates the power of community organization and collective resistance to social injustice. There is no opposition to this timely reminder about the dangers of bigotry and the power of people to challenge it. Analysis Prepared by: Thomas Clark / JUD. / (916) 319-2334 FN: 0002666