Dividing Lines: Desegregation of California Public Schools
What an honor that The USC Price School of Public Policy would take interest in The Kindness of Color! In this interview, Dr. Anthony Orlando’s questions focussed on the human impact of policy decisions and how those policy decisions created real life human challenges for our Mendez and Munemitsu families.
New book details how two O.C. families and a farm helped integrate public schools
A Japanese American family’s modest farm in Westminster once harvested much more than just asparagus, strawberries and tomatoes. Its fields were also woven into the story of Mendez, et al v. Westminster, one of Orange County’s most famous civil rights cases.
A True Story of Families Fighting Racism
The Sansei author describes the book as “the true story of two immigrant families who came to Southern California for better lives, only to face their own separate battles against racism in the midst of World War II. One family came by land from Mexico and the other by sea from Japan. Little did they expect their paths would meet and lead to justice and desegregation for all the schoolchildren of California in Mendez, et al. v. Westminster (1947) — seven years before Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
OCDE Newsroom | New book documents bond between two OC families on the road to school desegregation
A new book tells the story of how two immigrant families intersected on the path to desegregating public schools in Orange County and across California.
Pacific Citizen | The Munemitsu Legacy
Many Orange County, Calif., schoolchildren know the name “Mendez.” After all, the iconic name is front and center of the landmark civil rights case that desegregated several of the county’s public schools in 1947, preceding the 1954 Brown v. Board case on a national level…
The Capital Press | Beauty out of dust: 75 years later, Japanese-Americans remember World War II incarceration
Seventy-five years ago this week — Sept. 2, 1945 — Japan formally surrendered, ending World War II. In the months following, thousands of Japanese-Americans, including the Tsugawa family, were released from prison camps that had isolated them…