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Families Making History
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Thomas Jefferson
There were students in schools in the American colonies as early as 1635, but it was Thomas Jefferson that created the first statewide, two-Track system of public education in 1780. -
Demanding Equal Access for Black Kids
After the Civil War, members of the small but well-organized black population in California demanded equal access to the public schools. They sued the San Francisco school board for refusing to enroll a black girl in a white school. The California State Supreme Court ruled in 1874 that "separate but equal" schools for black students were legal. -
Department of Education
The department, with four employees, acted as a clearing house of data for educators and policymakers.1868: Congress downgrades the new department to an Office of Education until 1979. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
The Supreme Court ruled that "separate but equal" schools for black students were legal. -
First Successful Desegregation Court Case
The Lemon Grove Case1931 - Alvarez vs. the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove (California) School District becomes the first successful school desegregation court case in the United States, as the local court forbids the school district from placing Mexican-American children in a separate "Americanization" school. -
Méndez v. Westminster
n 1947, parents won a federal lawsuit against several California school districts that had segregated Mexican-American schoolchildren. For the first time, this case introduced evidence in a court that school segregation harmed minority children. Helped end racist policies in California’s school districts. Documetary Link -
Brown vs Board of Education
Ruby Nell Bridges Hall (born September 8, 1954) is an American activist known for being the first black child to desegregate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana during the New Orleans school desegregation crisis in 1960. First black child to desegregate an all-white school -
The Department of Education Established
The anti-poverty and civil rights laws of the 1960s and 1970s brought about a dramatic emergence of the Department's equal access mission. The passage of laws such as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 which prohibited discrimination based on race, sex, and disability, respectively made civil rights enforcement a fundamental and long-lasting focus of the Department of Education. -
Legacy of Caring Award
Forty years after breaking the segregation barrier in New Orleans, Ruby Bridges was badged as an honorary deputy marshall for her inspiration and courage for our nation. On October of 2003 she received the Legacy of Caring Award as well as the United States Presidential Citizens Medal in January 2001. -
Presidential Medal of Freedom
2011 - Sylvia Mendez, whose parents where lead plaintiffs in the historic civil rights case, Mendez vs. Westminster and the California Board of Education, is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on February 16th.. -
Every Student Succeeds Act,
It maintains the requirement that schools annually report the achievement scores of students and break down that data by race, economic status, disability, and English leaner status – the only universally touted aspect of NCLB that for the first time shined a spotlight on achievement gaps.
