Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation

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Title: Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation

Author/Illustrator: Duncan Tonatiuh

Genre: Biography 

Grade Level: first-fourth 

Summary: 

Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation is a biography of the Mendez family. The book narrates Sylvia, an American citizen of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage. The book takes place around ten years before Brown vs. Board of Education. The book follows the journey and lengthy process that Sylvia's parents took after Sylvia and her siblings were denied enrollment to a "whites-only" school and told to attend the Mexican school instead Her parents then fought for their children's and others' rights by organizing the Latinx community and filing a lawsuit in federal district court. After this lengthy trial, their success helped change this era of segregated education in California.

Element Three: Exploring Issues of Social Injustice

    I feel that Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation correlates to element three: exploring issues of social injustice. It meets the element of linking historical roots of oppression to present-day experiences. While also directly relating to exploring issues of social injustice by highlighting the historical roots of racism and how they impact the lived experience of marginalized communities. This is highlighted numerous amount of times throughout this historical children's picture book. It discusses racism and segregation with how those segregated into lower-funded, less-resourced schools. Legal and social activism was showcased with Mendez v. Westminster to fight for justice, as well as many other examples highlighted. This book explores how social injustices of the past continue to have real-world effects on people's experiences in society years later!

Activity: 

    Attached is a link to a wonderful site that includes more information on the book as well as a ton of supporting materials you can download to devices. It contains supporting materials such as a guide in Spanish, activities for exploring historical topics, and/or historical figures for a range of grades, and a whole ton more, which makes it just that more engaging! Don't wait any longer, Click here to get started!

Enrichment activity to teaching: 

    I would use this book in my classroom to talk about social injustices. I would engage my students in turn and talk about what they think it means to be segregated, racism, and fight for equality. Or for the younger students, ask them what the title of the book could mean and flip through the book looking at the images only and predicting what it is going to be about. After discussion, we would read the story aloud, stopping throughout the book to ask them comprehension questions as to what may be happening as well as pointing out things throughout the text and illustrations to further observe. As an activity, I can have students create a chart to compare segregation in the past with the inequality in education today. For younger grades discuss what we noticed in the book was an injustice and compare by relating some injustices we have faced ourselves or have witnessed. There are just so many activities you can do with this book, timeline, letter writing, and debates to name a few!