How did Mendez v. Westminster influence Brown v. Board of Education?

Answer 1

At the appellate level, Mendez wasn't decided on Constitutional grounds, but on the wording of the state statute that allowed for segregation--it specified segregated schools for various ethnic groups, including Asian Americans and Native Americans, but Mexicans were not among those listed.

Earl Warren, who went on to become Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, was Governor of California at the time, and shortly thereafter signed legislation repealing the segregation statute. Thus, California became the first state to end school segregation and set an American precedent.

In a strict legal analysis of the case, particularly at the trial level, where the case was decided on equal protection grounds, Mendez may have provided some foundation for Warren's later opinion in Brown. However, from a socio-political perspective, in that California became the first state to end public school segregation, Mendez is absolutely a tipping point in ending American school segregation. Immediately after the Mendez appeal, Arizona and Texas were the next states to call for the Mendez papers to fight segregation in their schools. Mendez had a ripple effect across the Southwest.

It is also important to note that the NAACP contributed an amicus brief to the Mendez appeal. That brief, written by Robert L. Carter and overseen by Thurgood Marshall, later served as the model for the argument in Brown v. Board of Education.

Mendez is also cited in cases in Arizona and Texas as they fought to end school segregation there. Each legal victory moved our nation closer to the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education.