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