SEPARATE IS NEVER EQUAL, Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh

Tonatiuh, Duncan. Separate is Never Equal, Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation. New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers. 2014. ISBN 9781419710544

Winner of numerous awards, Separate Is Never Equal is the true story of the Mendez family and the events that led to the Mendez v. Westminster School District case ending segregation in California schools.  This case blazed the trail for the Brown v. Board of Education case that desegregated schools across America seven years later.  

Tonatiuh details the story of the Mendez family’s move to Westminster, CA in 1944 where Mr. Mendez leased a farm.  When it came time to enroll in school, the Mendez children were denied enrollment in the neighborhood school and were told they must attend the Mexican school.  The Mexican school was significantly inferior in cleanliness, safety, and accommodations.

Mr. Mendez began working toward changing this injustice until he met Mr. Marcus who filed the necessary lawsuit.  After the hearing, the Judge took almost a year to decide in favor of the Mendez family.  The fight was not over yet, however, as the case was appealed and presented to the Court of Appeals in San Francisco.  In June of 1947, then Governor Earl Warren signed the law that ended segregation in California, a portent to his famous decision 7 years later as the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Two prestigious silver seals adorn this book as a 2015 Robert F. Sibert Honor and a Pura Belpre Illustrator Honor winner.  It also received starred reviews from Kirkus and School Library Journal.  These awards acknowledge the cultural and historical accuracy and authenticity of this story.  The author’s note in the back matter adds further details of the Mendez family and others who played a significant part in their fight for desegregation.  Family photographs are also included in the back as well as a glossary, bibliography, and index.  

Further in the back matter it is stated that the illustrations were “hand-drawn and then collaged and colored digitally.”  Horn Book Magazine further elaborates on Tonatiuh’s style observing the “two-dimensional perspective reminiscent of the Mixtec codex.”  Skin tones, hair color and styles also express cultural diversity.

This story would be a great companion study with Claudette Colvin: twice toward justice by Phillip Hoose.  Claudette was a teenage girl who refused to give up her rightful seat on the bus in Montgomery, AL just nine months before Rosa Parks echoed the event triggering the Montgomery Bus Boycott that ignited the Civil Rights Movement.   Fred Gray, the attorney that represented both Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks, said in his book Bus Ride to Justice, “if Claudette Colvin had not done what she did on March 2, 1955, Mrs. Parks may never had done what she did on December 1, 1955” (p. 96).  Yet, like the Mendez case, many have never heard of Claudette Colvin and her courage.  The story of Sylvia Mendez is a welcome addition to the stories of courage of ordinary people who change our world in an extraordinary way.